The United Order. The Latter-day Saints are looking forward to
the day when a more perfect economic system than the one now prevailing will
cover the earth. This hoped-for system is known ordinarily as the United Order.
The procedure of organization and operation of this order is simple. A group of
people organize themselves as a unit of the United Order, which may or may not
be a unit of Church organization. The necessary officers are selected which may
nor may not be the usual Church officers, though United Order units must be organized
as parts of the Church and under general Church discipline. Then, all members place
all their resources in the common treasury. Next, from out this common treasury
each family or individual is provided with whatever he needs for the successful
promotion of his trade or profession, and he is supposed to go on independently
in pursuit of his chosen life’s work. Thus initiative and freedom of action are
preserved. Those who by their efforts make more than is necessary for the support
and comfort of themselves and their families are expected to place their
surplus in the common fund to be used for the benefit of those who have not
been successful in providing for their necessities. The one condition of
membership is that every person must work. The United Order combines the good
phases of community action; and avoids practices that have been found to be obnoxious
or actually dangerous.
The Church has attempted the United
Order three times—in Ohio, Missouri and Utah. The early experiments, while they
promised well, were defeated by human selfishness and abandoned because of the persecution
to which the Church was subjected. In Utah the experiment was more successful.
Some of the units became in fact very prosperous, but in view of the fact that
the surrounding system of a different order was in full flower, it seemed wise
to discontinue the units until such time as conditions are more favorable.
Since the time is not ripe for another experiment, the principle of tithing
remains as the economic law of the Church. The United Order is far from
communism, since it allows full personal initiative as well as cooperative action.
The United Order can come only when
the people are prepared to practice it, and then will come through authorization
of the chosen president of the Church. (John A. Widtsoe, Program of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [Salt Lake City: The Deseret
News Press, 1937], 98-100)
Further
Reading:
Resources
on Joseph Smith’s Prophecies