Editor's Table

EDITOR'S TABLE. THE RECENT IMPROVEMENT CONFERENCE. No one who was in attendance at all the meetings of the late improvement conference can doubt that improvement work has been imbued with a new spirit of life. The reports of the work from all parts of the great inter-mountain region where the church is located, from Canada to Mexico, includ- ing settlements and stakes in both extremes mentioned, were most gratifying. Out of the thirty-seven stake organizations in existence twenty-seven were represented by officers in the conference; that the number of the associations has been in- creased during the year by twenty-two; that the number of new members added to the associations since last conference is 10,257—due largely to the missionary efforts of last winter; that the increase in the average attendance of the last year was 3,786—all this tells its own story of the advancement made in the last year, and is gratifying beyond expression. The work has truly gone forward by leaps and bounds in the last eighteen months. Such a pace in fact has been set for the progress of this work that it is going to require very great exertion to keep up with it in the year that follows. And yet there is necessity for doing so. Not because we would make every year's work equal every other year's work, but because there is the work to do. This large new membership that has come to us must be made permanent. Where conversion was only partial, enough merely to make a nominal member- ship possible, the conversion must be made complete, that such individuals may become active workers in the great cause, both for themselves and for others. While the general

EDITOR'S TABLE. (,93 missionary work must go on as it did last winter, still greater exertions must be made by local officers, presidents of associ- ations and superintendents of stakes and their aids to hold what has been and hereafter shall be won. There is no time for halting. Enthusiasm must not grow cold. Exertion must not cease. The several actions resolved upon by the general conference for the ensuing year's work and which will be found stated in the very full minutes of the conference published in Our Work department, in this and the August number, must be faithfully carried out by the local officers, else our conference and the labors of the general superinten- dency and board of aids will have been in vain. In connection with many other things of a gratifying character at the conference it was pleasant to note the satis- faction which the Era has given to the officers of the asso- ciations present at the conference, and according to their re- ports, to our patrons generally. From all quarters came words of good cheer and satisfaction which it will be our am- bition to merit for the magazine more abundantly in the future than in the past. For the Era intends to grow, to im- prove from good to better, until it shall become all that the young men of Zion can desire it to be. Pledges to its sup- port were renewed, and assurances given of increased circu- lation for the year to come. In the enthusiasm of that conference we felt and now feel that the faces of the young men of Israel are turned to the rising sun. It is the day, and the all-glorious day, that ap- proaches, not the night. The day of moral, intellectual and spiritual progress. With feet planted firmly upon the eternal truths which God has revealed in this dispensation of the fulness of times; with the revelations of heaven to teach and guide the way to moral and spiritual excellence; with all the incentives that come from the spirit of our age to gather knowledge and work by its power—it will be strange indeed if the youth of Zion cannot be fired with that zeal for truth, those aspirations for all that is ennobling and praiseworthy, that will make of them a race noted for high aims in life and great achievements for God and his kingdom.

694 IMPROVEMENT ERA. WILL THERE BE A CHANGE OF POLICY? The one question which above all others is now absorb- ing the attention of the people of the United States is the probable effect that our present war is going to have upon the future foreign policy of the United States. Hitherto the foreign policy of our country has been summed up in the Monroe Doctrine, which briefly stated is—America for Am- ericans; no meddling with European affairs; no toleration of European meddling with American affairs; no extension of European systems of government on the American continents; friendship with all European powers, entangling alliances with none. But the results of our present war promise to bring into existence new conditions, new interests, which may well call for a modification of our past foreign policy. No one can question the wisdom of that policy in the past. It has truly been to our advantage to adhere to it, and in the main its principles must be adhered to for the future. But can the United States, strong and powerful as the nation is, resist the onward march of events? Much has transpired since the Monroe Doctrine was formulated. At that time the lines of influence within which the American nation vir- tually promised to confine itself were after all very extensive lines. But forces, of which no administration could form any adeqate conception, unless gifted with prophetic powers, have since been put into operation tending to make the whole world akin, and to make the national interests of the world one. Steam locomotion upon the high seas has made the mighty oceans, once the object of superstitious fear, the con- venient highways of commerce between the nations. The submarine cablegraph systems have bound all the nations to- gether by means of instant communication. All nations by means of instant communication and rapid travel have been made neighbors, and in the mighty growth of international commerce it is doubtful if any nation can afford to proclaim its own isolation. The Far East, by which we mean Eastern China and Russia and also Japan, has suddenly emerged from the iso- lation of centuries, and promises to throw its shores open to

EDITOR'S TABLE. 595 the free commerce of the world. The revolution in Hawaii has made it more than probable that those islands will be an- nexed to the United States. Our action in the Cuban situa- tion has made it imperative that we establish at least a pro- tectorate over those islands until the question of government in them shall be finally determined. This is a commercial age; and commercial advantages are of more importance than the possession of territory. The United States is pre-eminently fitted for a commercial career. Will she be willing, can she if she would, allow European nations to fix alone the terms of commercial intercourse with the great countries opposite our pacific shores, and our near- est Pacific neighbors? We think not. Circumstances have changed since the formulation of the Monroe doctrine, and that part of it which demands the con- finement of American influence to America, needs modifica- tion. We are now in touch with all the world, and our great nation must be prepared to take its share of responsibility in determining the course of affairs in the world. The days of a very small standing army are practically over; the days of a fifth-class navy for the United States are past. The close of this war will leave us in possession of both an army and a navy, the largeness and effectiveness of which must needs be maintained in order to give the United States that share of influence in the disposition of the affairs of this world which her commanding position as a nation, the general intelli- gence, inventive genius, and commercial enterprise of our people demand for her. If all this involves something of a departure from the policy of the fathers of the Republic, a policy then adequate for the times, and suited to conditions with which they were familiar, and at which their wisdom leveled their policy, all well and good, let the changed con- ditions justify the change in policy, and we shall in nothing do violence to the spirit of patriotism and wisdom by which in their day they guided the glorious ship of state.

696 IMPROVEMENT ERA. NOTES. England's Asiatic Dominions and dependencies cover more than 2,500,000 square miles. She has 270,000,000 of souls under her rule, speaking some twenty languages. Her European military strength in Asia is 75,000, with 150,000 native auxiliaries, while her naval force is stronger than that of any other single power, [in Asia be it remembered], except- ing Japan. She has 21.000 miles of railway and 47,000 miles of telegraph on land in Asia, and some 20,000 miles of sub- marine cable. She has invested in her territories, either in state loans or railways under the state, over ^250,000,000, besides scores of millions sterling invested in private enter- prise—agricultural, commercial, industrial—which cannot be exactly estimated. The foreign trade with these territories is more than ^160,000,000 annually, of which one half is with England. The trade of other Asiatic countries with Europe is over ^60,000,000 of which four-fifths is English, while an enormous coasting trade growing yearly with giant strides, is mainly in England's hands. The trade between Eastern Asia and the Australian Colonies, still in its infancy, is in- creasing, and has a great future before it. Everyone can do something excellently well, and to find out what it is and to apply the energies to it is to attain the very highest possibilities. The following maxims from the Talmud may be a little antiquated, but it is well to think of them some times. "It is well to add a trade to your studies if you would remain free from sin. * * * The tradesman at his work is the equal of the most learned doctor." Flowers are a token of kindly remembrance. We never send flowers to those to whom we are indifferent, for they speak only the language of love and admiration. In the United Kingdom and the United States the an- nual consumption of alcohol averages one gallon per head yearly.

EDITOR'S TABLE. S97 IN LIGHTER MOOD. A story is told of a certain politician, whose education was somewhat defective, and who was not a "born speller." He became prominent, and his correspondence therefore had a certain importance. One day a particular friend came to him and said, "Look here, William, you must have a secre- tary write your letters, and never undertake to write any yourself." "Why?" asked the public man. "Because peo- ple are laughing at your letters, and they will do you harm." "Why do they laugh at them?"—in astonishment. "Be- cause you make so many mistakes in spelling." "Mistakes in spelling?" exclaimed the great man. "Nonsense! I read my letters all over after I write them, and I never find a mis- spelled word!" A lady had in her employ an excellent girl who had one fault—her face was always dirty. Mrs. Blank tried to get her to wash her face without offending her, and at last re- sorted to strategy. "Do you know, Bridget," she remarked, "it is said if you wash your face every day in hot, soapy water, it will make you beautiful?" "Will it now?" answered the wily Bridget; "sure it's a wonder ye never tried it yourself, ma'am!" The poet Burns was standing one day upon the quay at Greenock, when a wealthy merchant belonging to the town had the misfortune to fall into the harbor. He was no swim- mer, and his death would have been inevitable, had not a sailor, who was passing at the time, plunged in, and at the risk of his own life, rescued him from his dangerous situa- tion. The Greenock man, upon recovering from his fright, put his hand into his pocket, and generously presented the sailor with a shilling. The crowd, which had by this time collected, loudly protested against the contemptible insig- nificance of the reward; but Burns, with a smile of ineffable scorn, entreated them to restrain their clamor; "for," said he, "the gentleman has surely the best idea of the value of his own life."