Equality – Sunday, June 29, 1952
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”1
This now immortal phrase subscribed to by the Founding Fathers in 1776 brings before us the question: What is the meaning of equality as applied to people? Does it mean that all men shall be alike? Does it mean that all men shall be arbitrarily propped up or pushed down to a common plane? Does it mean that men shall be arbitrarily restrained from using the full effectiveness of the gifts and talents and ability and capacity that the Lord God has given them—to preserve the semblance of a sameness? Does it mean that idleness and indolence shall be arbitrarily rewarded with that for which there is no willingness to work or no disposition to develop?
Surely there must be equality in the right to voice our views; equality in the right of worship and in the right to work; equality at the ballot box; equality before the law?—an equality not withheld from the humble, not denied the needy or the minority; but not the so-called kind of “equality” that would retard willing men to the pace of the unwilling; not the kind of equality that would arbitrarily impede progress or impoverish people to satisfy the demands of an unnatural formula.
No doubt all the trees in the forest fundamentally have equal rights and privileges. But they don’t all grow to the same height, and would it not seem foolish to cut the tall trees down to the height of the shorter ones? And would it not seem just as foolish to pull up the short trees to the height of the tall ones?
If we did, it would mean their uprooting, and there they would wither, as all things do unless they grow up themselves from their own roots. Whatever else it means, equality must mean opportunity for each man to reach for and to rise to those heights to which his energies and abilities and talents and willingness will take him—which is the essence of progress and productivity and of the blessed freedom which brings immeasurable benefits to all.
Equality which means less than this is not equality at all—but something that falls far short. *
1Declaration of Independence
*Revised
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station K S L and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 29, 1952, 11.00 to 11:30 a.m., Eastern Time. Copyright, 1952
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June 29, 1952
Broadcast Number 1,193