Events of the Month

EVENTS
OF THE
MONTH, Local. — November, 1903. The Coal Mine Strike.— The situation at Sunnyside, Carbon Co., remained so unsettled that the Utah Fuel Co. sent thirty-three armed men to the camp to maintain order on November 18. On the following day, Governor Wells, in a letter to the strikers, calls upon them to refrain from every act of violence or disturbance of the peace and good order of the community, until the differences are adjusted. The situation had grown so threatening on the 21st, that Sheriff Hyrum Wilcox, of Car- bon Co., informed Governor Wells that the local authorities are powerless to cope with the lawlessness, and maintain law and order, and asks the state for aid and assistance at Scofield, Castle Gate and Sunnyside. He says the miners number two thousand, two-thirds of whom are foreign- ers, principally Italians, not speaking English, and not more than fifteen per cent are naturalized. The Governor thereupon sent Gen. John Q. Cannon, commanding the N. G. U., to investigate the situation and report ■apon the necessity of ordering out the miltia. Mine Inspector Gomer Thomas had already been sent out to the mines, and reported all the old residents in favor of working, and that the majority of the strikers are Italians. On the 22nd, the evidence presented to General Cannon alleges many acts of violence, intimidation and outlawry against non-union men. Adjt.-Gen. Charles S. Burton sent four sergeants to notify all the mem- bers of the National Guard to be in readiness to go at a moment's notice- to Sunnyside; like orders were given to officers at Manti, Nephi^ Provo, Salt Lake and Bountiful. Each officer reported that he could have his command in readiness within two hours. At a late hour on the 23rd, Governor Wells, by proclamation, called out the entire National Guard of Utah, including the infantry, cavalry, artillery and hospital corps, to proceed to the scene of the coal mine strike in Carbon Co., to preserve life and property. The action was taken after a long confer- ence with members of the Legislature and other advisers, on the verbal report of Gen. Cannon, who had investigated the condtions of disorder.

232 IMPROVEMENT ERA The troops were immediately ordered by Gen. Charles S. Burton to mo- bilize at their armory. The strikers are said to have paraded at Castle Gate, armed with shotguns and carrying the American flag upside down. The 24th was spent in mobilizing the army; and just before midnight, seven carloads of men, being the state's entire guard, four hundred in number, left Salt Lake, or were picked up at the various stations, for the scene of trouble, to be posted at Sunnyside and Scofield. Gen. Cannon addressed the troops, and gave them to understand that the uniform was to be respected, and any soldier who allows it to be insulted is unfit for duty. The labor agitator, Charles Demolli, repre- sentative of the United Mine Workers of America, was tried on the 25th, charged with disturbing the peace by inciting miners, and sentenced to thirty days' imprisonment in the county jail. The Pleasant Valley Coal Co. notified all who do not report for work, of their discharge, and that they must vacate the company's property at once. Complications a'^e feared when this order is effective, which will be in thirty days. Gen. Cannon established headquarters at Scofield, with a majority of the troops with him. The presence of the troops is having a good effect or the camps, and many men were reported returning to work on the 26tb. On the day following, four hundred strikers met in the thicket near Sec- field, electing officers, and initiated one hundred and fifty men into the union. The Italian consul. Dr. Guiseppe Cuneo, later visited the strikers' camps and heard the grievances of the miners. His report was very- non-committal, and had little effect on the situation. That the foreigners have little cause for grievance appears from the fact that the consul ad- vised them to respect and obey the laws of the country, not listen t« organizers or anyone else, and follow their own conscience and do what they thought was right. An effort was made on the 29th to arbitrate, but Vice-President Kramer, of the Utah Fuel Co., refused the invitation to attend a conference. There is a strong effort made to have the com- pany recognize the Union, but from all indications this will never be done, and efforts are being made with considerable success to get Amer- icans from all parts of Utah to take the place of the striking Finns and Italians. Arch^ological Organization.— Dr. F. W. Kelsey, of Detroit, Mich., representative of the American Institute of Archaeology, lectured No- vember 18, at Barratt Hall, on Pompeii. At the close of the lecture, on invitation of Prof. Byron Cummings, those interested in the subject of archaeology organized the Utah Archaeological Society. The requisite number, twenty-five, was easily secured, and the organization effected with Frank Pierce, president; Benj. W. *" luff. Dr. J. T. Kingsbury and

EVENTS OF THE MONTH. 233 Jud^e S. W. Stewart, vice-presidents; Prof. Byron Cummings, secretary; Matthonihah Thomas, treasurer; and these with Prof. George A. Eaton, executive committee. Utah is said to be rich in archaeological treasures, and it is expected that the society will grow rapidly during the year, and that profitable explorations in the cliff dwellings of our state will be prosecuted ere long. New Stake Tabernacle.— On the 28th and 29th the Granite Stake new tabernacle was opened to the public, a conference of the people being held. It is located on State street and Fourteenth South — about the centre of the stake. The building is unique in architecture, there being no other structure in the Church built upon the same plan. The basement floor is designed for stake entertainments, and is divided into a large assembly room 64 by 64 feet, with a large stage. Around this are six rooms in semi-circular form, easily converted into three by fold- ing doors, designed for meeting places of the various auxiliary organ- izations. The upper or assembly room is nearly 106 by 106 feet in size, with organ platform, choir and speakers' stands on the east side. There are four entrances, one at each corner of the building. The floor of the assembly hall slopes from each quarter to the center, and seats 2500 people. The dome rises 70 feet above the assembly hall floor, the roof being supported by two large trusses running diagonally across the building with span of 98 feet. The hall is lighted by four rows— 124 — incandescent lights, and by five arc lights in an immense chandelier sus- pended from the apex of the dome. The Estey pipe organ situated back of the speakers' stands cost $3000, and has 829 pipes. The seating and finishing are samples of the most modern methods in these respects. The great square tower on the southwest corner rises 133 feet from the base to the pinnacle, and has several commodious meeting rooms on the various floors reached by a stairway. Work on the grounds was begun on Monday, November 24, 1902, and more than ten thousand loads of sand and gravelly soil were dumped on to the site. Timbers were then driven into the earth, and the founda- tion, containing sixty tons of cement, is then laid on one hundred and forty-five piles upon which the structure rests. The foundation was completed and mason work begun about April 15, 1903, continuing until the 615,000 bricks in the building were laid. On Sunday, May 17, 1903, the corner stone was laid by President John R. Winder. The total cost •of the building and grounds was $60,000 in round figures, the building proper costing $50,000. The organ and seating cost about $6,000^ ..making a total of $66,000. On Sunday evening, 27th, President Joseph F. Smith spoke to a

234 IMPROVEMENT ERA. large assembly of
young people on
"Conduct and
Amusements."
The dedication of the edifice is set for December 27. Died. — William Wright, in Charleston, Wasatch Co., November 11, 1903. He was born in England, October 15, 1832, and came to Utah in 1850. He was tithing clerk, Fourth ward, Provo, for sixteen year. — In Payson, Friday, 13th, John Montague, age 70. He was an early settler of Payson. — In Deseret, Millard Co., Friday, 13th, Daniel S. Cahoon, son. of Reynolds Cahoon, a pioneer of 1848, and a worker on the Kirtland and Nauvoo temples. He was born in Ohio, April 1, 1822, and was bap- tized by William E. M'Lellan.— In Lehi, Tuesday, 17th, Anna M'Affee, 77 years old, who came from Ireland in 1866. — Mary Ann Yearsley, Sunday, 22d. She was one of the oldest inhabitants of Salt Lake City. — In Logan, Saturday, 21st, William Gilbert Smith, formerly president of the Morgan stake, a survivor of Haun's Mill massacre, and a member of the Mormon Battalion. He was born in Arahurst, Ohio, May 9, 1827. — In Bountiful, Davis Co., 24th, Bishop Henry Rampton, 74 years of age, a resident of Utah since 1856.— On Friday, 27th, in Salt Lake City, Mifflin Palmer, age 90 years and 5 months. He v/as born in Pennsylvania and joined the Church in early days. — On the same day, in Manti, Sanpete Co., John Pcitten, nephew of Apostle David Patten (^martyr). He was a veteran of the Black Hawk and Walker Indian wars. — In St. John, Tooele Co., 28th, David H. Crosby, born Massachusetts, October 28, 1837. He was a devoted Latter-day Saint. — William Slater, of Ogden, who came to Utah in the early 70's, died on the 29th. He was born in England, November 21, 1832, and was a faithful Latter-day Saint. — Word is received of the death of Elzira Carbett Stewart, at Lyman, Wyo., November 2. She was born in Winter Quarters, Mo., No- vember 23, 1855, v^as a pioneer of 1847, a former resident of Mor- gan Co., and mother of fourteen children. Miscellaneous Events. — Peter Mortensen was legally shot on Friday, 20th, within the state prison walls, for the murder of James R. Hay, his friend and neighbor. He protested innocence to the last. — The Grass Creek and Weber Coal companies raised the price of coal on the 19th fifty cents per ton. — Oscar Kirkham, of Lehi, has returned from a three years' sojourn in Germany, where he has studied music under eminent musicians. — The new city jail was opened in Salt Lake on the 23d. It will accommodate forty-eight men, and is said to be a model institution of its kind. — On the 24th, Hon. F. J. Kiesel presented the Commercial Club v/ith an oil painting of President Roosevelt, show- ing a three-quarter view of him standing. — Nick Haworth's death sen- tence has been commuted by the State Board of Pardons to life impris-

EVENTS OF THE MONTH. 235 onment. He was to have been shot December 11. — The cost of coal, through the interference of E. H. Harriman, of the U. P., was reduced on the 26th to its usual price before the recent raise.— The $300 state prize of the Utah Art Institute, was awarded H, L. A. Culmer in the ex- hibition held at the Commercial Club, on the 28th. — On the 30th, the Beaver county commissioners granted town incorporation for Milford, and E. S. Sawyer was appointed president. A Home Life Insurance Company. — The Continental Life Insurance and Investment Company, with a capital of $500,000, has been organ- ized, with Heber M. Wells, president; Hiram Tyree, vice-president; W. S. McCornick , treasurer, and W. H. Cunningham, secretary. The home office of the company will be in Salt Lake City, although many of the subscribers to the stock are prominent financial men in Montana, Colo- rado, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, California, Washington, Nevada, and other western states. The purpose of the company is to write insurance upon the lives of individuals, and to occupy the field now covered by the old line companies. Utah alone pays out every year over a million dol- lars for life insurance, which goes east for permanent investment. This company hopes to gain much of this business, and keep the money in Utah and adjacent states for investment, and to aid in building up the industries of this section. Opening of the Lucin Cut-off. — Thanksgiving-day, 1903, (Thurs- day, 26th,) will be noted in Utah as the day of the opening of the great Lucin cut-off. On that day E. H. Harriman made the first trip over the new road, and formally opened and inspected it. Many Salt Lake and Ogden officials and leading citizens were in the party, which was made up of leading railway officials of the Union Pacific system. The train carrying the company was the most expensive ever seen in the West. There were tv/enty cars, fifteen of which were private cars of the officials, the whole representing half a million dollars. There were of- ficials also from more than a dozen different systems, representing a mileage of 50,000, and a capital of over a billion dollars. There were no ceremonies save the stopping of the trains about half-way between the two extremities of the trestle, when "America" and the "Star-Span- gled Banner" were played by the band, and the company and train were photographed. In Ogden, the Weber Club entertained members of the party. All were loud in praise of the wonderful engineering feat. The trestle, 22.94 miles, is the longest in the world, and is in water from a shallow depth to thirty-four feet at the present level of the lake. There are 11.10 miles permanent trestle, and 11.84 miles of temporary

236 IMPROVEMENT ERA. trestle built, whicH latter is replaced by embankment.
As to the advan- tages of this cut-off, the following statements testify: Original road, 146.68 miles. New road, 102.91 miles. New road saves 43.77 miles, 3919 degrees of curvature and 1515 feet vertical of grade. Sharpest curve of new road one and one-half degrees, versus ten degrees on the old road. Steepest grade of new road 21 feet per mile versus 90 feet per mile on the old road. The trestle stands about 8 feet, from that to 15 feet above still water, and is built of piles 125 feet in length. These are driven in pairs, about fifteen feet apart, and connected and braced with heavy stringers and cross-pieces. Chief engineer, William Hood; and assistant in charge, William E. Marsh, The track was laid from Ogden to the east shore of the lake June 16, 1902, and, continuing westward, met the track laid eastward from Lucin, November 15, 1903, near the middle of the lake. No trestle material was delivered at the lake for the work until after the month of June, 1902. The Ogden-Lucin cut-off is essentially a direct line, being by com- putation but 1706 feet, or 0.32 mile, longer than an air line. The new track is already well seasoned from constant use by work trains, whose cars when loaded weigh 205,000 pounds. A train with twenty of these cars, with engine, has passed over the road often, and the opinion of experts is to the effect that the track [is perfectly safe in ■carrying passenger trains going at the rate of a mile a minute. At times there have been over five thousand men at work on the cut-off, and the total cost is said to have been about thirteen million dollars. It i» -announced that regular trains will run over the new road after January 1, 1904. I December, 1903. The Strike Situation.— December opened with little change in the Carbon county coal mine regions. William Price, the Union representa- tive, said on the 2nd that the strike might be called off, providing the company would recognize the Union; but Vice-president Kramer of the Utah Fuel Company is willing to take back only strikers, not agitators, who will give up their union cards. Intense cold prevailed during the early part of the month, and this caused some suffering among the soldiers. On the 4th, Governor Wells informed employers who made application for the return of their soldier clerks, with threats of dis- missal, that employers should be loyal to the state, and it would be a shame and disgrace to discharge an employee, because his duty to the

EVENTS OF THE MONTH. 23T state necessitated his absence from work. Demolli, the United Mine Workers' organizer, had a conference with Governor Wells on the 7th. No permit was granted him to return to the striker's camps, and Governor Wells sternly told the agitator that the people did not want him in the state, "and the sooner you are out of the state, the better we will be pleased." Attorney Edler was arrested on the 9th on the charge of criminal libel, and put into the Scofield jail; and on this same day, 130 carloads of coal were mined, the largest output since the strike. Edler was released on the 11th on $1,000 bonds to appear before the district court. The company on the 12th notified strikers that up to the 15th they might apply for work, by delivering their union cards, and that it is intended to open the Castle Gate mine, December 21. At that date it is feared some trouble might occur. The notice had a good effect, and the indications on Monday 14th were that the labor trouble in Carbon county is nearing an end. About 100 new men, chiefly farmers, are at work to take the place of miners who have left. The headquarters of General Cannon and his guards was established at Castle Gate on the 12th. Died. — In Lehi, Edward Edwards, was buried, December 1. He was born in South Wales, March 3, 1831, joined the Church in 1849, and came to Utah with the first hand-cart company in 1856. , He died in American Fork, November 29. — On the 3rd in Payson, one of that city's oldest residents, Thomas Green Wilson, born Tennessee, February 14, 1816. He came to Utah in 1850, having joined the Church in 1844. — Rt. Rev. Abiel Leonard, of the Episcopal church, born Fayette, Missouri, June 26, 1848, died in St. Marks' hospital, December 3. His great-grandfather, Abiel Leonard, served in the War of the Revolution as chaplain to General George Washington. Rev. Leonard came to Utah in 1888, and made friends among all classes. — In Ogden, on the 4th, William Eccles, father of Hon. David Eccles, was born in Scot- land, April 6, 1825, joined the Church in 1842, and came to Utah in 1863. — In Salt Lake City, 3rd, Caroline B. Fairclough, who was born in England in 1836, and emigrated to America in 1845, and to Utah in the early 50's. — In Ogden, 6th, Prof. Orson Pratt, musician and oldest child of Apostle Orson Pratt, in his sixty-seventh year. He was born in Kirtland, Ohio, and came to Utah over 50 years ago. — In West Weber, 3th, Frances E. Bulmer, sister of Thomas Etherington, born in England 78 years ago. Receptions TO Veterans.— On the 11th an enjoyable birthday re- ception was given by the Temple workers, in the Temple, to President John R. Winder, who was born in Biddenden, county of Kent, England,

238 IMPROVEMENT ERA. 82 years ago. President Joseph F. Smith and a large member of leading Church authorities were present. A splendid program of songs and speeches, was presented, and many congratulations were warmly ex- tended to the veteran Church worker and pioneer. A poem by Bishop 0. F, Whitney was read, which was especially fitting and pleasing. Apostle George Teasdale was 72 years old on the 8th, and he celebrated the occasion by a grand social in the North ward, Nephi, meeting house, to which he invited 200 of the leading Church workers of Nephi. The program included dancing, singing, recitations, music and hearty congratulations and wishes for many happy returns of the veteran's natal day. Fish in Utah Streams. — From the annual report of Fish Commis- sioner John Sharp, it appears that 1,017,000 native brook trout fry have been distributed in Utah streams, and a grand total of all fry of 1,978,000, during the year 1903. The total cost of this distribution, not counting salaries, was $2,079.03. Angling in the mountain streams has much improved, and the work of the state hatchery is beginning to show gratifying results. Mr. Sharp recommends that the capacity of the hatchery be doubled. Miscellaneous. — Aurora Hodge, held for the murder of Peddler Ryan, died from the result of an operation, in a hospital in' Salt Lake, December 1. — On the 3rd the Pleasant Valley coal company sold their Salt Lake retail business to Simon Bamberger for approximately $50,000 — It is estimated by shippers of Alfalfa seed that the Cache Valley crop this year brought the farmers about $200,000. Domestic — November, 1903. Cuban Reciprocity.— On the 18th, the House passed the Cuban re- ciprocity bill by a vote of three hundred and thirty five to twenty-one, and the bill was referred to the Senate Committee onToreign Relations, on the 20th. On the 16th of December the Senate by a decisive vote of fifty-seven to eighteen also passed the bill which carries into execution the treaty between the United States and Cuba, which was ratified last March. The treaty provides for a reduction of twenty per cent from the rates of duty under the Dingley law on all Cuban articles imported into the United States, and a varying reduction of from twenty to forty per cent from the established Cuban duty on articles into Cuba from the United States.
Congress adjourned December 19, to January 4. Newly Discovered Sayings of Jesus. — Six years ago, says the Literary Digest, the distinguished Egyptologists, Drs. Bernard P. Gren-

EVENTS OF THE MONTH. 239 fell and Arthur S. Hunt, found in Oxyrynchus, a buried city on the edge of the Libyan desert, a manuscript which had been hidden for many cen- turies, and which contains fragmentary utterances attributed to Jesus. Further excavations in the same vicinity have brought to light other "sayings." At a meeting of the Egyptian Exploration Fund, held in Lon- don on November 14, Dr. Grenfell made public some interesting details. Opinions as to the value of these finds differ, and Harper's Weekly be- lieves that. The hypothesis that newly discovered sayings ascribed to Jesus on the alleged authority of St. Thomas or of some other apostle should be accepted as authentic will not bear scrutiny when we call to mind that a multitude of such traditions were current in the latter half of the second century of our era, but that, among them all, only the four gospels now accepted withstood the criticism of the fathers and of the councils of the church. By the close of the second century A. D., the authorized gos- pel comprised the four evangels, noM' known to us, and no others. This is not to say that fragments of gospel narratives once current, tut rejected by the judgment of the fathers, or that early translations of the canonical evangels intoSyriac or Old Latin, or into the Memphitic or Thebaic dialects of Egyptian, or into the Ethicpic and Armenian lan- guages, may not be useful from the viewpoint of critics, who desire to arrive at a correct text. To suppose, however, tliat any dicta contained in spurious gospels would now be permitted by scholars or theologians to supersede statements of the canonical evangelists would be absurd. Yet this is precisely the suggestion that is indirectly made by some of the daily newspapers which have chronicled the recent discovery in Egypt. Cleveland Refuses. — In a letter to the BrooJcli/n Eagle, dated November 25, Ex-President Grover Cleveland announced his unalterable determination never again to become the nominee of his party for the Presidency.
Among other things he says: In full view of every consideration presented, I have not for a moment been able, nor am I now able, to open my mind to the thought that in any circumstances or upon any consideration I should ever again become the nominee of my party for the Presidency. My determination not to do so is unalterable and conclusive. December,
1903. The Smoot Case and the Senate. — The women's temperance unions, Sunday schools, and churches of the eastern states, are continuing to overwhelm the Senate with uniform petitions asking for an "investiga- tion of the charges made and filed against Hon. Reed Smoot, a Senator from the state of Utah." They are going it blind, and the v/hole situ- ^ation is thus accurately set forth by Harper's Weekly of December 5: Nobody has yet alleged that Senator Smoot has more than one wife

240 IMPROVEMENT ERA or, in other words, is practicing polygamy. It follows that the demand for his expulsion from the Senate must be based upon the assertion that he is a believer in "Mormonism," and that, as a matter of theory, "Mor- monism" sanctions a plurality of wives. It would be impossible to exag- gerate the mischief of the consequences of expelling a Senator on the score of his theoretical opinions. Such a proceeding would be a flagrant violation of the first amendment of the Federal Constitution, which pre- scribes that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The Act of Congress by which Utah was admitted to the Union did not violate this amend- ment, because it did not forbid the profession of the tenets characteristic of "Mormonism." It simply prohibited the practise of polygamy. We repeat I hat, so far as any evidence has been yet brought forward. Senator Smoot is a monogamist. As regards his private opinion concerning the religious or moral propriety of polygamy, he is as free from restraint as would be a Jew or a Mohammedan, either of whom is at liberty to hold what doctrines on the subject he may choose, so long as he refrains in practice from a violation of State or Federal law. This is all there is to the Smoot business, and the sooner people stop petitioning the Senate to transcend its constitutional powers, the better it will be for all con- cerned. The hearing of the case, or at least the filing of an answer before the Senate Committee by Senator Smoot, has been postponed until Janu- ary 9, 1904. The World's Gold and Silver. — The Director of the Mint has completed his annual statement which shows that in 1902 the United States produced $80,000,000 of gold and $29,415,000 of silver. The world's output was $295,889,600 of gold (an increase of $32,500,003), and $88,486,500 of silver, a decrease of $8,000,000 ounces in quantity and of $16,500,000 in commercial value. Bankrupts are Fewer. — From the annual report of the attorney in charge of bankruptcy affairs in Washington, filed December 8, it is shown that 14,308 voluntary petitions in bankruptcy were filed through- out the United States for the year ending September 30, 1903, which is more than two thousand less than were filed during any of the preceding^ years since the enactment of the law on July 1, 1898. The states showing the largest number of cases filed during the year are: Alabama, 1797; New York, 1546: Illinois, 1439; Massachu- setts, 128; Maine, 7033; Ohio, 585.