Topic: Welfare, Matches 35 quotes.

I want to impress upon the minds of the Latter-day Saints not to covet that which belongs to any public institution, or that which belongs to any city, or county, or the government of the United States. Unless I have been misinformed, many people have said, speaking of the distribution by the government of supplies to the people: “Well, others are getting some, why should not I get some of it.”

Source: President Heber J. Grant
General Conference, October 1933

Topics: Government, Wealth Transfer; Honesty; Welfare

Forty-five Years Ago And Now

I believe that there is a growing disposition among the people to try to get something from the government of the United States with little hope of ever paying it back. I think this is all wrong. I believe that there is not that same moral sense among the people today that there was forty-five years ago.

Source: President Heber J. Grant
General Conference, October 1933

Topics: Government, Wealth Transfer; Honesty; Responsibility; Welfare

Brother Grant referred, in his opening remarks, to relief from the government. I approach this subject with a great deal of feeling and strong conviction. The thought that we should get all we can from the government because everybody else is getting it, is unworthy of us as American citizens. It will debauch us. Judged by my standards it is wicked, and followed out it will destroy us. The government of the United States has not and can not supply the funds necessary to carry on relief work on that basis. We must be as careful with government funds as with our own or as with the Church’s. Patriotism, loyalty, decency, everything demands that such shall be our course.

Source: President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
General Conference, October 1933

Topics: Government, Wealth Transfer; Welfare

Lack of Political Honor

Much as I hesitate to reflect upon our government, I cannot refrain from calling attention to governmental practises which I am sure have contributed to the decline of private and public honor. The old saying that all is fair in love and war seems to be painfully applicable to politics as well. Since no campaign is in progress at the present time, one can speak without great hazard of being accused of partisan motives. False representations of persons and parties, innuendoes and half truths designed to besmirch character, and promises given with no intention of fulfilment, are all so common in our political procedure that our inclination is to suspect rather than to believe, and we seldom take a candidate, party or promise at face value. Sectionalism, trading for advantage and pork barrel legislation have degraded our politics to such an extent that real statesmanship is indeed at a premium. With hundreds of thousands of persons in the nation directly or indirectly feeding at the public crib, utilizing every available means at their disposal, either fair or foul which may escape the penalties of the law, for the retention of their positions, and with other hundreds of thousands seeking to displace them, not imbued in the main with any motives other than to put themselves in lucrative positions; will any one contend that such conditions have not tended to reduce materially the standards of public and private integrity throughout the country?

So long as public patronage continues to be the major item in public service, it cannot be otherwise. So long as we tolerate a system of political ethics which permits a man to brazenly announce his own candidacy and more brazenly still appeal and contrive for public support to win for himself an office as if it were a personal perquisite, so long as men call themselves instead of awaiting the call of country, we can scarcely hope for better days in the cause of common political honor.

Source: Elder Stephen L. Richards
General Conference, April 1933

Topics: Politics; Virtue; Welfare

Seeking Government Help

But to return to our point—that of seeking help from the government, whether it be a local or national government. This search, of course, takes many forms. That governments in times like these (and in certain cases at all times) ought to give the help needful to keep people from suffering for the necessities of life. I do not question at all but think it entirely proper. I said there are many raids upon public treasuries. Do you believe this? If so, what are you going to do about it? We cry “reduce expenditures, cut down taxes.” Yes, we are all in favor of doing these very things except when it appears that doing them will adversely affect us. Then we face about, “Do it to the other fellows but not to us,” seems to be our attitude. Many illustrations might be given but thee will not permit me to do it. You can all name them yourselves.

“Soak the rich” is a popular cry, appealing to the unthinking multitudes who seldom stop to analyze it from the standpoint of right and wrong and to reason out what the consequences of such a policy would be. I refer to this cry as another propaganda that a good citizen and certainly a Latter-day Saint should carefully examine before accepting or having anything to do with it.

Source: Elder Joseph F. Merrill
General Conference, October 1932

Topics: Government, Spending; Welfare

I return without my approval House Bill No. 10203, entitled “An Act to enable the Commissioner of Agriculture to make a special distribution of seed in the drought-stricken counties of Texas, and making an appropriation (of $10,000) therefor.”

I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit. A prevalent tendency to disregard the limited mission of this power and duty should, I think, be steadfastly resisted, to the end that the lesson should be constantly enforced that though the people support the Government, the Government should not support the people . . . .

Source: President Cleveland’s message to the Congress, dated February 16, 1887.

Topics: Government, Wealth Transfer; Welfare

As we watch our government hopelessly grapple with the mighty problems of the day, perhaps we should take a look at the way the Lord would handle the problems of our day. The world in general works on the effects and results of the problem while the Lord zeroes in on the root and the causes. The Lord advocates preventive measures, while man attacks the problems after they have arisen. Man's answer to crime is better law enforcement, bigger and better locks on doors, bigger and better prisons, bigger and better rehabilitation and bigger and better arms and weapons. But the Lord's answer is to love your neighbor as yourself and do good to others as you would have them do to you.

Man's answer to poverty is public welfare through food stamps, loans, guaranteed income, publicly financed housing, and other things. The Lord's answer is to teach self-reliance, to help people help themselves. Man's answer to the problem of immorality is birth control pills, homes for unwed mothers, venereal disease clinics, sex education, and divorce counselors. The Lord's answer is to teach the virtues of chastity, love, and purity. The Lord's approach to problems and his approach to resolving them probably would not make headlines or the six o'clock news; but nevertheless, his approach would solve our nation's problems as well as the world's problems and it would revolutionize our world.

Source: Elder George P. Lee
General Conference, October 1980

Topics: Welfare

What is the real cause of this trend toward the welfare state, toward more socialism? In the last analysis, in my judgment, it is personal unrighteousness. When people do not use their freedoms responsibly and righteously, they will gradually lose these freedoms. . . .

If man will not recognize the inequalities around him and voluntarily, through the gospel plan, come to the aid of his brother, he will find that through “a democratic process” he will be forced to come to the aid of his brother. The government will take from the “haves” and give to the “have nots.” Both have last their freedom. Those who “have,” lost their freedom to give voluntarily of their own free will and in the way they desire. Those who “have not,” lost their freedom because they did not earn what they received. They got “something for nothing,” and they will neither appreciate the gift nor the giver of the gift.

Under this climate, people gradually become blind to what has happened and to the vital freedoms which they have lost.”

Source: Howard W. Hunter
“The Law of the Harvest.”
Speeches of the Year, 1965-1966, pp. 1-11, Devotional Address, Brigham Young University, 8 March 1966.

Topics: Government, Wealth Transfer; Righteousness; Socialism; Welfare

It seems that wherever the Welfare State is involved, the moral precept, "Thou shalt not steal," becomes altered to say: "Thou shalt not steal, except for what thou deemest to be a worthy cause, where thou thinkest that thou canst use the loot for a better purpose than wouldst the victim of the theft."

And the precept about covetousness, under the administration of the Welfare State, seems to become: "Thou shalt not covet, except what thou wouldst have from thy neighbor who owns it."

Both of these alterations of the Decalogue result in complete abrogation of the two moral admonitions — theft and covetousness — which deal directly with economic matters. Not even the motto, "In God we trust," stamped by the government on money taken by force in violation of the Decalogue to pay for the various programs of the Welfare State, can transform this immoral act into a moral one.

Source: F. A. Harper
Morals and the Welfare State

Topics: Welfare

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