The following is the talk J. Reuben Clark delivered during 3 October 1942, at General Conference.
President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
First Counselor in the First Presidency
Brethren:
I have been trying
for a week to relieve you of this experience, but Brother McKay, so kind, so
sweet, and so merciful, has been perfectly adamant. So I stand before you here,
not to preach, but to counsel with you.
There is a great deal
of misapprehension among our people regarding the United Order.
I have not been able
to believe that the United Order meant what some people have thought it meant,
so within the last months I have spent quite a little time reading the
revelations thereon, also reading our history, and at the same time giving some
consideration to a dissertation which has been written regarding the Order.
There is a growing--I
fear it is growing--sentiment that communism and the United Order are virtually
the same thing, communism being merely the forerunner, so to speak, of a
reestablishment of the United Order. I am informed that ex-bishops, and indeed,
bishops, who belong to communistic organizations, are preaching this doctrine.
So I thought that perhaps if I said just a few words to you tonight regarding
the way I interpret the revelations that are printed about this in the D&C
(if there are other revelations about the Order, I do not know of them), I
thought if I said something about it, it might be helpful. I recommend that
you, my brethren, read a few of the Sections of the D&C which cover this
matter, beginning with Sections 42 and 51. ( See also Sections 70, 78, 82, 83,
85, 90, 92, 96, and 104.) If you will go over these sections, I feel sure that
you will find that my explanation of the United Order will be substantially
accurate.
EARLY DEVIATIONS
I may say to begin
with, that in practice the brethren in Missouri got away, in their attempts to
set up the United Order, from the principles set out in the revelations. This
is also true of the organizations set up here in Utah after the Saints came to
the Valleys. So far as I have seen there has been preserved only one document
that purports to be a legal instrument used in connection with the setting up
of the United Order, and that document is without date. It is said to have been
found among the papers of Bishop Partridge. It was a "lease-lend"
document. You may have heard that phrase before. Under this instrument the
Church leased to Titus Billings a certain amount of real estate and loaned him
a certain amount of personal property.1
This instrument is
not in accordance with the principle laid down in the revelations touching upon
the United Order.
The basic principle
of all the revelations on the United Order is that everything we have belongs
to the Lord; therefore, the Lord may call upon us for any and all of the
property which we have, because it belongs to Him. This, I repeat, is the basic
principle. (D. &. C. 104: 14-17, 54-57)
One of the places in
which some of the brethren are going astray is this: There is continuous
reference in the revelations to equality among the brethren, but I think you
will find only one place where that equality is really described, though it is
referred to in other revelations. That revelation (D. & C. 51:3) affirms
that every man is to be "equal according to his family, according to his
circumstances and his wants and needs." ( See also D. & C. 82: 17; 78:
5-6. ) Obviously, this is not a case of "dead level" equality. It is
"equality" that will vary as much as the man's circumstances, his
family, his wants and needs, may vary.
CONSECRATION
In the next place,
under the United Order every man was called to consecrate to the Church all of
the property which he had; the real estate was to be conveyed to the Church, as
I understand the revelations, by what we would call a deed in fee simple. Thus
the man's property became absolutely the property of the Church. (D. & C.
42:30; 72:15) Then the bishop deeded back to the donor by the same kind of
deed, that is, in fee simple, and also transferred to him by an equivalent
instrument, so far as personal property was concerned, that amount of real and
personal property, which, the two being taken together, would be required by
the individual for the support of himself and his family "according to his
family, according to his circumstances and his wants and needs." This the
man held as his own property. (D. & C. 42:32; 51:4-6; 83:3
In other words, basic
to the United Order was the private ownership of property, every man had his
own property from which he might secure that which was necessary for the
support of himself and his family. There is nothing in the revelations that
would indicate that this property was not freely alienable at the will of the
owner. It was not contemplated that the Church should own everything or that we
should become in the Church, with reference to our property and otherwise, the
same kind of automaton, manikin, that communism makes out of the individual,
with the State standing at the head in place of the Church.
Now, that part of a
man's property which was not turned back to him, if he had more than was needed
under this rule of "equality" already stated, became the common
property of the Church, and that common property was used for the support of
the poor of the Church. It is spoken of in the revelations as the
"residue" of property. ( D. & C. 42:34-36)
LAND PORTIONS
Furthermore, it was
intended, though apparently it did not work out very well, that the poor coming
into Zion, and by Zion I mean, here, Missouri--the poor coming into Zion were
to have given to them a "portion" of land, which land was to be
either purchased from the Government (and it was planned to purchase large
areas from the Government), or purchased from individuals, or received as
consecrations from members of the Church. The amount of this
"portion" was to be such as would make him equal to others according
to his circumstances, his family, his wants and needs.
The land which you
received from the bishop by deed, whether it was part of the land which you,
yourself, had deeded to the Church, or whether it came as an out-right gift
from the Church as just indicated, and the personal property which you
received, were all together sometimes called a "portion" (D. & C.
51:4-6), sometimes a "stewardship" ( D. & C. 104:11-12), and
sometimes an "inheritance." ( D. & C. 83: 3 )
As just indicated,
there were other kinds of inheritances and stewardships than land or mere
personal property; for example, the Prophet and others had a stewardship given
to them which consisted of the revelations and commandments (D. & C. 70:1-4
); others had given to them a stewardship involving the printing house (D.
& C. 104:29-30); another stewardship was a mercantile establishment. (D.
& C. 104:39-42)
SURPLUS
I repeat that
whatever a steward realized from the portion allotted to him over and above
that which was necessary in order to keep his family under the standard
provided, as already stated above, was turned over by the steward to the
bishop, and this amount of surplus, plus the residues to which I have already
referred, went into a bishop's storehouse (D. & C. 51: 13 and citations
above), and the materials of the storehouse were to be used in creating
portions, as above indicated, for caring for the poor (D. & C. 78:3), the
widows and orphans ( D. & C. 83: 6), and for the elders of the Church
engaged in the ministry, who were to pay for what they received if they could,
but if not, their faithful labors should answer their debt to the bishop. (D.
& C. 72:11 ff)
OTHER INSTITUTIONS
Now, as time went on
and the system developed, the Lord created two other institutions besides the
storehouse: one was known as the Sacred Treasury, into which was put "the
avails of the sacred things in the treasury, for sacred and holy
purposes." While it is not clear, it would seem that into this treasury
were to be put the surpluses which were derived from the publication of the
revelations, the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, and other similar
things, the stewardship of which had been given to Joseph and others. (D. &
C. 104:60-66) The Lord also provided for the creation of "Another
Treasury," and into that other treasury went the general revenues which
came to the Church, such as gifts of money and those revenues derived from the
improvement of stewardships as distinguished from the residues of the original
consecrations and the surpluses which came from the operation of their
stewardships. (D. & C. 72:11 ff)
The foregoing is the
general outline as it is gathered from the revelations of the law of the United
Order which the Lord spoke of as "my law." (D. & C. 44:6; 51:15)
There are passages in the revelations which, taken from their context and
without having in mind the whole system, might be considered as inconsistent
with some of the things which I have set out, but all such passages fall into
line if the whole program is looked at as contained in all of the revelations.
PRIVATE OWNERSHIP
FUNDAMENTAL
The fundamental
principle of this system was the private ownership of property. Each man owned
his portion, or inheritance, or stewardship, with an absolute title, which he
could alienate, or hypothecate, or otherwise treat as his own. The Church did
not own all of the property, and the life under the United Order was not a
communal life, as the Prophet Joseph, himself said, (History of the Church,
Volume III, p. 28). The United Order is an individualistic system, not a
communal system.
THE WELFARE PLAN AND
THE UNITED ORDER
We have all said that
the Welfare Plan is not the United Order and was not intended to be. However, I
should like to suggest to you that perhaps, after all, when the Welfare Plan
gets thoroughly into operation--it is not so yet--we shall not be so very far
from carrying out the great fundamentals of the United Order.
In the first place I
repeat again, the United Order recognized and was built upon the principle of
private ownership of property; all that a man had and lived upon under the
United Order, was his own. Quite obviously, the fundamental principle of our
system today is the ownership of private property.
In the next place, in
lieu of residues and surpluses which were accumulated and built up under the,
United Order, we, today, have our fast offerings, our Welfare donations, and
our tithing, all of which may be devoted to the care of the poor, as well as
for the carrying on of the activities and business of the Church. After all,
the United Order was primarily designed to build up a system under which there
should be no abjectly poor, and this is the purpose, also, of the Welfare Plan.
In this connection it
should be observed that it is clear from these earlier revelations, as well as
from our history, that the Lord had very early to tell the people about the
wickedness of idleness, and the wickedness of greed, because the brethren who
had were not giving properly, and those who had not were evidently intending to
live without work on the things which were to be received from those who had
property. (D. & C. 56:16-20)
STOREHOUSES AND
PROJECTS
Furthermore, we had
under the United Order a bishop's storehouse in which were collected the
materials from which to supply the needs and the wants of the poor. We have a
bishop's storehouse under the Welfare Plan, used for the same purpose.
As I have already
indicated, the surplus properties which came to the Church under the Law of
Consecration, under the United Order, became the "common property" of
the Church (D. & C. 82: 18 ) and were handled under the United Order for
the benefit of the poor. We have now under the Welfare Plan all over the
Church, ward land projects. In some cases the lands are owned by the wards, in
others they are leased by the wards or lent to them by private individuals.
This land is being farmed for the benefit of the poor, by the poor where you
can get the poor to work it.
We have in place of
the two treasuries, the "Sacred Treasury" and "Another
Treasury," the general funds of the Church.
Thus you will see,
brethren, that in many of its great essentials, we have, as the Welfare Plan
has now developed, the broad essentials of the United Order. Furthermore,
having in mind the assistance which is being given from time to time and in
various wards to help set people up in business or in farming, we have a plan
which is not essentially unlike that which was in the United Order when the
poor were given portions from the common fund.
Now, brethren, the
Church has made tremendous advances in the Welfare Plan. We shall have to make
still greater advances. As the Message of the First Presidency said this
morning, we are being told by Government officials that we face what we used to
call "hard times." If the Welfare Plan is fully operative, we shall
be able to care for every destitute Latter-day Saint wherever he may be.
THE CONSTITUTION
Now, I would like to
say something else, brethren, again by way of counsel I shall be accused, when
I do, of talking politics, and perhaps on this point I may say I do not read
anonymous letters. When they come in I just throw them into the wastebasket. I
only read enough of the signed scurrilous letters that are sent to know that
they are scurrilous, and then they follow along. So it is useless for anyone to
try to take out any personal feeling in that way.
You and I have heard
all our lives that the time may come when the Constitution may hang by a
thread. I do not know whether it is a thread, or a small rope by which it now
hangs, but I do know that whether it shall live or die is now in the balance.
I have said to you
before, brethren, that to me the Constitution is a part of my religion. In its
place it is just as much a part of my religion as any other part. It is a part
of my religion because it is one of those institutions which God has set up for
His own purposes, and, as one of the brethren said today, set up so that this
Church might be established, because under no other government in the world
could the Church have been established as it has been established under this
Government.
I think I would be
sale in saying that my fellowship with you in the Church depends upon whether
or not I accept the revelations and the principles which God has revealed. If I
am not willing to do that, then I am not entitled to fellowship. Anyone else
who fails to accept the revelations and the principles which God has revealed
stands in precisely the same situation.
In the 101st Section
of the D&C, which contains a revelation received by the Prophet in 1833,
when the persecution in Missouri was at its highest, the Lord told the brethren
that they should appeal for help. Then He added these verses, which I want to
read to you:
According to the laws
and constitution of the people, which I have suffered to be established, and
should be maintained for the fights and protection of all flesh, according to
just and holy principles;
That every man may
act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral
agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his
own sins in the day of judgment.
Therefore, it is not
right that any man should be in bondage one to another.
And for this purpose
have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom
I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of
blood. (D. & C. 101:77-80)
INFLUENCE IN THE
AMERICAS
I suppose you
brethren will all know, but I will recall it to your attention, that the
Constitution of the United States is the basic law for all of the Americas, or
Zion, as it has been defined by the Lord.
You brethren from
Canada know that, your great British North America Act, in its fundamental
principles, is based upon our Constitution, and you know that in the courts of
Canada, the reports of our Supreme Court, and our Federal courts generally, are
just as persuasive as the decisions of the courts of England, and even more so,
where questions of constitutional law and constitutional interpretation are
involved.
You brethren also
know that from the Rio Grande down to the Horn there is no constitutional
government except those that are rounded primarily upon our own Constitution.
In Mexico the revolutionary party which more than a century and a quarter ago
rebelled against the king of Spain and established a republic, copied almost
verbatim, and practically overnight, our Constitution, and made it their own.
Neither Mexico nor the others to the South interpret their Constitutions as we
interpret ours. They have different standards and different canons of
interpretation, for their fundamental system is the civil law, while ours is
the common law. But the great essentials of that document, the Constitution of
the United States, which God Himself inspired, is the law of Zion, the
Americas.
THE LAW OF ZION
So, brethren, I wish
you to understand that when we begin to tamper with the Constitution we begin
to tamper with the law of Zion which God Himself set up, and no one may trifle
with the word of God with impunity.
Now, I am not caring
today, for myself, anything at all about a political party tag. So far as I am
concerned, I want to know what the man stands for. I want to know if he
believes in the Constitution; if he believes in its free institutions; if he believes
in its liberties, its freedom. I want to know if he believes in the Bill of
Rights. I want to know if he believes in the separation of sovereign power into
the three great divisions: the Legislative, the Judicial, the Executive. I want
to know if he believes in the mutual independence of these, the one from the
other. When I find out these things, then I know who it is who should receive
my support, and I care not what his party tag is, because, brethren, if we are
to live as a Church, and progress, and have the right to worship as we are
worshipping here today, we must have the great guarantees that are set up by
our Constitution. There is no other way in which we can secure these
guarantees. You may look at the systems all over the world where the principles
of our Constitution are not controlling and in force, and you will find there
dictatorship, tyranny, oppression, and, in the last analysts, slavery.
ALLEGIANCE
I have said enough. I
believe you understand what I have said. Today, our duty transcends party
allegiance; our duty today is allegiance to the Constitution as it was given to
us by the Lord. Every federal officer takes an oath to support that
Constitution so given. The difference between us and some of those to the South
of us is this: down there, their fealty runs to individuals; here, our fealty
and our allegiance run to the Constitution and to the principles which it
embodies, and not to individuals.
God give us wisdom
and enable us in these times of trouble and strife clearly to see our way, that
we may be instrumental in sustaining the Constitution, in upholding our free
institutions, our civil rights, our freedom of speech, of press, of religion,
and of conscience. If we shall stand together we shall save the Constitution,
just as has been foreseen, and if we do not stand together, we cannot perform
this great task.
God grant that we may
be true, I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. (Conference Report, October
1942, pp. 54-59)