Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has made our generation understand that to choose one’s government is not necessarily to secure freedom.

Source: F. A. Hayek

Topics: Democracy; Government, Loss of Freedom

Great By Process of Natural Selection

I say, we are a great people. We are great by process of natural selection. You have heard of the blood of the Pilgrim fathers extolled. Sociologists today are saying that the perpetuation of that blood, the blood of those men who came from England and Holland and established this great republic, is indispensable to the perpetuation of the great principles of liberty, equity and justice which underly this mighty nation, its Constitution and institutions. It is my belief that the men who were drawn from the Old World to found this Government have been selected with no more care and to no higher purpose than the people who have been selected from all the hamlets and the villages of the Old and the New World to come to Zion to prepare the foundation of the Kingdom of the Living God. The same great qualities of independent thinking, high manhood, power and strength, were indispensable in both instances; so that by the heritage which we have from our great ancestors we are a great people.

Source: Elder Stephen L. Richards
General Conference, April 1925

Topics: America, Heritage

The Burdens of Debt

How often at these conferences have we heard the voice of President Smith ring out, aye, not only as counsel and advice, but as a man clothed with authority to speak, pleading with the people to study and obey the temporal laws given to this Church! How often have we heard him and others pleading with the people to keep out of debt; and, if in debt, that we get out as soon as possible. That advice is not only good to our people and all people, but it is good to all nations and all countries, all states, all counties, all cities, for whoever dreamed a few years ago that the world would be in such a condition financially as it is today? Since the close of war I have exercised all my power to eliminate every unnecessary expense of our government with a view of lightening the burden of taxation upon the institutions of our country and individual taxpayers, and set an example, if you please, for states and for counties, and for cities, and foreign countries, as well, to follow.

Source: Elder Reed Smoot
General Conference, April 1925

Topics: Debt

God’s Blessings Invoked Upon the Church and Nation

I pray for the people of the world; not only for the Latter-day Saints, but I pray God’s blessings upon every loyal, patriotic man and woman that is endeavoring to do right, and to uphold the laws of the countries where they reside. I pray God’s blessings upon the President of these United States of America. I thank God for the loyalty and the patriotism of the Latter-day Saints. I thank God that we believe that the constitution of our country was given to us under the inspiration of the Living God, and that the Lord supported George Washington and the patriot fathers of this country. I pray that God will inspire us to continue loyal and true to him, to our country, and to its institutions; and that we may in very deed preach the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ by our acts; that, as we grow in years and increase in understanding, we may grow in the power and ability to live the Gospel, that our example of integrity, of honesty, of loyalty to God and country may inspire others to investigate the message of life and salvation.

Source: President Heber J. Grant
General Conference, October 1924

Topics: Heavenly Interest in Human Events

I tell you that the day is coming that the Prophet Joseph Smith predicted, when the Constitution shall be in peril, when it shall be necessary for the men of all parties who stand for the Constitution and law and order, to stand together, or this thing that we hold so sacred and dear, that our fathers established, cannot be preserved. Now the Latter-day Saints, by reason of the fact that they have been taught that God established the Constitution of the United States, adhere to it as earnestly and devotedly as to any other of our principles of faith and belief. By reason of the training we have received we are on the side of the Constitution, on the side of law, on the side of order. In the training and discipline that has come to us in the keeping of the Word of Wisdom, in the payment of our tithes and offerings, God was but preparing us to meet the emergencies of this hour.

Source: Elder Melvin J. Ballard
General Conference, October 1924

Topics: US Constitution, Defend; US Constitution, Threats to

There is no western capitalistic country in which the conditions of the masses have not improved in an unprecedented way.

Source: Ludwig von Mises
Epistemological Problems

Topics: Capitalism

Capitalism is essentially a system of mass production for the satisfaction of the needs of the masses. It pours a horn of plenty upon the common man. It has raised the average standard of living to a height never dreamed of in earlier ages. It has made accessible to millions of people enjoyments which a few generations ago were only within the reach of a small elite.

Source: Ludwig von Mises
Anti-Capitalistic Mentality, p.49

Topics: Capitalism

What a wonderful thing is this government of ours! How blessed are we that we live under a form of government such as ours. I am one who believes that there is no other form of government in all the world in which “Mormonism,” so-called, could have been established. The religious liberties granted are necessary for the people to live the gospel of Jesus Christ in its fulness. It required just such a form of government as ours. And when I see, as I think I see, the least move upon the part of men claiming to be citizens of this government to destroy the very foundations upon which it stands, to cut from the Constitution of the United States, that which gives and is the bulwark of our liberty, I feel that every man and every woman should lift their voices, if necessary cry aloud, against any such action upon the part of any clique or group of people. I thank God for America. I thank him that I was born under the Stars and Stripes. I thank him for the Constitution of the United States. I thank him for the laws and for the institutions created under the Constitution of the United States; and I shall continue to pray with all the fervor at my command to the overruling God of nations in the world to preserve the Constitution of our country, to preserve our country from those without and from those within: America, the most blessed of all lands in the world.

Source: Elder Reed Smoot
General Conference, October 1924

Topics: America, Heritage; US Constitution, Defend

Perpetuity of Peoples and Government Dependent On Religious Faith

I know of no great nation of antiquity which did not have, in connection with its system of civil government, a code of ethics which embraced in its doctrines, and had for its purpose, the ends which we moderns seek in the various forms of religion which we believe in and practice. The perpetuity of the various forms of government which prevailed was dependent, as all governments are, entirely upon the ethical, or religious faith and practice of the people, for, if we are to judge by the history of the past, without the higher ideals of ethical life, applied in the administration of civil affairs, no nation can long survive.

Source: President Anthony W. Ivins
General Conference, October 1924

Topics: Morality

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