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Presented are transcripts of radio broadcasts by R.L.D.S. President Frederick M. Smith in 1938 on pertinent topics that continue to be of considerable interest in this 21st century.
I. The Predicament of the Modern World Religion is more than a mere theory, or the philosophy of the mystical. It has and should have a practical application. It should furnish a basis on which the maladjustments of society might find a rectification. Among Latter Day Saints is firmly fixed the earnest belief that the Christian religion was intended by its Author to have social application toward betterment of human conditions, and that present social ills are the result of departures from such religion, or failure to apply it. I cannot but believe that much of our present economic and industrial confusion is due to departure from Deity and a refusal to let the principles of the Christian religion function in determining social relationships. We have lost sight of our brother and our neighbor and their needs, or in our selfishness have reused to do what lies in our power to supply those needs. In thus trying to set out the social ideals of what I believe to be the Christian religion, it is apparent that the subject in its various ramifications will enter into almost every channel of human endeavor and thought, touching individuals, groups, communities, and states. I believe firmly that the Christian religion is broad enough in its scope to touch all human activities as a molding or determining factor. The Goal of Divinity Latter Day Saints believe that in the process of creation of the universe, its establishment in all its beauty of symphony, form, and order, there has been from the beginning and will be to the end, a divine purpose. It follows that there must be a definite goal toward which Divinity is directing all the movements of the universe—a great, wondrous (and to man, because of his finite limitations), incomprehensible consummation. Limited in our comprehension and analysis largely to mundane affairs, we dare not even attempt to seize the idea of the universal goal as it exists in the mind of God, but we do know from the prayer that Jesus taught us that we are here to look forward to, and to work for as well as pray for, the time to come when the “kingdom of God” shall come among men, a time when God’s will shall be done here, as well as in his celestial abode. Can this mean anything or any condition which leaves out of consideration the social factors? I take it for granted that the people to whom I am addressing myself are predominately Christian, for we are in the midst of a nation which calls itself Christian and claims an abiding trust in God. As such we are believers in the Bible as “the rule and guide of our faith and practice.” It is therefore logical that we shall look to the Bible for some rule and guide as to our conduct toward our fellow-men, having in view the discovery of the social plan of Divinity as revealed in his dealings with his people. A Need of Principles That there is need for people to agree upon some principles calculated to improve conditions is scarcely to be gainsaid. Confusion exists everywhere. Statesmen are bewildered. weak nations have been temporarily steadied by ruthless dictators who seized the reins of government and turned the thoughts of the masses into self-serving channels, unconcerned about other nations only as they might be forced or cajoled to serve the ends of the dictator. Democracies have trembled on the abyss of dissolution or transformation into autocracies. Class distinctions are aggravated by agitators. The social fabric is shot through with distrust, doubt, and suspicion, until every man, because of the uncertainly of things, is prone to say, “I’ll get what I can for me and mine in whatever way I can, and let other men look out for themselves.” It is laissez faire in a new form, and has gone berserk. The world itself is war weary, and yet is not permitted to rest, for war madness seems to have been poured out upon the nations. In the second decade of this century a carnage swept the world in an effort calculated to make the world safe for democracy, and millions of the physically best men of all nations engaged in the conflict were sacrificed. But war has not ceased. Democracies totter and international laws and peace movements have been torn to tatters. Treaties are mocked and nations are distrustful of each other. A terrible tension of watchful waiting exists, while munitions of war are manufactured apace, navies are fortified, armies strengthened, and death-dealing instruments grow to greater effectiveness. General war is momentarily feared in addition to those wars already existing, but where the spark will fall into the powder-train no one is able to guess. The world is war weary, but national hatreds, distrusts, and suspicions will not permit it to rest. Within the nations themselves conditions are but little if any better. National solidarity no longer exists as it did years ago. Class distinctions are being unfortunately emphasized by forces impelled by the desire to create class hatreds. Groups of people or persons bound by some common interests band together to impress their will upon others. Some eighteen years ago, in a public address I used the following language. The laboring class is striving hard to improve its condition. The laborer has become toil weary. He has worked at his machine, he has worked at his trade for the purpose of gathering wages, that he might aggrandize his interests, ameliorate his own condition. He is not only toil weary under the conditions that exist today, but added to the weariness of body is an awful state we call home-sickness, and the home-sickness of the masses of the laboring people today is intensified because of the hopelessness that exists in many instances of their ever having that which they can really call their own homes. Add to the weariness of toil the heart-weariness of home-sickness and you can appreciate the depression the laboring man is fast getting into today and the significance of what it means to society, because it is arousing a bitterness within the hearts of the masses of the laboring people that is bound to find its expression sooner or later, even though it might find it in destructive ways for the time being. The world is not only war weary, but it is toil weary, and masses are weary because they have added to the discomfort of aching muscles the heaviness of heart that comes from the knowledge that they are also homeless. The favored classes, therefore, find that the laboring man is forming bands and unions and the organizations of labor are becoming more powerful, and there is growing up within the organizations of labor a spirit of domination, a spirit of determination to have their own way and to alleviate their condition, that makes it inevitable that the crash will come sooner or later. The favored class is still trying to maintain its position of advantage. That was said nearly twenty years ago. What can be said now? Briefly, labor and capital are bitterly arrayed as opponents, and each is striving to get governmental support for his contentions. The battle for higher wages and fewer hours goes on between the contending organizations, with little regard for the consuming public. Bitterness, strife, envy, and ill will grow apace. The Role of the Church What is the Church doing about it? What can the Church do? Should the Church try to develop the answers? As indicated in what I have said in the foregoing, I shall consult the “rule and guide of our faith and practice” in searching for the answers. In the unfoldment of God’s plan as revealed in the record of his dealings with his people, the course has not run smoothly in its development toward better things, for man with his agency has not infrequently forgotten God. And when God is forgotten man retrogrades. According to Genesis, Adam and Eve were placed under conditions where every need would have been supplied by a bounteous and beneficent Nature with little or no effort on their part. But they yielded to the impulsions of selfishness and through temptation fell, and upon them was placed the onus of labor. In the sweat of his face must man eat his bread, for through disobedience the ground was cursed. The ground thenceforth required labor to cause it to do its best. Labor itself is a blessing rather than a curse, for surely no more undesirable condition could be had than enforced idleness. Anyway, after Eden man must labor to live. The children of Adam and Eve were taught not only that they must labor, but that their first devotion was to Deity. They toiled. Cain was a tiller of the soil, and Abel was a keeper of sheep. Agronomy and animal husbandry were the first specializations of the great industry of agriculture. But for some reason Cain’s offerings of his fruit of the soil were not as acceptable to the Lord as were the offerings of Abel from the firstlings of his flocks. “And the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering but unto Cain, and to his offering, he had not respect and Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.”—Gen 4:4,5 Our Basic Responsibility So, very soon after the placement of the human family in the Garden of Eden, we see the beginnings of the vicious play of the unsocial against the social, the fight of self-interest against altruism. A handmaiden of self-serving interests is jealousy, and jealousy and envy as expressions of selfishness lie close to the roots of all crime. Abel as a steward anxious to improve upon that intrusted to his care, with frugality and assiduity, prospered. Cain became jealous, and, driven by this unwholesome passion beyond the bounds of reasonable control, killed Abel. The inevitable day of accounting for all crime followed in this case. And in response to the thunderous query from Deity, “Where is Abel, thy brother?” Cain attempted to take shelter under the subterfuge, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” And ever since then, that question has been on the lips of those who would promote their own interests at the expense of the welfare of their fellow-men, or who are disposed to follow their own inclinations without regard to the effects of their own activities upon others. A belief that that question should have a negative answer is what keeps Wall Street alive and keeps sharp the tearing teeth of competition. But the conviction is slowly, perhaps, but yet surely, spreading that Cain’s question is a lame excuse for those who would escape the responsibility for social welfare.
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