[J. Reuben Clark]
Mrs. Carr Hovey called President Clark from Logan.
Mrs. Hovey: I am a farmer's wife and I have been praying for a answer. What is the Church's stand with regards to the actions of Secretary Benson?
Pres. Clark: We don't have a stand. He is there as a civil official, not as a Church official.
Mrs. Hovey: Yes, but he is still an Apostle.
Pres. Clark: That is perfectly true, but he is there as a civil officer.
Mrs. Hovey: Can they dissociate the two?
Pres. Clark: That is for you to determine. So far as the Secretary [of Agriculture] is concerned, that is entirely personal with him as a civil officer of the Government of the United States.
Mrs. Hovey: They said our faith would be tested and it certainly is being.
Pres. Clark: Well, you know there are a lot of people who do not agree with him.
Mrs. Hovey: I am one of them. I know that in Cache Valley this dairy price cut is going to cost the farmers a million dollars this year.
Pres. Clark: Is that so?
Mrs. Hovey: It is money that we haven't got. We are farming in Magic Valley; the big syndicates are buying up the small farmers. With price supports as they are, we can't make a go of it ... My grandparents were pioneers and farmers ...
Pres. Clark: So were mine. I am old enough to know a good deal of pioneering. I have said in public, two or three years ago, that the small farmer should have some help or he is on his way out, but I am telling you that Secretary Benson acts for himself and of course the Administration. I am sure he acts as he thinks best. I am sure he is honest and a man of integrity and whatever one'however one may differ from him it is not because he is not a man of integrity and honesty but because you do not agree with his policy ... Don't you know that Church authorities do not always agree on Church doctrines?
Mrs. Hovey: That only proves that we are human.
Pres. Clark: Does not this only prove that? I think that is the wisest way to think of it.
Mrs. Hovey: Thank you very kindly.
[The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition, Salt Lake City, Utah 2015]
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