Welfare Principles

In 1929 the United States experienced huge financial losses when the stock market crashed. By 1932 unemployment in Utah had reached 35.8 percent.

Though the Church had welfare principles in place, including a system of storehouses and programs to help members find work, many members were turning to government relief.

"I believe that there is a growing disposition among the people to try to get something from the government of the United States with little hope of ever paying it back," President Heber J. Grant (1856–1945) commented during this time.2

Church leaders wanted to help struggling members without promoting idleness and a sense of entitlement. The goal was to help people help themselves become independent.

In 1933 the First Presidency announced: "Our able-bodied members must not, except as a last resort, be put under the embarrassment of accepting something for nothing. … Church officials administering relief must devise ways and means by which all able-bodied Church members who are in need, may make compensation for aid given them by rendering some sort of service."3

With the principles in place and the faith of the Saints in play, individual Church units as well as the Church at large went to work organizing classes on sewing and canning, coordinating work projects, acquiring farms, and emphasizing righteous, thrifty, and independent living.