During the 1930s an imported, alien philosophy, hitherto foreign to American institutions and practices, gained ascendancy in the United States. It was adopted by the nation and most of the state governments. Laws were and still are being passed putting it into practice. Under the new order - new to American government only, for actually it is as old as history and has been tried in practically every nation as a prelude to its decay or destruction - the relative positions of the people and the state are to be reversed. The traditional American concept that the people are to support the state has all but been supplanted with the concept that the state is to guarantee the support of the people. The great amount of unemployment and the heavy relief burdens of the early '30s have been urged as the necessity and justification for the actions taken. Until they were fastened upon is, they were represented to be temporary measures to meet an emergency. Such representations have now, of course, been repudiated. The emergency is to have no end.

The measures adopted have no doubt supplied the necessities of life to hundreds of thousands of needy persons, but at a staggering cost in money and at great sacrifice of fundamental human virtues. These measures have induced practices which run counter to the basic principles and doctrines of the Church.


Marion G. Romney, Marion G. Romney: His Life and Faith by F. Burton Howard. Bookcraft. Salt Lake City. 1988. p.120 Originally in the Statement as to the operation of the Welfare Plan of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, August 1946.