Labor Quotes
The war in Europe had ended in victory and the British people were looking for a better standard of living after their wartime privation. Churchill represented the class system, the Empire, and bellicose leadership and didn’t temper his approach to the peace that he had won. He made this blunder and associated the Labor Party and their social welfare state with a coming Gestapo—the name of the Nazi secret police. It was all over the top and the Conservative Party was trounced at the polls. He would be elected Prime Minister a decade later.
The issue of women working or homemaking has been in controversy for the last century. This quotation illustrates the classic view that was held not only by Mormons but other denominations and even some secular advocates of the importance of a full time homemaker for the upbringing of children. Nonetheless, the economic pressure, together with changing notions of gender equality, have a larger and larger proportion of women working outside the home. Historically, this has been more common in poorer families but currently is common in middle and upper class families.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910
Mormons in later years found this principle difficult to enforce where there was unemployment and workers were idle through no fault of their own. The local Mormon churches were very active in encouraging wealthier Mormons to hire those who were unemployed.
Fortunately for America, Jefferson did not get his wish. Jefferson did mellow on this point as he got older. See {606440} for a related quotation 27 years later.
This view that the more people a country has, the richer it is, has gone hand in hand with the notion that a large population will assure a nation of extensive military prowess. However, both of these are now known to be false. The most heavily populated nations are among the poorest, and military prowess is more a function of the training of troops and the modern tools and weapons. Tiny Israel has demonstrated that many times since its origin. It has been attacked over and over by several nations at a time. Despite the fact that Israel was vastly outnumbered by enemy troops and weapons like tanks and planes, Israel has repeatedly demolished the more populous enemies. The world, observing this, no longer emphasizes trying to build a large manpower pool as it does not help militarily and it makes full employment very difficult.
