Let every Latter-day Saint who has a farm, farm it, and not try to borrow money to be paid back by the government. Let every man feel that he is the architect and builder of his own life, and that he proposes to make a success of it by working. “Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work,” and rest on the seventh, and do not be willing to labor four or five days and then only half labor. Let every Latter-day Saint give value received for everything he gets, whether it be in work, or whatever he does.

Source: President Heber J. Grant
General Conference, October 1936

Topics: Responsibility

As a result of this progress in the line of science, and the coming of foreigners to our shores, our civilization has become complex. Lawmaking bodies have created laws by the thousands, until we have come to believe that government is the source of righteousness; that government by external means is the spring of morality and spiritual life. The morale of America has drifted to a very low state; this is also true of all the civilized world. Our moral autonomy has gone, and men and nations have forgotten God. Satan is offering the kingdoms of the world to those who will fall down and worship him. The temptation of Jesus after his baptism has become today the temptation of men. Yet nations are crying for Peace. They have organized leagues of peace; they have made some determined efforts to do away with war; they have all failed for the reason that peace movements have not been founded on a proper comprehension of righteousness and truth.

When our forefathers met in Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia in 1774 to draft some system of government by which the colonies could carry on, an old minister, Dr. Jacob Duche, was called in to offer a prayer, and as he prayed, John Adams tells us that tears “gushed into the eyes of all present.” It was a fervent prayer to the Lord and I quote it in full for it carries a message of faith to us:

O Lord, our Heavenly Father, high and mighty King of Kings, Lord of Lords, who dost from Thy throne behold all the dwellers upon the earth, and reignest with power supreme and uncontrolled over all kingdoms, empires and governments, look down in mercy, we beseech Thee, upon these American States who have fled to Thee from the rod of the oppressor, and thrown themselves upon Thy gracious protection, desiring to be henceforth dependent only upon Thee.

To Thee have they appealed for the righteousness of their cause. To Thee do they now look up for that countenance and support which Thou alone canst give. Take them, therefore, Heavenly Father, under Thy nurturing care. Give them wisdom in council, and valor in the field. Defeat the malicious designs of our cruel adversaries. Convince them of the unrighteousness of their cause, and if they still persist in their sanguinary purposes, O let the voice of Thine own unerring justice, sounding in their hearts, constrain them to drop their weapons of war from their unnerved hands in the day of battle.

Be Thou present, O Lord of Wisdom, and direct the Council of the honorable Assembly. Enable them to settle things upon the best and surest foundation, that the scene of blood may speedily be closed; that order, harmony and peace may effectually be restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety, prevail and flourish amongst Thy people.

Preserve the health of their bodies, the vigor of their minds. Shower down upon them and the millions they here represent, such temporal blessings as Thou seest expedient for them in this world and crown them with everlasting glory in the world to come. All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Savior. Amen.

Source: Elder Levi Edgar Young
General Conference, October 1936

Topics: Christianity; Morality

When the government of the United States was finally organized under the God-inspired Constitution, it was the result of toil and blood; and faith in the providences of God. The age- long barriers of class were done away with, and those founders declared that here in this nation, there should be no slave; there should be no king; nor master; nor subject. The fathers of the republic said to us: “We are all children of God, free and equal.”

Source: Elder Levi Edgar Young
General Conference, October 1936

Topics: Freedom

The real test of the strength of civilization is in the moral capacity of the rank and file of the citizens to give up the pleasures of the present for greater rewards in the future. This quality is the foundation of both moral and spiritual character. The social security of a nation is based on the character of the citizens, not on the amount of material comforts the government may bestow upon them. Hard work and sacrifice make men strong. Ease and gifts from any source are destructive to efficiency, character, and citizenship. Social security is in the character of the citizens and hence must come from within. Social security can not be bestowed from without.

Source: Elder Levi Edgar Young
General Conference, October 1936

Topics: Morality; Security

The Townsend Plan

We have on at the present time a great political campaign, and I want to say to the Saints that I hope they will not allow their political affiliations, their regard for political affairs, to cause feelings of ill-will towards one another. I have had some of the most insulting letters that ever came to me, condemning me for not being in favor of the Townsend Plan, and that I must be ignorant of the Plan. I am not ignorant of the Plan. I have not read every word of it, but I have asked one of my secretaries to read every word of the Plan and to give me the important points, and to my mind it is in direct opposition to everything I have quoted here today from Brigham Young and from the revelations of the Lord. The idea of allowing every man and woman who has reached the age of sixty years and wishes to retire from working to get $200 a month from the government! There is nothing truer than Brigham Young’s statement, that we should give nothing to people, unless they are not able to work, without requiring them to do something for it.

I want to say to the people that one of my nearest and dearest relatives criticised me for not favoring the Townsend Plan. I love him just as much as though he did not criticise me. I am perfectly willing for him to think and believe and act just as he wants to do, I want everybody to do this; I do not want the people of the Church, when they are working for the government, to work by the day; but I do want them to work by the job.

Source: President Heber J. Grant
General Conference, October 1936

Topics: Social Programs; Welfare

The Burden Of Debt

We are living in a day of extravagance, and I might say not only we as individuals of the nation, but I am fearful that extreme extravagance reaches into every organization, city, county, state, and nation. I know how hard it is to reduce an obligation, even that of the government of the United States. At the close of the World War our government was owing $26,187,000,000. For ten years succeeding that time every effort was made, and I assure you that everything that I could do as chairman of the Finance Committee and the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, was done to raise the money and meet the obligations of our government. It took ten long years to reduce the government indebtedness to $16,000,000,000. Now we are about to enter into the thirty billions. I want to call attention to that fact, not by way of criticism, but to emphasize what I have already said, that in the family, I care not where that family may be, every member of it, should be acquainted with what the head of the family receies, and make a plan to live within that income; and I am going to add, if there is any possible way of saving a little each year do that.

We do not know what is coming; we do not know, my brethren and sisters, altogether what obligations we will be called to meet, but I pray you to keep out of debt if it is possible for you to do so. I may say that the members of the home must be united in order to carry out this desirable condition.

Source: Elder Reed Smoot
General Conference, October 1936

Topics: Debt

Individual Responsibility

A sense of individual responsibility grows out of an understanding of man’s relationship to other men and to God. The world is in serious need of a compelling sense of personal, individual, responsibility. As men are, so is the social group. A righteous nation is but the assemblage of righteous men. National prosperity is but the sum of personal prosperity. When each man sets his own house in order, the whole world will be in order. There is much talk of governmental or other organized provision for our wants, material and spiritual, when in reality our greatest needs must be satisfied from within ourselves. To lean upon others for support enfeebles the soul. By self-effort man will attain his high destiny. It cannot be placed as a cape upon his shoulders by others. Upon his own feet he must enter the kingdom of God, whether on earth or in heaven. By conquest of self he shall win his place in the everlasting glory of God’s presence.

Source: Elder John A. Widtsoe
General Conference, October 1936

Topics: Responsibility; Welfare

What is a covenant? If you will look at your dictionary you will find that it is defined as an agreement between two persons or parties. Sometimes those agreements are made between nations, and then they are called treaties, and they are usually entered into by being signed by the executive heads of those nations or governments and then ratified by their legislative bodies. Such are the treaties that are made with the nations. They are intended to be solemn pledges whereby they bind themselves with one another to make good the agreements they enter into with each other. What a terrible shock it was during the World War to hear the ruler of one great nation refer to his solemn treaty as “a mere scrap of paper,” but in these later days we are getting used to that, and these dictatorial rulers of many great and wonderful nations are treating their solemn treaties like mere scraps of paper; but they should not be so treated, they should be solemnly and truthfully and faithfully kept. Between individuals we draw up an instrument and we sign it, and have it signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of witnesses, and then go before a notary public or a justice of the peace and make oath in order to make it binding, and in order that it may be still more so, laws are passed imposing penalties for breach of contract. These are in the nature of covenants which men make with their fellow men.

What must we then think of a covenant where God himself is the party of the first part? Such a covenant God has made with every one of us. He has entered into an agreement with us. If you will do all things which the Lord your God shall command you; if you will do his will, you shall have glory added upon your heads forever and ever. That is the pledge, and God keeps his covenant and we should do the same.

Source: Elder Rulon S. Wells
General Conference, April 1936

Topics: Politics, International

The government of the United States has passed through many crises since the adoption of the Constitution in 1787. The one hundred and forty-seven years of our national existence have witnessed times of serious political struggles; periods of social and economic strife and unrest. The World War left the nations of the world with intricate problems. The largest armies of all history had marched to battle, and nations were put to the test of preserving their integrity. Kings and emperors were dethroned; governments were overthrown, and political life came to be anything but the thoughtful study of the science of government. In our own country particularly, laws have been enacted by state legislatures and Congress that have little bearing on the economic and social questions of the day, and as a result, we are lost in a veritable chaos of laws that are never enforced, and which have helped to bring about a disregard for law and order.

Source: Elder Levi Edgar Young
General Conference, April 1936

Topics: Law; War

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