World War Brought Hope

Twenty-one years ago our fathers, brothers and sons were enlisting in the great struggle of the World War; they were responding to the appeal that we were going to make the world safe for democracy, and we were led to hope and believe that it was the last great war, and the war to end war.

When the war was over we saw nation after nation abandon their monarchial forms of government and become republics, patterned after this nation, and our hearts were full of joy at the prospect that at last democracy and peace were going to reign.

Quick Return To Worse Conditions

Since then we have been greatly disturbed to see nation after nation abandon its democracy and go back to a condition some of us think worse than the condition under the czars, the kaisers, and the rulers, into a dictatorship. Today we witness the nations of the earth spending more money than in any other time in their history in building equipment upon the sea and the land for future wars. It is a sad picture, and yet I suppose that our wish was father to our thought, and we had hoped to see the end of the struggle and strife in this world.

Source: Elder Melvin J. Ballard
General Conference, October 1938

Topics: Freedom, Loss of; War

I am, I say, therefore disturbed only over the problems that may arise here with us. You students of history know well that the adverse circumstances, the poverty, the want, the unemployment and the depletion of the value of the currency of the various European nations laid the foundation for dictatorships; unknown dictators arose who offered security against want, against poverty, against need, and like drowning men grasping at straws, the nations of the earth accepted the proffer, and sold their liberties for bread.

That is not the spirit of one of the founders of this republic who said: “Give me liberty or give me death.” Liberty, one of the most precious things, must be preserved. I have said in many places to our Latter-day Saint brethren and sisters who are converts from abroad: “I cannot blame you for being proud of your English ancestry, your Scotch ancestry, or your German ancestry, but when you joined this Church and came to America you should have kissed that all goodbye, and it is not my business to glorify the dictators who now reign, no matter how good I may think their services are to that nation from which I came; it is not my business to glorify them, but to become loyal to the government of the nation in which I live.” I hope we shall not find any Latter-day Saint members glorifying the conditions that are in their Old World homes.

Source: Elder Melvin J. Ballard
General Conference, October 1938

Topics: Government, Loss of Freedom

To every man, says Joseph Smith, is given an inherent power to do right or to do wrong. In this he has his free agency. He may choose the right and obtain salvation, or he may choose evil and merit abomination.

A man may act as his conscience dictates so long as he does not infringe upon the rights of others. That is the spirit of true democracy, and all government by the Priesthood should be actuated by that same high motive.

Source: President David O. McKay
General Conference, October 1938

Topics: Free Agency

The gathering together upon the land of Zion, and upon her stakes, may be for a defense, and for a refuge from the storm, and from wrath when it shall be poured out without mixture upon the whole earth.

Here is the place of refuge—America. When I read the story last week of the people leaving London, and Paris to go into the rural districts, digging trenches on their front lawns, and gas chambers being built in every home, everybody being prepared to put on gas masks suddenly, as in a few hours these cities might have been engulfed in a terrible raid such as modern war provides, I said: “Thank God for the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans that separate us, (at least from the immediate danger,) from these perils. There is no place on earth so secure as in these United States, and it is the business of every Latter-day Saint to be loyal to this government.

That is why the Church is undertaking this relief program, to win everybody off from the back of the government and from off the back of the state, who can stand on his own feet. Many of you aged people may feel somewhat offended that you have been asked if you can support yourselves and not be a burden upon the State or the Nation, for we can lie down upon our Government to the extent that we may imperil its credit and produce the very conditions that would bring the same revolutions and the same troubles that engulf the Old World. God bless us that we may not come to that day, and Latter-day Saints, show the way!

Source: Elder Melvin J. Ballard
General Conference, October 1938

Topics: Responsibility; War; Welfare

Warning Against Foreign Propaganda

Last night I said something about the up-building of hate in the world, and about foreign propaganda with which this whole nation is being deluged. I warned that this propaganda does not give us the whole truth by any means. I indicated that hate, aided by greed, avarice, and ambition could overwhelm the world in another world war. I entreated the brethren as I now entreat you brethren and sisters to be charitable towards those people whom the propaganda would condemn unheard.

I besought the brethren last night, as I now beseech you, to consider whether or not we Americans who have gained the most of the land which we possess including that on which we stand by conquest, and whether or not the other great nations who have glutted themselves with the spoils of conquest, are in a position to condemn without mitigation some other nation which is merely attempting to march along the way of empire which we and those other nations followed. I beseech you not to put yourselves nor this nation in the position of whited sepulchers. I loathe war, I loathe conquest, I loathe oppression, I loathe the destruction of the liberties of men; I love freedom, I love our free institutions, but let us not visit upon the people themselves the sins of their governments. Let us not make a great body of the membership of our Church feel that they are outcasts from us because of the acts of their governments. Let us draw the distinction between peoples and governments. Let us be patient in our judgment, letus exercise charity.

Righteousness and hate cannot dwell in the same heart, no matter how great the righteousness nor how little the hate.

Source: President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
General Conference, October 1938

Topics: Government, Oppression

Present day difficulties and perplexities call for individual as well as cooperative effort. To paraphrase Lord Nelson’s famous statement: Now is the time for every man to accept responsibility and to do his duty.

We are today living through one of the really crucial periods of the world’s history, writes the Assistant Secretary of State. Everywhere about us is prodigious change. Old institutions, old beliefs, old ideals are going fast. In this revolution of thought and life, new conceptions and beliefs born of Communism, of Fascism, of state totalitarianism, are competing relentlessly with the older conceptions which we thought were fundamental. The future is literally in our making.

It is a time of disillusionment, of loss of faith, of bitter pessimism. We seem to be slipping backward in the long march of progress. We are in danger of losing part of the precious heritage for which our ancestors fought and gave their lives. Human liberty, democracy, parliamentary government, freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, tolerance, faith these in important parts of the world have ceased to exist. Autocracy and dictatorship are demanding men’s allegiance. Political institutions are cracking ominously. Democratic government is fighting for its life. Our whole capitalistic system is under fire. . . .

Even today millions of men are wandering the streets of our great industrial cities, hungry and unable, through no fault of their own, to find work. We are still forced to mortgage unborn generations to care for present want. In the midst of abundance the world is multiplying poverty.

Source: President David O. McKay
General Conference, April 1938

Topics: Freedom, Loss of; Government, Downfall

No Need For Idleness

Thousands, through no fault of theirs, are out of jobs, and are vainly seeking a means of an independent livelihood. However, failure to find it is no justification for idleness. There are fences to rebuild, barns to repair, yards to clean up, houses to remodel and to paint, vicious and destructive weeds to destroy as they deface the highway and ravage crops. Instead of waiting expectantly for the government to find work for us, let us look around and see if there is not work near at hand. Such work will be a benefit not only to the individual but to the community and the public generally.

Source: President David O. McKay
General Conference, April 1938

Topics: Responsibility

The fostering of full economic freedom lies at the base of our liberties. Only in perpetuating economic freedom can our social, political, and religious liberties be preserved.

Source: David O McKay
Church News, 12 Mar. 1952, p. 2

Topics: Economics; Free Agency

The capitalistic system in its inner essence, is little, if anything, more than a man’s free right to work, to choose his work, and enjoy the rewards of his efforts. In my estimation, it is a most precious thing, and it is indispensable to the liberty and freedom of which America boasts. It is the only tried and tested system of free enterprise in this world and every other opposing system is built on an abridgment of personal liberty. . . .

But we will lose it if we do not understand it and recognize its virtues. It is not the capitalistic system itself that makes some men rich and some men poor. The men themselves do that, again with some exceptions. The system merely offers the opportunities.

Source: Stephen L Richards
Conference Report, Oct. 1939, p. 67]

Topics: Capitalism

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