Some of the Privileges of Citizenship

Some time ago I was in court where there were a number of people being examined as to their qualifications to become citizens of this great country of ours. The judge asked one of the men this question: “What can you receive as a citizen of this country that you cannot receive without being a citizen?” As an alien, a man could reside in our country, could move about in freedom from place to place, could have the advantages of our schools, could have police protection for himself and family and his business, irrespective of the fact that he was not a citizen. But with all these privileges, he was always an alien, having no part in the feeling and enthusiasm and love of country that belong to us as citizens. One all-important thing that he was unable to enjoy was the right of suffrage—the right to vote and to participate in the government, in its laws and regulations. He could not go out and represent or speak officially for the country or for the officers who might be elected. Therefore, he failed to have one of the great things we value so much.

Source: Elder John H. Taylor
General Conference, April 1945

Topics: Citizenship; Voting

On this point may I quote Robert Ingersoll. I do not agree with him on many things, but on this point, he is right. Said he:

In the first place the government does not support the people, the people support the government. The government is a perpetual pauper. It passes ‘round the hat and solicits contributions; but then you must remember that the government has a musket behind the hat. The government produces nothing. It does not plow the land, it does not sow corn, it does not grow trees. The government is a perpetual consumer. We support the government. Now, the idea that the government can make money for you and me to live on—it is the same as though my hired man should issue certificates of my indebtedness to him for me to live on. Some people tell us that the government can impress its sovereignty on a piece of paper, and that is money. Well, if it is, what is the use of wasting it making one dollar bills? It takes no more ink and no more paper—why not make one thousand dollar bills? Why not make a hundred million dollar bills and all be billionaires? How do you get your money? By work. You have to dig it out of the ground.That is where it comes from. Men have always had a kind of hope that something could be made out of nothing.

Source: Elder Joseph L. Wirthlin
General Conference, October 1944

Topics: Economics; Government, Spending

Labor A Sacred Obligation

The only preventive for further decadence in the morals, intelligence, spiritual, and materialistic affairs of man is not less work, but more work, the proper understanding between employee and employer, both of them realizing that they have sacred obligations to one another. He who would hire the laborer should realize that there is imposed upon him a sacred obligation, namely, as stated in Luke that the laborer is worthy of his hire. On the other hand, he who labors with his hands should remember his obligation of an honest day’s labor. It is as the writer of Proverbs declares in 10:4: “He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.”

Source: Elder Joseph L. Wirthlin
General Conference, October 1944

Topics: Responsibility

The power of God which is work, creative work, as I have defined it, is the foundation stone of salvation, temporally, spiritually, and mentally. The cornerstone on which this great republic rests is that of work and free enterprise. Should the cornerstone deteriorate, the national structure will collapse. The cornerstone must be strengthened and reinforced by greater endeavor, for there is now resting upon this nation a burden of debt the like of which the world has never known before, stupendous beyond the imagination and comprehension of the average mind; and its liquidation, if it is liquidated according to just and honest principles, can only be accomplished through the application of godly power, namely, work on the part of its citizens. This statement is sustained by an excerpt taken from a bulletin published by the Tax Foundation in New York City:

The relation between average earning power and the average debt load on the individual is significant. A large part of the debt is held by banks, insurance companies, and other savings and investment institutions. The future welfare of millions of people depends on the continued solvency of these institutions and that depends on maintaining the value of their assets, including government bonds. But the value of the government bonds depends on the labor and earnings of the people and on their capacity to provide enough taxes to pay the interest and redeem the principal of the debt.

Source: Elder Joseph L. Wirthlin
General Conference, October 1944

Topics: Debt; Economics

A Nation Blessed “Whose God Is The Lord”

May a kind Providence give us the vision and courage necessary to stem these dangerous trends. We need, as we need no other thing, a nationwide repentance of our sins. Never before have we needed the blessings of Almighty God more than today. We need his divine favor in the halls of government, in our homes, in the factories and shops, on the farms and on the battlefields of the world.

Source: Elder Ezra Taft Benson
General Conference, October 1944

Topics: Christianity

When foundation principles are discarded, then shifting, vagrant, opportunistic substitutes for principles take control and precisely because they are opportunistic they must shift with the vagaries of changing popular moods. Stability—a steady march forward toward a fixed goal—no longer is found.

It is for us to stand by the tried and proved principles of religion and the tried and proved governmental principles which have so blessed our land.

Source: Elder Albert E. Bowen
General Conference, October 1944

Topics: Freedom, Loss of

Divine Guidance Necessary In Civil Government

There is a certain disposition among a good many people, and some of our own faith are not entirely free from it, to criticize any pulpit utterance which dwells on major current issues. There are those among us who suspect insidious political intent, if, from the pulpit, even so much as mention of government is made, but religion is of no value whatsoever if it deals only in platitudinous generalities.

We are the children of God, literally. That being the case, God’s word should be uppermost in our minds in trying to bring about worth-while government. Until we as a people in particular, and the sons and daughters of God in general, realize that our civil governments will be failures so long as they are not based upon divine guidance, so long will we continue to have strife, conflict, and bloodshed.

Source: Elder Joseph F. Smith
General Conference, October 1943

Topics: Morality

The other day one of our young men, in most vitriolic language, was denouncing the bureaucracy of our present government, and someone asked him, to his great embarrassment, what a bureaucrat was, and he did not have the slightest idea, but in his home he had heard bureaucrats denounced. Now, that sort of uncritical denunciation is foolish.

It behooves us, as men holding the Priesthood, to examine governmental procedures and if those procedures result in the general good, if those procedures are compatible with the Gospel, the Lord’s word, it is our business to foster them, and if necessary fight for them, just as it is our business to examine governmental procedures, and where we find them out of harmony with the Lord’s word, to fight against them, no matter what high- sounding names those procedures may be given.

Brethren, let us not be discouraged because we are what is called a minority. What is a minority? The Latin has a motto, multum in parvo: “Much in small space.” In the field of biochemistry it has been proved that one part of adrenalin—one of the endocrine secretions—in 100,000 parts of water, will cause certain live tissue to react. In statistical terms that one part in 100,000 is a minority.

Jesus of Nazareth, in terms of the census, was a pitiful, almost a ridiculous, minority; but Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, is the greatest power we know, before whom ultimately every knee shall bow. Let us not be discouraged by the specious argument that we are of relatively little moment because we are a minority.

Source: Elder Joseph F. Smith
General Conference, October 1943

Topics: Education; Responsibility

Power In The Priesthood

We have the Priesthood of Almighty God, and if we are righteous and magnify it, and exercise it, there is no limit to what we can accomplish in the way of good, no matter how great are the mere numbers arrayed against us.

I pray that we may magnify the Priesthood, that we may have vision, that we may not be led astray by mere names, that we shall be able intelligently to examine governmental procedures, and that bringing our judgment to the matter of government, we shall have wisdom and unusual discernment in selecting men for office who will stand for government that is compatible with the gospel.

I have not heard of it, but I hope that in some of our international conferences the men who are our leaders are big enough to get down on their knees and ask for divine guidance. I have not heard that it was done at Casablanca; I have not heard that it was done at Washington; I have not heard that it was done in Quebec. It may have been. I hope it was. But when we can have men who realize that the solution to our problems must be in terms of the word of the Lord, then shall we have just government; then can we fight a just battle.

Source: Elder Joseph F. Smith
General Conference, October 1943

Topics: Christianity; Leadership; Responsibility; Voting

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