The two prime objections to co-operative methods, state socialism and communism are, first, that by taking the proceeds of individual industry, talent or transcendent financial abilities and applying them to the common good rather than to individual aggrandizement, one of the chief incentives to earnest endeavor is stricken down; and second, by creating an assurance in the minds of individuals that their wants will be provided for out of a common fund and that necessity cannot overtake them, the other chief incentive to industry is swept aside. In other words it is held that ambition and the fear of coming to want are the chief incentives to human activity. Remove these incentives to action, it is contended, and you have, of course, a listless, idle and hence non-progressive community, that all too soon from want of motive principle would come to poverty, ignorance and at last to dissolution. These are held to be the vices of the schemes of socialists and communists, so far as the industrial phase of their plans is concerned, and I anticipate that the same objections will be urged to the plan for the temporal salvation of mankind revealed through Joseph Smith. Volumes have been written upon the unworthiness of a desire for personal aggrandizement, and man's necessities being regarded as the chief incentives to human activity; and it is not my purpose to add anything to the mass of matter that exists on that subject. Indeed, taking average humanity as it is, rather than what idealists would have it or believe it to be, and I am rather of the opinion that the objection urged against socialism and communism in regard to the industrial phase of these schemes is a good one; and that however unworthy the gratification of personal ambition and the fear of want may be as incentives to industry, they are, nevertheless, the prime incentives to action; and if removed, there is grave reason to fear that what the objectors to community of effort and of interests predict, would come to pass. My point is that this objection can be of no force against a system in which individualism is not stricken down. A man's success in the management of his stewardship in the plan revealed through Joseph Smith, depends upon his individual effort; and though the system requires the consecration, from time to time, of the surplus arising from the management of the stewardships, it is also provided that the stewards shall have claim upon the general fund for whatever means they may require to improve or enlarge their stewardships. But the chances of obtaining means to make such improvement or enlargement depends upon the capabilities the individual has developed, in the management of that already committed to his care; hence his advancement, his growth and standing in the community, together with the comfort, convenience and beauty of his surroundings depend primarily upon his individual exertion.