Conference Address

I am thankful this morning that I find myself in perfect accord with the teachings of this great conference. I have rejoiced in the sessions that have been held in which President Grant was one of the speakers. ¶

As I stand before this microphone I am reminded that every time I have returned home from conference so many people have said : "President Sloan, we heard your voice over the radio." In our mission today thousands and thousands of people are listening to the services of this great conference, and as I have pleaded with my people in the years that have passed, so I plead today with you, follow the President of this Church and you will never go astray. To those who may be in Alaska who know my voice, those in Oregon, Washington, Montana and northern Idaho, and before this great assemblage of people, may I make this plea, keep your eyes on the President of this Church and you will never go astray. God bless this work. ¶

We are now enjoying in our mission many of the opportunities of today. Never before have such glorious privileges been given. We have only fifteen elders and an equal number of lady missionaries, thirty in all, yet our converts are in excess of the converts made a year ago. In the thirty-odd branches in our mission over two-thirds of them exceed in the amount of tithes paid for the nine months of 1933 as compared with 1932. We are growing, much interest is being manifest in our work, and the Lord is blessing our efforts. ¶

I should like to read an extract from an editorial in one of the largest newspapers published in the northwest in keeping with the spirit of this great work : ¶

"A recent report shows that two-thirds of the inmates of Sing Sing and Auburn prisons, New York, are under thirty years of age." ¶

What a proof these figures are that the home is not adequately functioning ! The parents are taking for granted that their sons are safe and that the citizen body and the courts are adequately safeguarding the nation's children. Jails and prisons are poor substitutes for conscience. Crime means a multiplication of criminals and a multiplication of convicts. ¶

If we go on in our lethargy it will not be many generations until we shall have a nation composed entirely of convicts or descendents and relatives of convicts, in which case we shall have a degenerate people without pride of ancestry or hope of honored progeny, a prospect that should appal all those who love their country. ¶

The sacredness of the American home is at stake. I appeal to my brethren and sisters to safeguard your homes. ¶

"Home ain't a place that gold can buy ¶

or get up in a minute ; Afore it's home there's got to be a heap o' livin' in it." ¶

I am not apprehensive for the youth of this Church today, but I am vitally concerned with the fathers and mothers. What is your example? What is your conduct? What is your loyalty towards the Constitution of the United States? What is your loyalty to this great Church and your God? The Lord warned this Church in a revelation that he was not pleased with the inhabitants of Zion, for there were many idlers among them, and their children were growing up in wickedness. Are they following in the footsteps of us their parents ? ¶

"A father and his tiny son Crossed a rough street one stormy day, 'See papa,' cried the little one, 'I stepped in your steps all the way.' ***** ¶

"If this man shirks his manhood's due And heeds what lying voices say, It isn't one that falls, but two, 'I stepped in your steps all the way.' " ¶

God bless you, brethren and sisters, to be exemplary in your leadership as parents in the home, as leaders in the Church and in the community. I bear testimony to you of my hope, of my faith, of my belief to my entire satisfaction that this is God's work, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶