--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 6 number: 10 published: 1903-08 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, \"Editor's Table,\" *Improvement Era* 6, no. 10 (August 1903): 779–786." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0610unse 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: improvementera0610unse start_page: 779 end_page: 786 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1903-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0610unse publication_year: 1903 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 1903, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Editor's Table EDITOR'S TABLE. CARDS AS AN EVIL. I have been grieved with the knowledge that presistent card- playing is gaining an alarming foothold among the people. The Saints have been often warned against the evil in the past. Pres- ident George Q. Cannon has spoken strongly and written clearly against this immoral habit; and President Snow, also with voice and pen, has set the seal of his condemnation upon it. I wish, too, to declare against card-playing with all the force and influence at my command, and to place myself on record as being opposed to it in any and all forms and under any and all conditions. I warn the Saints, and especially the young people, that it is a dangerous prac- tice, and urge all to leave it alone, repent of the evil, and turn to profitable and healthful pastimes and recreations. It is no uncommon thing for women, young and middle-aged, to spend whole afternoons, and many of them, and evenings as well, in playing cards, thus wasting hours and days of precious time in this useless and unprofitable way. Yet those same people when approached, declare they have no time to spend as teachers in the Sabbath schools, and no time to attend either Sunday schools or meetings. Their church duties are neglected for lack of time, yet they spend hours, day after day, at cards. They have thereby encouraged and become possessed of a spirit of indolence, and their minds are filled with the vile drunkenness, halucination, charm and fascination, that take possession of the habitual card- player to the exclusion of all spiritual and religious feeling. Such a spirit detracts from all sacred thought and sentiment. These players at length do not quite know whether they are Jews, Gen- tiles, or Saints, and they do not care a fig. While a simple game of cards in itself may be harmless, it is a fact that by immoderate repetition it ends in an infatuation for chance schemes, in habits of excess, in waste of precious time, in a dulling and stupor of the mind, and in the complete destruc- tion of religious feeling. These are serious results, evils that 780 IMPROVEMENl ERA. should and must be avoided by the Latter-day Saints. Then again, there is the grave danger, that lurks in persistent card playing, which begets the spirit of gambling, of speculation, and that awakens the dangerous desire to get something for nothing. I have in mind a man whose life is now ruined, who was — wrecked by cards. The habit began innocently, too it started from a simple game persistently repeated, just to see who could win. But the interest soon waned, and it was found necessary to stimulate it with a little glass of beer; then beer was too weak. Wine was next; and you know the old Hebrew saying: "When Satan cannot come himself, he sends wine as a messenger." But it became com- pulsory to go still further, and at last to keep up the interest with whiskey. Then the stimulus for the game was not strong enough in his own home, and he went out for the needed excite- ment. A drunkard, a gambler, a man without means or property, an outcast, a culprit picked up from the gutter by the police is — the remainder of the story. His poor wife died, and he was pun- ished for a strong suspicion of misconduct with his own children. It all began from the innocent game of cards! Behold the instances that are common where women leave their children uncared for to go off to play cards; of men spending their earnings at the gaming table —behold the spirit of gambling, chance, of wanting something for nothing, and the dodging of honest work, and the waiting for luck and lottery to bring easy returns! This spirit is encouraged by, if not born of, card-playing, and the mania to gamble leads to ruin, poverty, spiritual death and destruction. It is wrong for Latter-day Saints to encourage it, or to unduly indulge in any game that fosters it. Let us cry it down ; we value our own salvation and the good of our and, as children, let us leave persistent card-playing alone. It is wrong and dangerous for the Latter-day Saints, and would better be entirely abolished, both in family, public, semi-public and private gatherings. But you say, we must have recreation; what shall we do? Turn to domestic enterprises, and to the gaining of useful knowl- edge of the gospel. Let the love of reading good and useful books be implanted in the hearts of the young, and let them be trained to take pleasure and recreation in history, travel, biography EDITOR'S TABLE. 781 and classic story. Then there are innocent games, music, songs, and literary recreation. What would you think of the man who would argue for whiskey and beer, as a common beverage because it is necessary for people to drink! He is perhaps little worse than the man who would place cards in the hands of my children — whereby they would foster the of chance and gambling spirit leadingdown to destruction, — because they must have recreation. I would call the first a vicious enemy, and refer him to water to drink; and the latter, an evil spirit in the guise of innocence, and refer him to recreation containing no germs of spiritual disease leading to the devil! Let our evenings be devoted to innocent amusements in the home, and let all chance games be banished from our families, and only recreation indulged in that is free from gambling and the gambling spirit. And let excessive card-playing, and the person who strolls about among neighbors at all hours of the night and day encouraging the evil, be put far from us. Just as sure as we encourage this evil, it will bring other grievous troubles in its wake, and those who indulge excessively will lose the spirit of the gospel, and go to temporal and spiritual ruin. Young people in their recreations should strive to form a love for that which will not be injurious. It is not true that only that recreation can be enjoyed that is detrimental to the body and spirit. We should train ourselves to find pleasure in that which invigorates, not stupifies and destroys the body; that which leads upward and not down; that which brightens, not dulls and stuns the intellect; that which elevates and exalts the spirit, not that clogs and depresses it. So shall we please the Lord, enhance our own enjoyment, and save ourselves and our children from impend- ing sins, at the root of which, like an evil genius, lurks the spirit of cards and gaming. Joseph F. Smith. AROUND THE EARTH IN NINE AND ONE-HALF MINUTES. Fom a compilation in the Chicago Tribune it appears that in two hundred cities, fifty-two people were killed and 3665 injured in 4th of July celebrations. If the whole country were covered, 782 IMPROVEMENT ERA. it is safe to say that one hundred were killed, ten thousand injured, and a million dollars of property destroyed by fire from the result of firecrackers and fireworks. But the 4th this year, as on the first and many other suceed- ing anniversaries of the day, was also noted for other and better things. Among them was the completion of the Pacific cable, so that the first message was sent on the night of the 4th, 10:50 o'clock, from Oyster Bay, by President Roosevelt to Gov. Taft of Manila. It read: I open the American Pacific cable with greeting to you and the people of the Philippines. Theodore Roosevelt. In twenty minutes Governor Taft's reply was received, it being a plea for the reduction of the tariff on Philippine products. The President then sent westward around the world a message of congratulation to Clarence H. Mackay, of the Commercial Pacific Cable Co., who was sitting by his side. This message made the circuit of the world in twelve minutes going via San Francisco, Honolulu, Manila, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bombay, Suez, Malta, Gib- raltar, Lisbon, the Azores, Canso, and New York. Mr. Mackay's reply was sent eastward over the same route returning in nine and one-hslf minutes. Several other messages were transmitted from Americans to Manila, and from the far East to America in reply. The United States is thus in immediate communication with the Philippines, by an American cable, and becomes free from the exactions that foreign companies have made, and which have been a great expense to the war department. It is only regretable that it is not a government Commercial Cable Company deserve cable, but the the unstinted congratulations of the American people for its achievement in providing facilities not only for them to communi- cate quickly with Manila, but to girdle the earth in nine and one- half minutes. THE GOSPEL SPIRIT SHOULD DOMINATE. The labor controversy has recently been uppermost among the questions in the industrial world. The difficulty between the builders and the employees has caused a suspension of work for two months on buildings in New York alone, representing, it is EDITOR'S TABLE. 783 said, an investment of ninety million dollars, and deprived one hundred and twenty-five thousand men of their wages for that period, aggregating some twenty-five million dollars. Arbitration now appears to have been adopted in that city and others, and the trouble is in a fair way to be solved, at least for a time. It has been brought about by the organization of over one thousand unions on the part of the employers, which have came in contact with the labor unions, and the two have arrived at amicable terms. The result of the conference, as reported, is the elimination of the walking delegate, and the abolishment of the sympathetic strike. It is to be hoped that a method at length has been discovered whereby an employer who is willing to pay a fair wage to his men may be protected from labor wars for which he is not to blame; and at the same time that will provide work for organized labor under the best possible conditions. There is no doubt that strikes, as generally conducted, have been of little benefit except to the so-called walking delegate, and to the transient organizer, ofiicer and collector of dues. What labor wants is good wages and industrial activity, but a strike is the worst possible enemy to labor, because it stops activity. Arbitration direct by the interested parties would appear to be the right course, and this can never be established under the old system of sympathetic strikes and walking delegates. There must be a greater grievance than some disgruntled workman with a petty or perhaps vindictive complaint against his employer, at the bottom of a strike. The good sense of capital and labor face to face are best prepared to say what a cause for grievance, on either side, may be. Labor combinations founded on any other basis than that of justice and good sense, with a view to the best interests of both capital and labor, are built upon wrong principles, and will fail, even as unjust combinations of capital against labor should and must be brought to naught. We have had some labor troubles at home, and that without just cause. Young men who are members of the Church who have work, should carefully consider their positions before they led into wrong and hurt- act, and there is no excuse for them to be ful actions by men who are transients in our midst; men who come among them for no other purpose than to better themselves at 784 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the serious expense of both capital and labor. If we are to have labor organizations among us, and there is no good reason why our young men might not be so organized, they should be formed on a sensible basis, and officered by men who have their families and all their interests around them. The spirit of good-will and brotherhood, such as we have in the gospel of Christ, should char- acterize their conduct and organizations. For be it known, the religious note is and should remain the dominant note of our character and of all our actions. In many of the strikes that have affected our cities, the cause of the trouble has invariable been the transient, uninterested individual who has caused the agitation; our boys have thought- lessly joined, and the end has nearly always been that they have been the sufferers. There is no good reason why the young men in our community should permit themselves to be dominated by outside influences, and especially when these tend to their detri- ment financially. It seems reasonable that men who are on the ground, and whose whole interest is centered in their homes, and in the indus- trial development of their surroundings, should know better what is good for them than strangers who are often without interest in the community. Nearly all our labor troubles, certainly the most serious ones, in Utah, have been brought about by men v^^ho were not interested here. They have created the dissatisfaction, then vanished, and left our local people to bear the burdens of the strike. A recent strike, in a prominent public utility institution in this city, fully exemplifies this thought, and illustrates the folly of being led by men whose interests are foreign and selfish. In a railroad strike some years ago, many of our citizens were thrown out of em- ployment, and remained so for years through no fault of theirs, except it was that they did not have courage enough to follow their own inclinations and their own best judgment of right and wrong. In this country no combi- nation which seeks to deprive men of their liberties can long flourish, and if the labor unions are to do a mission of good for the workmen, all tendency to restrict the liberties and rights of either their fellow-workmen or of the employer must be eliminated ? EDITOR'S TABLE. 785 from their program of proceedings. Our brethren should not join in any scheme to commit wrong; they should do their own tnink- ing, and refuse to be parties to any action that is contrary to justice and liberty and the spirit of the gospel. Can they do this, and remain members of labor unions that are dominated and controlled by men who have a contrary spirit? Where men are in the majority, why should they not control instead of being controlled? especially when their control would be in the spirit of the gospel, w'.iich is justice and good will to all? While there is no rea-on why workmen should not join to- gether for their own mutual protection and benefit, there is every reason why in so doing they should regard the rights of their fellows, be jealous of the protection of property, and eliminate from their methods of warfare, boycotts, sympathetic strikes, and the walking delegate. Joseph F. Smith. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. The Church Before Christ. Was the Church ever established before the days of Christ, if so, in what way and form? The Church was not established until Christ came to the Moses held the earth. He was its founder and cornerstone. were taken from the keys of the Melchizedek priesthood, but they of the unworthiness of the Israelites earth with him, because (Psalm 81: 11, 12). God had his people upon the earth from the Pearl of Great Price give as beginning, and the old Testament and is known of his hand-dealings with them. Good men much as held the priesthood, were chosen to lead Israel.and these doubtless some extent, and practiced and perhaps understood the gospel to historic or revealed account some of its ordinances; but there is no of the Church of Christ having been founded prior to his commg to the earth, with the exception named in Mosiah, 15th chapter. to the organization of the The keys of the priesthood necessary 786 IMPROVEMENT ERA Church were not held in their fulness by anyone between Moses and Messiah (see Era, vol. 6, February, p. 311, 312). Baptism and the Telestial Kingdom or Glory. Can anyone ever get into the telestial kingdom, or glory, without baptism, or into any part of the three kingdoms? The questioner should read carefully the 76th section of the Doctrine and Covenants. It is there made plain that the inhabitants of the celestial glory are those who receive the gospel, and hence are baptized into the Church, and prove faithful in this world. They are the Church of the First-born, the holiest of all, priests and ki igs and even gods and the sons of God, receiving the Father's fulness and glory. They who are of the terrestrial glory are such as die without law, and also the spirits of men kept in prison, whom the Son visited and preached the gospel unto them, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, who received not the testi- mony of Jesus in the flesh, but afterwards received it. Belief in the Christ and in his gospel will release them when the vicarious or- dinances of the gospel are performed for them, including baptism. Their glory differs from that of the Church of the First-born in that they receive of the Father's glory, but not of his fulness; they receive of the presence of the Son, but not of the fulness of the Father. But they of the telestial glory are such as receive not the gospel (and hence, we may infer, not baptism),neither the testimony of Jesus, neither the prophets, neither the everlasting covenant. They are innumerable as the stars in heaven or the sands upon the seashore. They will not be gathered with the Saints to be caught up unto the Church of the First-born. They will suffer th« wrath of God, until the fulness of times, when Christ shall have subdued all ene- mies under his feet, and perfected his work. Then shall all these bow the knee, and every tongue shall confess to him who sits upon the throne for ever and ever; and they shall be judged according to their works, and every man shall receive according to his own works, his own dominion, in the mansions of the telestial king- dom or glory. They shall be servants of the Most High, but where God and Christ dwell, they cannot come, worlds without end.