--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Tanner, J. M. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 5 number: 11 published: 1902-09 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Dr. J. M. Tanner, "Some Leading Events in the Current Story of the World," *Improvement Era* 5, no. 11 (September 1902): 891–895.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0511unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0511unse start_page: 891 end_page: 895 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1902-09) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0511unse publication_year: 1902 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1902, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Some Leading Events in the Current Story of the World SOME LEADING EVENTS IN THE CURRENT STORY OF THE WORLD. BY DR. J. M. TANNER, SUPERINTENDENT OF CHURCH SCHOOLS. Great ]udges» The resignation of Horace Gray of the United States Supreme Court, and the appointment to the place made vacant by him of Oliver Wendell Holmes, chief justice of the supreme court of Massachusetts, will remind the country of two of its most eminent judges. Justice Gray, some months ago, was stricken by apoplexy, and later he suffered a second stroke. His advanced age of seventy-four years made a recovery quite unlikely, and his resignation naturally followed. It is doubtful if a more learned judge ever sat on the supreme bench of the highest court in our land. His decisions have been models of legal wisdom and research. Some of the great opinions written by him are entitled to a place beside those of our great Marshall and Story. Horace Gray comes from a distinguished New England family, and has nearly all his life been upon the bench. His successor, Judge Holmes, is a son of our famous poet. Both occupied the position of chief justice of the supreme court of Massachu- setts at the time of their appointment. Judge Holmes has also won high honors as an author and writer on legal questions. Marriage Statistics* A comparison has been made from the recent census between the unmarried men above twenty, and unmarried ladies above that age. In the United States, including our recent possessions of Hawaii, there are 6,726,779 males of twenty years and more, while there are 4,195,446 spinsters. This will be a surprise to many, as it has been frequently asserted that the contrary is true. There has been a growing disinclination among young men to marry, and from these statistics that growth has been alarmingly greater than supposed. It would be interesting to know how many of these men are above thirty. The census bureau will doubtless furnish further information on the subject. In California, the excess of men is 150,749, while in Massachusetts the surplus is only 5,221. There is a growing popularity to the ten- dency against matrimony, and in some countries there is a class who advocate its discontinuance. Prom 1867 to 1887, the increase of popu- lation was sixty per cent., and the increase of divorces was one hundred and fifty-six per cent. Add to the number of bachelors and spinsters the number of widowers and widows, and the number must be consid- erable. Even if all the men should take a notion to marry, the excess of men of marriageable age would still be 2,521,333, so that we should still have enough to supply the army demands that no more married men be commissioned second lieutenants. Recently the Emperor of Germany issued an order that hereafter no officer marry unless he received a salary of $1,125, and had in addition thereto an income of $375 a year. These orders give great respectabil- ity to old bachelors. The menace to the home is the growing practice which threatens its entire destruction. England's Change in Prime Ministers. On the thirteenth of July Lord Salisbury laid down his portfolio of and returned in old age from the duties of his exalted office. Not office, much has been said by the press of England's great primier, and perhaps the little said has been little read, either in this country or in England. Salisbury was not a picturesque statesman like Gladstone. The latter was constantly in the eye of the people, and his personality had a great charm for them. Salisbury has been most reticent, and sought retire- ment from all publicity. He never took kindly to democracy, and has been of that majestic type of royalty to which the English have always paid homage. He is a man of great parts, and is regarded by those com- petent to speak as the greatest conservative prime minister since Burke. Salisbury's great personal force and characteristic qualities began to be fully recognized at the great conference of Berlin, in 1878, when the integrity of the Turkish empire was under consideration by the great powers. Many thought that Chamberlain would be his suc- cessor, when his resignation first began to be discussed. Chamberlain has been such a conspicuous figure in England during the last four years that many thought him the coming man. The logic of the situation was in favor of the great parliamentary CURRENT STORY OF TEE WORLD. 893 leader, Arthur J. Balfour, the nephew of Salisbury. Balfour is royal to the quick, but a man of distinguished reputation as scholar and debater in the House of Commons. As a boy, he was weakly and not much given to hard study. At Cambridge, when a student, he was styled "Aunt Nancy," because of certain feminine qualities. His reputation was first made as secretary for Ireland, a most trying position. In England there are today two young men who stand out prominently in British view, young men who are likely in the future to be pitted against each other in the great political arena of that empire, they are Balfour and Rose- bery. They are the logical successors of Salisbury and Gladstone. Both are authors of international reputation. Balfour is likely to hold on to power for some time to come, as Rosebery finds his party out of har- mony with the times. The liberal party is likely to follow Rosebery's lead, so that before many years the two men will be struggling shoulder to shoulder for supremacy. Liberalism in England just now is over- shadowed by the conservatives; but Rosebery came out from retirement to sound a warning note and to retire again. The new men at the front will give something like new shape to English politics, and we may look for interesting times in Great Britain. A Decision on Personal Rights. The New York Court of Appeals has recently handed down a de- cision in a case that will arouse universal interest as well as technical discussion of a strictly legal character. A flour mill company in New York used the picture of a young lady, without her consent or knowledge, to advertise its products. The adver- tisement was gotten up as lithographic prints, and twenty- five thous- and were circulated by posting them in stores, warehouses, saloons, and other public places. The friends of the young lady at once recognized her likeness, whereupon she brought an action against the company to restrain them from thus making use of her picture, and to obtain dam- ages in the sum of$15,000 for injury and humiliation, and for the further fact that she had been made sick by the shock which such publicity gave her. The two lower courts granted an injunction, but the highest court of the state overruled the lower courts, and denied that the young lady had any remedy upon her complaint. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges, four of whom decided against plaintiff, while three rendered a minority opinion in her favor. The following extracts from these diverse opinions furnish interest- ing reading: It will be observed that there is no complaint made that plaintiff was libeled by this publication of her portrait. The likeness is said to be a very good one, and one that her friends and acquaintances were able to recognize; indeed, her grievance is that a good portrait of her, and, therefore, one easily recognized, has been used to attract attention to- ward the paper upon which defendant mill company's advertisements appear. Such publicity, which some find agreeable, is to plaintiff very- distasteful, and thus, because of defendant's impertinence in using her picture without her consent for their own business purposes, she has been caused to suffer mental distress where others would have appreci- ated the compliment to their beauty, implied in the selection of the picture for such purposes; but, as it is distasteful to her, she seeks the aid of the courts to enjoin a further circulation of the lithographic prints containing her portrait made as alleged in the complaint, and, as an incident thereto, to reimburse her for the damages to her feelings,, which the complaint fixes at the sum of $15,000. If such a principle be incorporated into the body of the law through the instrumentality of a court of equity, the attempts to logically apply the principle will necessarily result not only in a vast amount of litiga- tion, but in litigation bordering upon the absurd, for the right of privacy, once established as a legal doctrine, cannot be confined to the restraint of the publication of a likeness, but must necessarily embrace as well the publication of a word-picture, a comment upon one's looks, conduct, domestic relations or habits. And were the right of privacy once legally asserted, it would necessarily be held to include the same things if spoken instead of printed, for one, as well as the other, invades, the right to be absolutely let alone. An insult would certainly be in violation of such a right, and with many persons would more seriously wound the feelings than would the publication of their picture. And so we might add to the list of things that are spoken and done day by day, which seriously offend the sensibilities of good people, to which the prin- ciple which the plaintiff seeks to have imbedded in the doctrine of the law would seem to apply. I have gone only far enough to barely sug- gest the vast field of litigation which would necessarily be opened up should this court hold that privacy exists as a legal right enforceable in equity by injunction, and by damages, where they seem necessary to give complete relief. The legislative body could very well interfere and arbitrarily pro- vide that no one should be permitted, for his own selfish purposes, to use the picture or the name of another for advertising purposes without his consent. In such event no embarrassment would result to the general body of the law, for the rule would be applicable only to cases provided for by the statute. The courts, however, being without authority to legislate, are required to decide cases upon principle, and so are neces- sarily embarrassed by precedents created by an extreme and, therefore, unjustifiable application of an old principle. Dissenting opinion: Security of person is as necessary as the security of property; and, for that complete personal security, which will result in the peaceful and; CURRENT STORY OF THE WORLD. 895 wholesome enjoyment of one's privileges as a member of society, there should be afforded protection, not only against the scandalous portraiture and display of one's features and person, but against the display and use thereof for another's commercial purposes or gain. The proposition is, to me, an inconceivable one that these defendants may, unauthorizedly, use the likeness of this young woman upon their advertisement, as a method of attracting widespread public attention to their wares, and that she must submit to the mortifying notoriety, without right to in- voke the exercise of the preventive power of a court of equity. I think that this plaintiff has the same property in the right to be protected against the use of her face, for defendant's commercial pur- poses, as she would have if they were publishing her literary compositions. The right would be conceded, if she had sat for her photograph; but if her face or her portraiture has a value, the value is hers exclusively, until the use be granted away to the public. The people of New York are not wholly without remedy against those who by their advertisements may wish to invade private rights. As indicated by the judge in the majority opinion, the legislature may pass a law covering certain aggravated cases of such invasion, and thus relieve the court from establishing a general principle of law that might work evil in an opposite direction. The courts of other states are not bound by this New York case, though it will have its influence, as a pre- cedent, upon other state courts. There can be no doubt that persons should be exempt from such an invasion of what are clearly private rights, but there is, of course, a question as to whether the relief should be afforded by the legislature or by the court. No doubt, at the next session of the legislature of the state of New York, a law will be enacted to protect people from such unwel- come and notorious publicity.