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XIII
The Concept and Philosophy of the Devil’s Church
The Communist Manifesto
Since a prophet of God has proclaimed to the people of the Church that:
the entire concept and philosophy of Communism is diametrically opposed to everything for which the Church stands,
and that one cannot be true to his faith while “lending aid, encouragement, or sympathy to any of these false philosophies,” a knowledge of those philosophies is essential to anyone who desires to avoid accepting them. Fortunately, the main concepts of this satanical doctrine are embodied in a fairly concise statement called the “Communist Manifesto.” It is not much longer than the United States Constitution. According to g.d.h. Cole who is a recognized authority on socialism:
The ‘communist manifesto’ drafted by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels for the Communist League…in…1848 is generally regarded as the starting point of modern socialism. (Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 20, p. 295, 1943 ed.)
Not only is the Manifesto regarded as the starting point of modern socialism, it has also served as the Communists’ Bible since then. Because it is regarded as authoritative, its essential parts, together with a preface written by Engels, have been included herein as Appendix ii. Let us consider the philosophy and concepts of the Devil’s church, as revealed by these documents.
The Communist Movement A Secret Society Seeking Control Of Government
The preface to the Manifesto admits that the Communist League commenced as a “secret society,” which is only to be expected in view of the fact that this has always been Satan’s method of operation. The Book of Mormon uses this identical name, (secret society) to describe his organizations among the Nephites and the Jaredites. (3 Nephi 3:9; Ether 9:6, 11:22) Also, we have noted that Satan’s combinations of the past had one unvarying aim which took precedence over all others—seizure of the control of government. The Manifesto announces that purpose in these words:
The immediate aim of the Communists is…conquest of political power.
Abolition Of The Three Organizations By Which The Lord Provides And Protects Freedom
Abolition Of The Family
The Manifesto boldly proclaims the intention of Communists to abolish those three organizations by which the Lord provides and protects freedom. Their attitude toward the family is expressed thus:
Abolition of the family! Even the most radical flare up at this infamous proposal of the Communists... The bourgeois family will vanish as a matter course when its complement vanishes, and both will vanish with the vanishing of capital…But you Communists would introduce community of women, screams the whole Bourgeoisie in chorus…Bourgeois marriage is in reality a system of wives in common and thus at the most what the Communists might possibly be reproached with is that they desire to introduce, in substitution for a hypocritically concealed, an openly legalized, community of women.
Abolition Of The Church
Communists regard religion as the “opiate of the people” and it is well known that they systematically abolish churches wherever they come into power. The communist attitude toward religion and morals is reflected in the Manifesto by this passage:
Law, morality, religion are to him [the worker] so many bourgeois [capitalist] prejudices, behind which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeoisie interests.
In this manner do Communists dismiss the church as a senseless, selfish, anachronism of the past. They want no interference from either the family or the church as they forcibly take children from their parents and try to mold them into hate-filled beasts without morals, without faith, without hope, and without charity.
Abolition Of Government
Their aim to overthrow all existing governments is admitted in these words:
In short, the Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things…The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workingmen of all countries, unite!
Compare this purpose with that of the secret combinations which was stated by Moroni thus:
For it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries;… (Ether 8:25)
Abolition Of Freedom
The Manifesto also admits for its adherents the purpose to destroy freedom:
The abolition of bourgeois individuality, bourgeois independence, and bourgeoisie freedom is undoubtedly aimed at…
Of course, this statement only admits the intention to destroy the freedom of the propertied class, but since the laws apply to everyone alike, the abolition of the freedom of everyone is the aim and this is strictly in accord with Satan’s plan. For example, one of the ten points of the Manifesto provides: “Equal obligation of all to work.” Since the police will impose this obligation upon “all,” slavery for the worker as well as the bourgeoisie is inevitable.
The Central Purpose Of Communism—the Destruction Of Freedom By Destroying The Right Of The Individual To Own And Control Property
Satan’s great purpose here on earth is to destroy the free agency of man. Communists, like the Gadianton Robbers and secret combinations before them, undertake to achieve this goal by using government to rob everyone of the fruits of their labor. The Manifesto declares this purpose in these words:
the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: abolition of private property.
At another point, it says:
The Communist revolution is the most radical rupture with traditional property relations.
If the Communists accomplished no more than this one goal, they would fulfill Satan’s purpose of destroying free agency, because as has been shown elsewhere in this work, without the right of private property, individual freedom is impossible. As long as the state controls the food, clothing, shelter and other consumable goods as well as the instruments which produce and distribute them, the citizens can never be anything but slaves. They will do anything their masters say merely to stay alive.
Also, since no goal of any consequence can be accomplished without the use of property, only the goals of the state will be achieved rather than those of the individual. It is the abolition of private property which makes socialism and communism equally evil. Let us also observe that since every welfare state measure has the effect of transferring ownership and control of private property from the individual to the state, each such measure brings that nation which adopts it that much closer to socialist slavery.
The Manifesto’s Plan To Convert A Capitalist Nation To Socialism— the Gradual Adoption Of Welfare-state Measures
It is a fact of the greatest importance that the method proposed in the Manifesto for transforming a capitalist nation into a socialist dictatorship is by the gradual adoption of a series of welfare-state measures. This was the purpose Marx and Engels had in mind in proposing the ten-point political platform contained in the Manifesto. In the following words, they urge voters to “wrest by degrees” all property from its owners:
The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest by degrees all capital from the bourgeoisie…These measures, will, of course, be different in different countries. Nevertheless, in the most advanced countries the following will be pretty generally applicable:
Following the above statement are listed the ten points of the platform. They constitute a political program of welfare-state measures which, when adopted, will destroy private property. There are various types of laws which help to accomplish this purpose and the Manifesto proposes most of them. They may conveniently be classified under the following headings:
1. Confiscation of property by means of taxation and other laws;
2. Regulation of entry into business and acquisition of jobs;
3. Regulation of the operation of businesses;
4. Regulation of the consumption and use of goods and services;
5. Regulation of the monetary system, banks, credit, and interest rates.
Let us briefly consider each of these five types of government controls, and the laws a capitalist nation might adopt to bring them to fruition.
Confiscation Of Property By Means Of Taxation And Other Laws
The quickest method of converting a capitalist nation to socialism is by government confiscation of all private property. The first four of the ten points of the Manifesto urge this method. The first one proposes that government confiscate all land. Under the guise of laws providing for national parks, irrigation districts, flood control, housing projects for the poor, etc., government may accomplish this. The second suggests the confiscation of all earnings above a set maximum by means of”a heavy progressive or graduated income tax.” If the tax is made heavy enough and the graduated rates are steep enough, the state can prohibit the accumulation of any capital by its citizens by taxing away all income except a bare subsistence.
The third point of the Manifesto says: “Abolition of all rights of inheritance.” Under such a policy when a person dies, instead of allowing him to pass his property on to his widow and children, government confiscates the entire estate. By means of steeply graduated gift and inheritance taxes this same result can be achieved. Large, medium, and even small estates can be destroyed upon the death of the owner by imposing a tax so high that the entire business must be liquidated to meet it.
The fourth point of the Manifesto provides for, “Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.” Having the power to determine who a “rebel” is, (presumably anyone opposed to socialism) and being able to claim the property of those who leave the country because they oppose socialism, the Communists can seize the property of everyone.
Regulation Of Entry Into Business And Acquisition Of Jobs
There being no private ownership of property under socialism, the individual either works for the government or he does not work. The state, being the only employer, determines the economic activity of every person. However, in a capitalist nation this same result can be largely achieved by adopting laws which license all professions, trades, occupations, and labor unions. If no one can enter business without government consent, and if no laborer can obtain a job without the approval of the representative of a labor union which has been certified the exclusive bargaining agent, essentially the same controls which are exercised under socialism are present. The state controls every person because it can deny him access to the only means by which he can sustain life and exercise liberty.
Regulation Of The Operation Of Businesses
Under socialism, the state, being the exclusive owner of the instruments of production and distribution of goods and services, has the exclusive right to make rules and regulations for the operation of such facilities. It determines where each business will be located, what products each will produce, what type of machinery and equipment will be used, what hours will be worked, wages paid, and which employee performs which job. These same controls can be exercised by government over “privately owned” businesses merely by adopting a complete set of regulatory laws. In this manner the right of private property can be essentially denied while leaving nominal title to the property in private hands.
Zoning laws give the state power to determine for what purpose each piece of land may be used and what goods and services, if any, may be produced thereon. Laws establishing product standards, safety standards, and pollution standards give the state power to determine what kind of machinery and equipment may be used and what kind of goods may be produced. Laws governing labor unions, wages, hours, working conditions and hiring practices, give the state power to control labor-management relations almost as extensively as it does under socialism.
The Manifesto suggests a number of laws designed to increase the power of government over private economic affairs. Point number six calls for:
Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state.
Proposal number seven provides:
Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a single plan.
The ninth proposal suggests laws which result in,
Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
Regulation Of The Consumption And Use Of Goods And Services
Since the socialist state produces and owns all goods and services, it determines who occupies the houses, consumes the food, wears the clothes, gets the medical attention, etc., but being the only seller and the only employer, it can control consumption by regulating prices and setting wage rates. Thus, even though the wage earner may be given certain choices between various products which the state has decided to make available, it may limit the amount he may consume by controlling his income and the price at which he may buy.
In a capitalist nation, all of these powers may be exercised under a combination of (1) Wage and price controls, (2) Rationing, (3) Steeply graduated taxes, and (4) Welfare-state programs. Wage controls together with steeply graduated income taxes can be used to determine the income of every person. Price controls together with rationing and welfare state programs can be used to determine what every person can consume or use, Through rationing laws, the state can even control the press, religious institutions, and indeed, all private activities because it has the power to allocate all available resources. Government officials can make or break any business or any institution with such powers.
Regulation Of The Monetary System, Banks, Credit, And Interest Rates
Point number five of the Manifesto provides for:
Centralization of credit in the hands of the state by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
The late John Maynard Keynes considered this the most effective means available for destroying the capitalist system, as he states in the following quote:
Lenin [first Communist dictator in Russia] is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the Capitalist System was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens…Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of over-turning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in the million is able to diagnose. (Keynes, Economic Consequences of the Peace, Harcourt, Brace & Howe, 1920, pp. 235, 236.)
In an economically developed nation where there is a high degree of specialization of labor, and where nearly all exchanges of goods and services are made for money, the state can largely control the people by controlling their money. If the currency being used for these exchanges is irredeemable so that government can print any amount it chooses without having to redeem it, it has a literal stranglehold on the economy.
Since prices and wages are expressed in terms of the paper money, government can manipulate those prices and wages upward at will merely by printing stacks of worthless currency. It can hire any number of employees and print the money with which to pay their wages. It can purchase goods and services from the business community and force the merchants to accept worthless paper as payment therefor. It can defraud the people by selling them bonds and other evidences of indebtedness, and then liquidating the debt with printing press money. “By a continuing process of inflation,” government can wipe out the entire creditor class by destroying the value of all insurance policies, social security benefits, pensions, bonds contracts, savings accounts, annuities, old age benefits, and any other evidence of indebtedness.
In contrast to this plan of the Communists, the United States Constitution tied the hands of government so that it could not destroy the right of private property by manipulating the currency. Art. 1, Sec. 10 provides:
No State shall…make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts.
According to this provision, no debt which calls for the payment of money in the United States can be legally discharged except by the payment of the precious metals. Only these can release a debtor from his obligation.
This provision regarding “tender in payment of debts” will not be clearly understood unless it is recognized that the states have always had the power to determine when a debt was paid. They had this power before the Constitution was adopted and that document did nothing to alter it. The state courts have always litigated disputes over contracts and torts, and by so doing have determined the existence of debts. As a necessary part of this power, they must determine when debts are paid. The Constitution forbids them to decree that anything except gold and silver coin will serve this purpose.
To facilitate trade between the states and create a uniform monetary system throughout the nation, the Constitution gave the Federal government the power,
To coin money, regulate the value thereof and of foreign coin. (Art. 1, Sec. 8)
The power to “coin money” is the power to weigh, alloy, shape and stamp metal in such a manner that anyone can see at a glance how many grains of the indicated metal the coin contains. This is merely the mechanical act of making physical measurements of the gold or silver content of the coin and then impressing thereon what those measurements are.
The power “to regulate the value thereof’ was necessary because there was more than one metal chosen as legal tender. Since only one of the metals could be used as the standard for the nation’s money, the value of the other metal would have to be regulated from time to time as the relative price of the two metals varied. Congress was thus given the power to make so many grains of one of the metals (a grain is a small measure of weight equal to the weight of a grain of wheat) the standard unit of money, and then specify that a certain number of grains of the other metal is equivalent in value to the standard chosen.
By the first Coinage Act passed in 1792, Congress chose silver rather than gold as that standard and made 371.25 pure grains of silver the basic unit of our entire monetary system. They called that unit the “dollar.” The value of gold was originally regulated at fifteen times the value of an equal weight of silver, and the 1792 Act authorized the minting of both gold and silver coins and declared them both to “be a lawful tender in all payments whatsoever.” (1 Stat. at Large, p. 250) In 1834, due to an increase in the value of gold relative to silver, Congress made 23.4 grains of gold equal to 371.25 grains of silver.
But once having established 371.25 grains of pure silver as the basic monetary unit, Congress had no constitutional authority to alter it. To do so would cause the states to violate that provision of the Constitution which prohibits them from “impairing the obligation of contract.” Such a change would also violate the following constitutional provision which protects the individual against a loss of his property by federal action:
No person shall…be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.
In defiance of the provisions of the Constitution, the Federal government has obtained control over the monetary system by passing laws which (1) Make it a crime to use gold as money, (2) Mint coins out of base metals, and (3) Make irredeemable paper a tender in payment of debts. It has also passed laws regulating banks, credit, and interest rates.
A frank appraisal of the laws prevailing throughout the nations of the world today indicates that most of the ten points of the Manifesto have been adopted in every country. The “despotic inroads on the rights of property and on conditions of bourgeois production” suggested by the Manifesto have been made. Governments in every country, if they have not done so already, are wresting “by degrees all capital from the Bourgeoisie,” and centralizing” all instruments of production in the hands of the state.”
By means of (1) licensing laws which dictate who may engage in business; (2) welfare programs which take property from the “haves” and give it to the “have-nots”; (3) regulatory laws which empower government bureaucracy to tell private owners how they must operate their enterprises, (4) graduated income, gift, and estate taxes, which confiscate virtually all income above certain minimums, and (5) laws which corrupt monetary systems, the Communist proposals have been largely implemented in the United States as well as in other so-called Capitalist nations.
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