Do we ever give our boys and girls any practical lessons in teaching them the true greatness of the Constitution? How often do we pass some great industrial plant, and notice hundreds of automobiles around it? Some of us may think that those automobiles belong to the owners of the plant, or to the management, but such is not the case. Those automobiles belong to the men who work in the plant. You can see that sight only in America. You can’t see it in Europe, because it is not there. These men own automobiles because of the rights that they have under the Constitution of the United States to earn and pay for those things that are within the buying and purchasing power of all of these people.

We speak of Hitler and his ingenuity in accomplishing great things mechanically—and might I say he has—but there is one thing that he has not given his people, although he has endeavored over a period of years to provide an automobile that would be within their purchasing power. But here in America we not only enjoy automobiles, some of the comforts of fine homes, and fine homes themselves, but practically every blessing that even the rich and elect of far-off Europe enjoy. All of these things are possible individually because we live in a country where personal initiative is not restricted, where each and every man can have anything he wants, if he will work for it.

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

Topics: Economics; Education

Warning Against Unpatriotic Doctrines

We should draw the attention of our children to the fact that there is now a war going on, so to speak, in America. Some years ago we fought a great civil war. It was fought mainly over two issues, whether or not this Government should exist part slave and part free, and also as to whether or not any one state had the right to secede from the Union. To the glory of those gallant men, both on the side of the South and of the North, they fought their battles openly, and we know what the results were and are.

But the warfare we now find isn’t one that is being fought on the battlefield, honorably and openly, but it is a battle being fought behind the names of so-called patriotic societies, names used to shield the activities of those who would have us believe that they are engaged in patriotic endeavor, when in reality they are doing the very things that will undermine the Constitution and the Government of the United States. I think our boys and girls should be advised constantly as to the dangers of these organizations, and what their objectives are. It is a known fact to all of us that the very nations of Europe today that would bathe the world in blood, have their agents in America, promulgating their doctrines. We must ever be on guard, and particularly should we so advise the youth and the leaders of our nation of tomorrow.

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

Topics: Education; War

Every child should be taught that the Government of the United States, as has already been said, is not an organization which produces a profit, but rather an organization which is a perpetual consumer; that the people of the Government should support it, and in no instance should the Government support the people. When a child or an individual thinks that he can be dependent upon society, then he becomes an enemy of society.

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

Topics: Welfare

The facts are, it is said, unemployment in this country was never so great, amiable relations between capital and labor were never so poor, taxes were never so high, amounts paid for relief under one title or another were never so vast, the debts of the government never so enormous, struggles for place and power never so fierce, in short, the future outlook for a united, prosperous and happy country, governed along the lines indicated by our Constitution, was never so dark.

But at best the situation is extremely complex. Certainly authors of panaceas that assume the situation is readily solvable must be classed as amiable cranks. But as I see it, in all the confusion, in all the struggles there stand out certain things when stripped of all their subterfuges and camouflages as clearly as a noon-day sun. What are they? My answer is greed and selfishness. Yes, I know there will be many, denials of this harsh conclusion. But I believe the conclusion is correct just the same.

Source: Elder Joseph F. Merrill
General Conference, October 1939

Topics: Freedom, Loss of

Latter-day Saints should have nothing to do with secret combinations and groups antagonistic to the Constitutional law of the land, which the Lord “suffered to be established,” and which “should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles;

That every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment.

Therefore, it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another.

And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood. (Doc. and Cov. 101:77, 80.)

Of course there are errors in government which some would correct, certainly there are manifest injustices and inequalities, and there will always be such in any government in the management of which enter the frailties of human nature. If you want changes go to the polls on election day, express yourself as an American citizen, and thank the Lord for the privilege that is yours to have a say as to who shall serve you in public office.

Source: President David O. McKay
General Conference, October 1939

Topics: Citizenship; US Constitution, Defend

Next to being one in worshiping God there is nothing in this world upon which this Church should be more united than in upholding and defending the Constitution of the United States.

Source: President David O. McKay
General Conference, October 1939

Topics: US Constitution, Defend

I am proud of my country and of its institutions. I am proud to be an American citizen. The remarks that have been made during this conference from the very beginning have set my soul aflame with patriotic fire for my God and my country, and I hope that I may be loyal to both all the days of my life, and manifest that loyalty and that love through obedience to the mind and will of God and to the laws of our beloved land.

We as a people have a special interest in our loyalty to our country. It seems to me that we have an interest in this country that transcends that of any other people. What a wonderful country this is! This earth was created by the Almighty, who holds the title to every acre of the land upon the surface of this earth. He made it; it is his, and the fulness thereof belongs to him, and certainly his right to parcel that country out to whomsoever he will may not or should not be contested.

Source: Elder Rulon S. Wells
General Conference, October 1939

Topics: America, a Choice Land

Washington’s Greatest Trial

Perhaps the most gloomy, discouraging period of the American Revolution was when General Washington’s army was in Winter Quarters at Valley Forge. He had fewer than 10,000 men. Soldiers were thinly clad, some half naked, others with no clothing but tattered blankets wrapped around them. “So many were sick as the result of privation,” writes one commentator, “so many were without coats, blankets, hats, or shoes that one wonders how the army held together at all.” Critical and desperate as were these conditions, a greater trial and sorrow, I surmise, came to Washington when some of his friends such as John Adams and Richard Henry Lee turned against him; when General Gates insulted him by sending reports direct to Congress instead of to Washington, his superior officer. As carrion hawks hover around dying creatures, so in Washington’s dire calamity came men to seek to crush him—men who formed what has been called the “Conway Cabal,” a contemptible attempt to dishonor Washington and to supplant him by a self-asserting, arrogant schemer. This internal discord, and such disloyalty from one-time friends were more crushing than were the attacks of the opposing army.

Source: President David O. McKay
General Conference, October 1939

Topics: America, History; War, Revolutionary War

Patrick Henry railed against taxation without representation. He should see it with representation.

Source: Saul Landau
comment made in a radio interview October 1995

Topics: Taxes

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