The Welfare Plan and Perilous Times

First Counselor in the First Presidency ¶

Taking advantage of the fact that I am conducting the meeting, and in order to put myself out of misery as early as possible, I wish now to say something to the Conference, and, as I wish to make it as concise as possible and be sure to say the things as nearly like I want to say them as possible, I have submitted it to writing. ¶

Pamphlets

Reports come to us that pamphlets are being circulated among the people under circumstances that lead some to believe they are published and distributed under some kind of approval or sanction from the General Authorities of the Church. These pamphlets are said to contain extracts from early sermons delivered by the early leaders of the Church, the parts of the discourses printed having to do with world conditions which the compilers of the pamphlets apply to the situation existing in the earth today. ¶

Compilation and Distribution Not Authorized

The General Authorities have had nothing whatever to do with the preparation of these pamphlets nor have they sanctioned or approved their compilation or issuance. When the General Authorities shall wish to do anything of this sort, they will do it under their own names and will not hide their identity behind some Church member. ¶

It is also reported to us that in many cases, these extracts as appearing in the pamphlets are in effect garbled and that moreover when read in the full text in which they appear, they take on quite a different meaning from what they seem to have when torn from their context. A text should always be studied for its real meaning in connection with the full context. ¶

Furthermore, it is our information that these pamphlets are in some instances being surreptitiously merchandized even in the Temples, and also in Priesthood quorum meetings. This should not be done. The ¶

Temples are holy places; they are not book stores; they are not places in which propaganda is to be carried on. The people are warned against all these perversive activities. Moreover, Priesthood quorum meetings are not book-selling gatherings; they are meetings for the study of the Gospel and the carrying on of the regular Priesthood activities. ¶

Exaltation Through Temple Marriage

There are too many marriages of our young people that are mere civil marriages -- marriages for time. This is much to be regretted. It is a situation that calls for remedy from every Bishop, from every auxiliary organization, and from every parent. ¶

After its absence from the earth for hundreds and hundreds of years, the Lord revealed in this Dispensation of. the Fullness of Times, the principle of the eternity of the marriage covenant, and He restored to the earth the divine authority to consummate it. This revelation and this restoration makes of marriage a holy relationship, out of which and out of which only, can come man's greatest glory and exaltation. ¶

Opportunities Forfeited in Civil Marriage

You young people are trifling with your divine destiny, you are treating lightly a great commandment, you are casting aside as dross the greatest opportunity that comes into your life, when you fail or refuse to be married in our temples where husband and wife may be sealed for time and for all eternity by the men bearing the holy Priesthood of God. A civil marriage -- and that is all any marriage is that is performed outside the temple -- merely legalizes a marital relationship. It has none of the effects of a sealing for time and eternity. ¶

You young people, if you think enough of one another to marry at all, you should love one another enough to wish to perpetuate your association forever; if you do not think enough of one another for that, you may well hesitate long before you decide to go forward in life otherwise. The situation is not changed by having your Bishop or President of Stake, or some ex-Bishop friend, or like person, perform the ceremony for time. All these are civil marriages only. ¶

Our Lands

In his eloquent oration on the Pioneers last July, President Bryant S. Hinckley read the following statements made by Brigham Young: ¶

Talk about these rich valleys, why there is not another people on earth that could have come here and lived. We prayed over the land, and dedicated it and the water, air, and everything pertaining to them unto the Lord, and the smiles of heaven rested on the land and it became productive and today it yields the best of grain, fruit, and vegetables.... There never has been a land from the days of Adam until now that has been blessed more than this land has been blessed by our Father in heaven; and it will be blessed more and more if we are faithful and humble and thankful to God for the wheat and corn, the oats, the fruit, the vegetables, ¶

the cattle, and everything He bestows upon us, and try to use them for the building up of His kingdom on earth. ¶

I can remember, and so can all you older brethren and sisters, when our lands were in the heydey of their productivity. We can remember when the snow drifted deep in the mountain gorges, when the run-offs of the springtime made our streams rushing torrents that watered our lands and spread out upon them the rich fertilizing sediments from the mountains, when our farmers and stockmen were prosperous, when we merited the symbol adopted for the State -- a busy hive of industry, when our homes and fences and barns and corrals were in repair, when our farmers' words were as good as their bonds, and both were A-l. ¶

Changing Scenes

The old time snows have not been falling in the mountains for many years. Our farms are run-down, many acres of them are idle, our fences and barns and corrals are falling down, our homes are unpainted, the roofs leak, our streets are full of weeds, too many of our meeting houses are shabby, we look too much like idling ne'er-do-wells. Another fifty years of this will almost return us to the desert. ¶

Again quoting Brother Brigham: ¶

You inquire if we shall stay in these mountains. I answer yes, as long as we please to do the will of God our Father in heaven. If we are pleased to turn away from the holy commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ, as ancient Israel did, every man turning to his own way, we shall be scattered and peeled, driven before our enemies and persecuted until we learn to remember the Lord our God and are willing to walk in His ways. ¶

There are other enemies than human persecutors. We can be our own worst enemies, and drive ourselves away from our most cherished possessions. ¶

Land Blessed Through Prayer and Effort

Would we not better pray again over this land and the air and the water and everything pertaining to them? Would we not better turn our reliance to our own efforts and their fruits as blessed by the Lord? Why should the Lord bless the land we do not farm? Why should He give us water for that land we are not using? Why should He give us crops when we do not plant? Why should He bless us with His blessings when our reliance is put not in Him but on government gratuities for not working, for not farming, for not doing the things that have been man's allotted part since Adam was driven from the Garden. ¶

The Lord cannot be pleased with shiftless idleness; those of us in default must mend our ways. ¶

The tragedy of all this is, that the innocent must as always suffer at least in part the punishments that afflict the guilty. The rain falls on the unjust as upon the just, and the lands of the just parch as do ¶

those of the unjust. Yet God will not forget those who serve Him and keep His commandments. Their reward is sure, in their happiness, in their blessings of contentment, of health, of the consciousness of a life well lived, in their salvation and exaltation. ¶

Church Grain Elevators

As the press has announced, the grain elevator which has been under construction at the Church Storage Square has now been completed. Its capacity is 318,000 bushels. With what may prove to be a spirit of forecast, it has been named Church Elevator No. 1. The Church also has an elevator at McCammon, Idaho, with a capacity of some 80,000 bushels, and a small one at Sharp's Spur, Levan Ridge, with a capacity of 8,500 bushels -- or a total wheat storage capacity of some 400,000 bushels. ¶

The Church has borne the cost of securing and building these elevators. The Relief Society Wheat Fund will be used by the Relief Society to fill the elevators with wheat. The Church will assume the upkeep, maintenance, repair cost, as also the cost of storage of and in these elevators. It will be necessary from time to time to replace this wheat so stored. The Church will absorb the losses incident to this operation, and if at any time such operation yields a profit, this will be applied towards the costs of running the elevator. ¶

So far as possible, all labor incident to this storage operation will be Welfare labor. ¶

A relatively small part of the storage space in these elevators will be used by the Welfare Committee for storing various grains in connection with their various operations. ¶

Wheat Donations Restored

Thus we return to its original form the donations of wheat, made by the people to the sisters, and by the Relief Society sisters themselves, beginning back in the time of Brigham Young. These donations were made at the sacrifice of comforts and sometimes of necessities. In the beginning they frequently represented the result of gleaning the wheat fields by the sisters themselves, -- a grievous toil ofttimes, but one that brought joy to their hearts at the time and a reward from their Heavenly Father in the hereafter. Our fathers and grandfathers, our mothers and grandmothers were fashioned in heroic molds; they were built of the virtues that make mighty empires. It is not too much to hope and pray that we of our day may measure to their stature. ¶

Welfare Plan

The Welfare Plan is growing daily in its efficiency, thanks to the untiring devotion of the Welfare workers in the Wards, and Stakes, and at the central office. ¶

The Plan has now been in operation a little over four years. During ¶

that time it has helped an average of about 50,000 individuals annually. Experience has been gained that has enabled those in charge so to perfect their plans that, as was stated at the last April Conference, we feel assured that short of a great worldwide calamity that should affect the very foundations of our whole economic life, the Church will be able to care for the indispensable needs of its worthy poor, in time of want. This was our first objective, -- to maintain life. ¶

To Rebuild Civic, Religious Lives

Co-equal with that was the rebuilding in those who had a temporary misfortune, of a full civic and religious life. It was the aim that no one of them should come to feel that because he had suffered a financial setback, he had had closed against him any social or spiritual activity or opportunity for progress and ultimate achievement. No Bishop has done his full duty, and no Ward Relief Society has met its full opportunity, that has left any needy Ward member in doubt on these matters. ¶

From the very beginning, the problem has been to keep away from ambitious and often ill-considered plans and schemes for remaking society and recreating our economic structure. It would have been a simple matter to begin visionary undertakings that would not only have bankrupted the Church but that would have broken the heart and courage of all of us by the greatness of our disaster. We have therefore gone slowly and watched each step taken. The Lord has been with us in this plan. ¶

Expansion of Plan

As by-products of securing the necessaries of life for the needy, we have adventured into a few other fields where we felt we could help those who were near distress as well as those actually in need. We have created an organization that has made small character loans to men and women who could not borrow from financial institutions; we have set up a manufacturing establishment for the renovating and building of household furniture and fixtures, which gives employment particularly to willing but aged unemployables, and that provides cheap articles for the needy. We have set up an agricultural committee to help find farms for young men especially who wished to farm and whose training and experience gave some reasonable assurance they could farm successfully. We have now set up a committee whose business it is to investigate what, if anything, the Church may wisely undertake to do, consistent with its resources, to help by advice or otherwise in setting up cooperatives, both for production and marketing. ¶

Measures Taken to Produce Welfare Materials

One of our aims has been to produce as fast and as fully as possible, within the program itself, all the materials we need to carry out our Welfare work. We are doing this first by making surveys of the needs ¶

of each Ward and Stake of the Church, then by making a budget of production covering these needs, and then by assigning these budgetary needs among the various Stakes able to produce them. The first year we were able to furnish only some 10% of what we used. This proportion has constantly risen each year until last year we produced approximately 58% and this year we expect to produce, in our better organized regions, substantially 70% of our needs, and we hope by another year to make it nearly 100%. There will always be a few articles, such as spices, for example, that we must buy. ¶

In doing all this, we have acquired and are operating a coal mine, we have helped in starting lumber mills, a plaster mill, we are now setting up a poultry farm, and are preparing to install a milk processing plant. Other things will be added as rapidly as consistent with a wise development. Lastly we have set up, as an experiment, a small revolving fund to be used in building very modest homes for those who are in a position to get some help from financial institutions. This can easily lead into such large outlays of money that we are going ahead very carefully and slowly. We never forget that the funds we are handling are stamped with the most sacred trust that can mark money, for they are the tithes and offerings given by the Saints to build up the Church and Kingdom' of God. Out in the Northwest they are carrying on locally such a housing program under most promising circumstances. The same sort of operations are going on in many other parts of the Church, principally under the direct sponsorship of Priesthood quorums. All this is most gratifying and encouraging. We are very hopeful that out of all these experiences we shall be able to work out a successful plan for such undertakings, but, I repeat, we are going slowly and cautiously, and here, as always, we must look primarily to the local groups themselves to carry on this work, not alone the work of supplying the labor therefor, but the burden of furnishing the finances, also. The Church cannot undertake, the undertaking would be too vast, to furnish the money for this and other like matters, the Church Wards and Stakes or Priesthood quorums furnishing merely the labor. These agencies must also look forward to furnishing the great bulk if not all of the finances as well as the labor for such special projects. ¶

Welfare Plan for Mutual Helpfulness

As was expected, there are now appearing certain tendencies which unless we meet them squarely and correct them at once, will lead to the creation of a Church dole system, the very last thing the Church intends to do. From the foundation of the Church until now, idleness has been condemned as unworthy of Church members, as destructive of character, as violative of the true Christian life, as contrary to the command given to Adam as the law of this world "In the sweat of thy brow, thou shalt eat bread." The Lord has repeatedly spoken about it in our time. ¶

The task which the Welfare system has now most urgently to do ¶

is to provide work for those who receive help. We urge all of the people to cooperate with the Ward Welfare Committees to this end. It should be possible for plans to be worked out by which any man in a community having a job to be done could go to his bishop and state his need; that then the bishop, either directly or through the Stake or regional organization, could supply this man with the help needed for the job; the man having the work done would pay to his bishop, as a contribution to the Welfare Plan, the cash value of the labor at the regular wage values; to the man doing the work at the instance of the bishop, the bishop would give as compensation for his work, an order on the storehouse for the things which the man needed, or in some cases the man might be given part cash, the order on the storehouse and the cash to furnish sufficient to meet the needs of the one doing the work. Such an operation will give the Welfare worker something to do, it will enable the member having the work to do to get the work done as cheaply and as well as he could get it done otherwise and it will give to the member having the work done and to the Welfare worker joy and satisfaction over their mutual helpfulness. I want to say to the people of the Church that we have found these Welfare workers capable and industrious in what they undertake. They are not the kind of workers that the W. P. A.'s are sometimes described to be. Welfare workers are frequently men who from one cause or another are no longer employable in regular industry but who, like their younger fellow Welfare workers, can and will still do a day's work for a day's pay. We honor all such men and are grateful to the Lord for their integrity, industry, and devotion to their duty, and for their loyalty to the Church. ¶

"Good Times"

By the present outlook, there will be for the next months a great increase in industrial activity, which may be expected to have a general reaction on all business, and if so we shall have a period, longer or shorter, of so-called good times. We members of the Church should not be misled by this. The great bulk of the money which is to be expended in this industrial expanse will be wholly unproductive from an economic standpoint. The nation will be billions poorer, not richer by these expenditures, in so far as our economic, commercial, and industrial national life is concerned. These billions must be raised either by increased taxes, which we must expect will increase the cost of living, or by further borrowings that will greatly increase our public debt and so add to our taxes, or the money may be raised by both means. As I said at another Conference, after the war with all this destruction of wealth -- that is property -- is past, we must be prepared to face another depression, the depth and duration of which we may not now know. We shall hope that this temporary "prosperity," as we shall probably call it, that may come, will not lead the Welfare organizations and workers to relax any effort to perfect their organization so as effectively to carry ¶

on their relief work. I assure you we shall hereafter need all the help we can now plan and provide for. ¶

Compulsory Military Service Inaugurated

In saying this I am not passing any judgment upon or making any criticism of our preparedness program. We must be able to resist invasion. But I may point out that for the first time in our history we are inaugurating universal compulsory military service and apparently we are preparing to maintain a great standing army, both of which have been under a wise ban during our whole national existence, because they have been deemed dangerous to our Constitutional government and to our free institutions. ¶

Invasion a Remote Possibility

It may also be observed that we have had built in our minds a sort of frenzy of fear of foreign and subjugating invasion. Responsible military opinion credibly reported, is to the point that while desultory air raids causing great damage and considerable loss of life, might, under more or less ideal weather conditions over the whole Atlantic, be made against some of our Eastern coast cities, yet an armed invasion by great foreign armies sufficient to conquer us, is such a remote possibility under existing means and methods of transportation as should not make us hysterical, and we are nearly so now. ¶

It does seem that if the navigation of a channel 20 miles wide can hold up a belligerent from making even an attempt at armed invasion for a period of weeks now ripening into months, that the navigation of an ocean 3000 miles wide might be a suff icient barrier to any great armed invasion at all, and we need not take too seriously threats by that belligerent to do so, or his brags either. One hundred thirty odd millions of free people, with unlimited resources and the highest industrial development in the world, will give some pause to the most ambitious ruler. Nevertheless, until the world quiets down and sanity comes back to men, we should be prepared to repulse such an invasion if it came. Our preparation should be solely to repel invasion, not to conduct an aggressive war nor to make conquests. But let us not fall into a panic of fear. ¶

War

In the hope that it may tend to mitigate some of the hate now rising that threatens to engulf us, as well as for our peace of mind and our ability to gauge future happenings, it seems well that we should be under no misapprehension as to the present status of the United States in the existing European conflict. By all the rules and principles by which nations have governed their conduct in the past, the United States has already committed several hostile acts and we are in fact now at war, ¶

It is the settled law of war, that the private citizens of neutral states may, without in any way jeopardizing the neutrality of their sovereign, carry on commerce with either or both belligerents subject to certain rights of search, seizure and confiscation by the belligerents in cases of trading in contraband of war or in case of violating a legal, effective blockade; but it is just as well settled that no neutral state can itself supply one belligerent with the materials of war, without thereby losing its character as a neutral and becoming itself a belligerent. ¶

The nations of the earth in their last voluntary and near unanimous statement of the law on these matters, declared: ¶

The supply, in any manner, directly or indirectly, by a neutral power to a belligerent power, of warships, ammunition, or war material of any kind whatever, is forbidden. (Hague Convention XIII, 1907) ¶

U. S. Neutrality Violated

There seems no question but that we have supplied to one of the belligerents, our own secret inventions for waging war, our own air armament, and now our own armed vessels of war, fully provisioned and in every way equipped for immediate belligerent service. Opinions differ as to whether or not Congress authorized the last transaction, but Congressional approval would not change the international character of the act but only give relief from the violation of our own law. ¶

We have been the victims of a similar act upon the part of Great Britain. In 1863, the Confederates were fitting out at Birkenhead, opposite Liverpool, two iron-clads for use against Union commerce. Our Minister in London repeatedly called the situation to the attention of Earl Russell, who replied that the British Government "could not interfere in any way with these vessels." Mr. Adams, answering, expressed "profound regret" at this conclusion of the British Government, and added: "It would be superfluous in me to point out to your Lordship that this is war." The British Government then acted. ¶

As the result of other and many acts of the sort threatened here, we demanded arbitration as to whether or not Britain had violated her neutrality. Britain, be it said to her eternal credit (for our charges touched really her honor) consented. The result of the arbitration was the largest single award of damages in our favor ever rendered by any arbitral tribunal. ¶

Hostile Acts

Again there seems no doubt but that we now have made some kind of an alliance with one of the belligerents, Canada, that if her enemy shall attack her, we shall join in Canada's defense. Thus agreeing to give aid and succor to one of the belligerents against the other, if it is attacked by the other, and such attack is of course the normal course of war, is on our part a hostile, belligerent act against Canada's enemy. So we are at war also on that score. ¶

Finally, while the details are not known, we are said to have leased some naval or air bases from one of the belligerents without, it is assumed, consulting the other belligerent. These leases are probably in such form and made for such purposes as also constitute hostile acts, for it is inconceivable that Britain, following her centuries-old policies, would lease to any power any of her territory for military use and occupancy, except she was to receive military aid as the result. ¶

So we are at war. We should not be misled as to the nature of our acts, if and when Britain's enemy strikes back at us. In such event, should we be told that Britain's enemy commits against us an act of aggressive, inexcusable warfare, we should know that this will not be fact, for under the rules and principles of war we have already in effect declared war against that enemy. ¶

As already stated, I have said these things in the hope that it may assuage a little the hate that will be piling up if and when that act comes. A Latter-day Saint cannot hate anybody. The hates of the last war are the moving cause of this one. So it will be to the end, unless we shall conquer hate. This the Gospel helps us to do. ¶

Registration

Utah has an honorable record for its service and support of this nation in times of war. The people of the Church share in that record. The people of the Church are patriotic. In this time of preparation for eventualities which we all pray may not come to us, we people must do our full share. We shall confidently expect that no young man member of the Church, will seek to evade his full responsibility. We feel assured that every young man will do his full duty, and live the precepts that guide the Church and its membership "in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law." We ask our young men who go into training camps to remember always the teachings of their parents and of the Church; we ask them to keep themselves unsoiled, in body and mind; we ask them to remember that our faith requires that they be 'honest, true, chaste, benevolent, and to do good to all men,... and that if anything is virtuous, lovely, or of good report, or praiseworthy, they should seek after those things.' If they shall do all these things we promise them the blessings of the Lord. ¶

Famine and Plague

As has been already noted, both belligerents appear to have predicted famine for the other. One of the belligerents has, according to the press, predicted plague for the other. If this prediction means that the one making it intends to infect the other with plague, by some means or other, then it must be said that such infection would mark a degree of infamy and savagery for which the modern world holds no parallel, and against which all the instincts of humanity would cry out and all Christian principles adjudge condemnation. ¶

But war always brings plagues which seem to find their best breeding ¶

places in great groups of men brought together in armed camps. We may not confidently expect that plagues will not break out in Europe, nor that breaking out there, they will not appear amongst us. I have pointed this out before. ¶

Our hazard will probably be increased through our great training camps, which must also be manned by a great group of physicians, surgeons, and nurses that will be taken from their service to the whole people. ¶

We at home owe it as a duty to ourselves, to our country, and to humanity, to keep ourselves as free from contagion, as fully healthful, as possible. ¶

The Lord's Disease-Preventive Law

The Lord has told us how to do this. Many have not hearkened to His word, who would not deny its truth; others have not believed it was His word. But God will vindicate His commands, by blessing those who keep them, and by permitting the ordinary laws of nature to operate, uncontrolled, upon those who do not. ¶

President Grant has for half a century been preaching the Word of Wisdom to the people. If we had followed his counsel, we could now face the future fearlessly. If sickness and disease shall overtake us, we shall then remember. It is to be hoped that if disaster shall overtake any of us, we shall not be in such a situation that we must reproach ourselves for a failure to live the disease-preventive law of the Lord. ¶

How glorious are the blessings promised to those who do keep God's laws: ¶

And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones. ¶

And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures; ¶

And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint. ¶

And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them. (D. & C. 89:18-21) ¶

The Promise

This does not say and this does not mean, that to keep the Word of Wisdom is to insure us against death, for death is, in the eternal plan, co-equal with birth. This is the eternal decree. But it does mean that the destroying angel, he who comes to punish the unrighteous for their sins, as he in olden time afflicted the corrupt Egyptians in their wickedness, shall pass by the Saints, who are "walking in obedience to the commandments," and who "remember to keep and do these sayings." These promises do mean that all those who qualify themselves to enjoy them will be permitted so to live out their lives that they may gain the full experiences and get the full knowledge which they need in order to progress to the highest exaltation in eternity, all these will live until ¶

their work is finished and God calls them back to their eternal home, as a reward. ¶

These blessings will come to those who qualify as sure and certain as life itself. ¶

Whenever we are inclined to appraise the dealings of God with His children, we should remember that God's ways are not man's ways, and that behind what we see and understand, are the all-wise purposes of an All-wise God. ¶

May God bless us, preserve us, and help us to keep His commandments always, I ask in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. ¶

The congregation and Choir sang the hymn, "We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet." ¶