Warning Against False Impressions

War has now broken out. Most of the sanctities that were used by the one side or the other to hallow the World War are again coming forth to hallow this one. Many were false then; they are false now. We should not be disturbed, misled, or blinded by any of them. Look at each of them squarely; most of them will wilt under your gaze. There are always deceit, lying, subterfuge, treachery, and savagery, in war, on both sides. There was in the World War. It is not always the other power that commits atrocities.

Source: President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
General Conference, October 1939

Topics: War

Obviously, as a matter of logic, if conquest can give a good title to territory, then conquest is a legitimate means of getting good title to territory. This is the unholy rule of force, the unholy rule that “might makes right.”

This is the rule that has lain behind every great empire that has ever been built during the whole history of the world; it lies behind every great empire that exists today. There is nothing new in the doctrine, neither in the practice.

Under such a rule, war is and must always be the instrument of the growth of empire. Under such a rule nations rise and fall, as might advances or wanes. Under such a rule, safety in empire comes only to the power which is dominant in arms and resources.

But such a, rule of force, of “might makes right,” is Satan-born. It is not of God.

Obviously no great empire of conquest can sleep quietly and comfortably of nights if the have-nots swagger forth in search of more territory and are willing to fight for it.

Source: President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
General Conference, October 1939

Topics: Force; Government, Power; War

Washington in his Farewell Address declared we should have “as little political connection as possible” with Europe; that Europe had a “set of primary interests” with which we had “none or a very remote relation,” wherefore, “Europe must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign concern”; “Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice?”

Source: President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
General Conference, October 1939

Topics: Politics, International

Plagues Which Follow War

One more thought and I have finished. Remembering that throughout all history, dread diseases have followed the devastation of war, when peoples are exhausted and mal-nurtured, remembering what happened at the end of the World War with the flu, reason tells us that if this war drags through years, we must be prepared for a visitation of plagues that will almost surely take a greater human toll than the war itself. These plagues will strike armies not only, but the people back home as well. They will reach America. How much science can do, we have yet to learn. It tardily coped at all with the flu. We have but one sure means toward safety from such plagues—a life lived in accordance with the revelations of the Lord. Careful eating, temperance, chastity, the non-use of things forbidden, sobriety, industry, proper rest and sleep, non-exposure, and in general right living in all things, give us the right to ask the Lord that the destroying angel shall pass us by. He who breaks down his body and his resistance to disease by riotous and wicked living may hardly hope to escape affliction and suffering. It may be that we shall see a time, if this war shall drag into the years, that “except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” (Matthew 24:22.)

Source: President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
General Conference, October 1939

Topics: War

All Latter-day Saints and all thoughtful Americans feel that our last defense as a great democracy is righteous behavior, that the peace and perpetuity of this government depend upon the lives of its citizens, and no other people have a cleaner and deeper appreciation of the privileges and blessings of the great government that shelters us than have we.

Source: Elder Bryant S. Hinckley
General Conference, October 1939

Topics: Freedom, Loss of; Morality; Peace

Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful. This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government.

Source: Henry Kissinger
speaking at Evian, France, May 21, 1992
Bilderburgers meeting. Unbeknownst to Kissinger, his speech was taped by a Swiss delegate to the meeting.

Topics: Freedom, Loss of

Happiness In Honest Labor

We have always dignified work and reproved idleness. Our books, our sermons, our leaders, including particularly our present President, have glorified industry. The busy hive of the honeybee—Deseret—has been our emblem. Work with faith is a cardinal point of point of our theological doctrine and our future state,—our heaven, is envisioned in terms of eternal progression through constant labor.

This fundamental principle of the honor of work is sorely needed in application in the world today. All the fraudulent schemes, the rackets, governmental corruption, and wide-spread public demoralization have their inception and support chiefly in the failure to recognize the dignity and the happiness that flow from honest toil.

Source: Elder Stephen L. Richards
General Conference, October 1939

Topics: Honesty; Prosperity

Elements Of Success

I am not a defeatist. I believe there is more good in men than bad and that the good will triumph. I am sure, too, that the people of the United States will, through work, create wealth and in that creation give employment and happiness, if only the natural laws upon which free enterprise has been established are allowed to freely operate. But wealth cannot be created in sufficient amount to go around and bring prosperity to all the people if those laws are seriously contravened by any group in our society,—capital, labor, or government. Nothing but work can create wealth in this day and age,—productive work of the laborer. Other manipulations may seem to do it but they do not create real wealth that feeds and clothes and houses and makes happy people. The Government cannot do it because in final analysis it is not possessed of the elemental necessities for the creation of wealth. Of itself it has no capital and it has no labor. All that it can do is take from one and give to another. It takes by txation, its only ultimate source of revenue; and it gives in wages, subsidies, bounties, and many other ways, but it does not create wealth and the creation of wealth lies at the basis of prosperity.

I want to make it distinctly clear that I am not attacking the motives or intentions of the Government or governmental agencies who have sought to meet emergencies and difficult situations with much novel and experimental legislation. I have never desired failure for any of the experiments. I have always wished for their success and I think some have succeeded. I disclaim any intention or any effort to influence partisan politics. My sole desire is to expound the principles of sound economics as I conceive them and believe in them and as I deem them to be in harmony with the well-established and time-tested principles of our religion.

Source: Elder Stephen L. Richards
General Conference, October 1939

Topics: Economics; Government, Wealth Transfer; Welfare

Greatness of the Constitution to be Taught

There is another great love, not only love of God and love of one’s neighbor—and might I say that love of one’s neighbor is best exhibited in the service that we render to those who are around us—but there should be love of country, that which has been so impressed upon us here during this Conference. I wonder how often, as parents, we take dusty copies of the Constitution of the United States from our book cases or our libraries, spread them out on the table, and then invite our boys and girls to come and go over the articles of that sacred document, one by one. I wonder, if an examination were given to the citizens of the United States today, relevant to the Constitution of the United States, how many of us would pass it successfully? There rests upon us most definitely the obligation of acquainting our boys and girls with this great document; teach it to them article by article, that they might understand the principles involved therein, principles that make for liberty, freedom, and personal initiative and of worshiping God according to the dictates of one’s conscience.

Our boys and girls should know and understand that the Constitution made it possible for the organization of a government under which the Church of Jesus Christ could again be restored to the earth.. Do we ever read to our boys and girls the sentiments expressed by prophets of God in connection with this great document, such as the words of the Prophet Joseph Smith: “The Constitution of the United States is a glorious standard. It is founded in the wisdom of God. It is a heavenly banner. It is, to all of those who are privileged with the sweets of its liberty, like the cooling shade and refreshing water of a great rock in a dreary and thirsty land. It is like a great tree, under whose banners men from every clime can be sheltered from the burning rays of the sun.”

These words of the Prophet Joseph Smith, relative to this great document of liberty and freedom, should be so ingrained in the hearts of our boys and girls that they will feel we not only have standard Church works, such as the Bible and the Book of Mormon, etc., but that we also have standard government works, the first of which is the Constitution of the United States.

Source: Elder Joseph L. Wirthlin
General Conference, October 1939

Topics: Education

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