1. Deseret News (Salt Lake City), April 7, 1936; Albert E. Bowen, The Church Welfare Plan (Salt Lake City, 1946), p. 41.

2. Harold B. Lee, “Church Security: Retrospect, Introspect, Prospect,” Improvement Era (Salt Lake City), April 1937, p. 206.

3. Marc A. Rose, “The Mormons March off Relief,” Reader’s Digest, June 1937, pp. 43–44. See also “Tithes and Security,” Time, August 1, 1938, p. 26.

4. Martha Emery, “Mormon Security,” Nation, February 12, 1938, pp. 182–83.

5. Frank H. Jonas in Thomas C. Donnelly, ed., Rocky Mountain Politics (Albuquerque, 1900), p. 48.

6. Frank H. Jonas, Western Politics (Salt Lake City), p. 278.

7. Doctrine and Covenants, 104:15–16.

8. Leonard J. Arrington, “Early Mormon Communitarianism: The Law of Consecration and Stewardship,” Western Humanities Review 7 (Autumn 1953): 341–69.

9. Bowen, The Church Welfare Plan, p. 6, quoting the late President J. Reuben Clark Jr.

10. Doctrine and Covenants, 42:42.

11. Journal of Discourses (26 vols.; Liverpool, 1854–86), 11:297.

12. Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830–1900 (Cambridge, 1958), pp. 108–12, 154–55, 211–15.

13. Deseret News, September 20, 1876.

14. Ibid., September 10, 1936.

15. Ibid., August 7, 1931.

16. Ibid., September 4, 1933.

17. One Hundred Third Semi-annual Conference of the Church . . . , October 7, 8, 9, 1932 (Salt Lake City), pp. 16–17.

18. Ibid., p. 14.

19. Deseret News, September 2, 1933.

20. One Hundred Fourth Semi-annual Conference of the Church . . . , October 6, 7, 8, 1933 (Salt Lake City), p. 31–35.

21. Ibid., p. 102.

22. Ibid., p. 65.

23. Deseret News, January 4, 1935.

24. Ibid.

25. Ibid., January 7, 1935.

26. Ibid., February 6, 1935.

27. Ibid., October 23, 1935.

28. Ibid., April 10, 1936.

29. Ibid., August 22, 1936.

30. Ibid., June 1, 1937; Joseph L. Wirthlin, “Church Watches Temporal As Well As Spiritual Welfare,” Deseret News, Church Section, August 17, 1940, p. 1.

31. One Hundred Sixth Semi-annual Conference of the Church . . . , October 2, 3, 4, 1935 (Salt Lake City), p. 50.

32. Ibid.; Deseret News, September 23, 1936.

33. L.D.S. Church Welfare: Handbook of Instructions (Salt Lake City, 1944), pp. 60–62.

34. Deseret News, June 9, 1936.

35. One Hundred Seventh Semi-annual Conference of the Church . . . , October 2, 3, 4, 1936 (Salt Lake City), p. 84.

36. Deseret News, April 7, 1936.

37. Ibid., April 3, 1936.

38. Ibid., April 7, 1936.

39. Delbert L. Stapley, The Lord’s Plan (Salt Lake City, 1956), p. [7].

40. Helping Others to Help Themselves: The Story of the Mormon Church Welfare Program [Salt Lake City, 1941], p. 8.

41. Deseret News, September 2, 1935.

42. Deseret News, Church Section, September 2, 1933, p. 1.

43. John A. Widtsoe, “Agriculture and the Church Security Program,” Improvement Era, January 1938, p. 8.

44. Bowen, The Church Welfare Plan, p. 52; address of David O. McKay in One Hundred Seventh Semi-annual Conference . . . , October 2, 3, 4, 1936, p. 103.

45. J. Reuben Clark Jr., Church Welfare Plan: A Discussion, a talk given at Estes Park, Colorado, June 20, 1939 (Salt Lake City [1939]), p. 5 et passim.

46. “The Church Welfare Plan,” Improvement Era, June 1938, pp. 352–53.

47. One Hundred Seventh Semi-annual Conference . . . , October 2, 3, 4, 1936, p. 3.

48. Ibid.; also Deseret News, April 7, 1936.

49. What Is the “Mormon” Security Program? (Independence, Mo., [1938]), pp. 9–10.

50. L.D.S. Church Welfare: Handbook of Instructions, p. 62.

51. Deseret News, April 27, 1937.

52. Ibid., June 1, 1937.

53. Lee, “Church Security: Retrospect, Introspect, Prospect,” p. 206.

54. Deseret News, June 9, 1936.

55. One Hundred Sixth Annual Conference . . . , April 4, 5, 6, 1936 (Salt Lake City), p. 3.

56. One Hundred Seventh Annual Conference . . . , April 4, 5, 6, 1937, pp. 3–4; Bowen, The Church Welfare Plan, p. 34.

57. One Hundred Eighth Semi-annual Conference . . . , October 1, 2, 3, 1937 (Salt Lake City), pp. 45–46.

58. Clark, Church Welfare Plan: A Discussion, p. 19; Deseret News, April 22, 1937.

59. One Hundred Seventh Annual Conference . . . , April 4, 5, 6, 1937, p. 25.

60. Wirthlin, loc. cit.

61. President David O. McKay reported in 1937 that the First Presidency had received a letter which accused the church of launching its Security Program “merely for political reasons.” Replied President McKay: “There has never been a more false accusation. . . . Three years ago, yes, back as far as ten years ago, this plan was visioned.” Deseret News, Church Section, February 13, 1937, pp. 1, 7.

62. In an address to regional church officials in May 1936, Elder Melvin J. Ballard stated that the Church Security Program was originally designed as a stop-gap to help in the transfer of members from government relief, the appropriations for which would soon cease, to positions of permanency. The church, said Elder Ballard, was “deeply concerned to help the government, and we are not criticizing or fighting the government.” The objective of the church, he said, was to care adequately for those who were already on church relief, and to be in a position to care for those on government relief when the heavy appropriations for relief ceased. The church plan should be a blessing to the government, he added, for the latter is striving to find a practical way to stop its vast expenditures on relief. Deseret News, May 9, 1936.

Wayne K. Hinton

BYU Studies Publications