Faced with unrematting federal pressures towards conformity, Young's successors were content to retreat from advocating an active communal life and to nourish the substance of communalism that would remain central to Mormonism. Southern Utah leader Erastus Snow advised those who regretted the demise of the Order to, "Murmur as little as possible; complain as little as possible, and if we are not yet advanced enough to all eat at one table, all work in one company, at least feel that we all have one common interest and are all children of one Father; and let us each do what we can to save ourselves and each other."

It perhaps is no surprise that the United Order experience did not turn the Mormons against the communal values that had so long been important to their identity as a people. On the contrary, the regret in Brigham Young's complaint that he "could not get the Saints to live it" and the promise in Erastus Snow's observation that "we are not yet advanced enough" resonated long in Mormon country. Mormons continued to call church assignments "stewardships" and to vow to consecrate all their energies and possessions to the church. They drew upon the idealism that was part of the United Order experience in founding their Welfare Plan in 1936, and continue to catechize themselves with the question of whether they would have the faith to live the United Order as a final step in preparing for Christ's return. A blueprint for a perfect society could be readily forgotten, but not a failed effort to build it.