--- 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: 8 number: 1 published: 1904-11 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Topics of Moment," *Improvement Era* 8, no. 1 (November 1904): 53–59.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0801unse 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: improvementera0801unse start_page: 53 end_page: 59 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1904-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0801unse publication_year: 1904 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 1904, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Topics of Moment TOPICS OF MOMENT. The Siege of Port Arthur. The siege of Port Arthur will be handed down to history as one of the most desperate struggles of modern warfare. The Japanese permit so little of the details of the siege to be known that the history of the struggle cannot be given until the war closes. Now and then, incidents appear in the press that indicate the great destruction of life and the desperation with which the work is carried on. Now that the Japanese are so near the main fortifications, headway can be made only by means of tunneling; and these tunnels are built in a zigzag course so that the Russian guns cannot reach the trenches. The two contending powers are now so close to each other by means of the counter tunneling of the Russians that hand to hand combats frequently take place, and the Japanese and the Russians are fighting from the trenches. It is said that they are so close that they even throw red pepper at one another. At night the Russians lay mines into which the Japanese often dig with the most disastrous results. A Russian who escaped from the beleaguered city gives following sickening picture of the intensity with which the enemies are grappling one another: A Russian and a Japanese had been wounded and left during the night on the battle field in close posL tions to each other. They struggled towards each other, and in their wounded conditions began a hand to hand encounter. From the appearance of the blood-stained ground around where they lay, they had evidently struggled ferociously with each other. In the morning when they were found, the Jap's teeth were embedded in 54 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the neck of the Russian, while the latter's thumbs were in the position of gouging out the Jap's eyes. There is some indication of a restlessness among the Japaneseat Tokio, over the delay in capturing Port Arthur. General Nogi, who is in command of the beleaguering Japanese forces, is a general of high reputation. No doubt he is doing all he possibly can to avoid unnecessary destruction of human life. Port Arthur is one of the best fortified encampments in the world, and its fall, if the Japanese take it, will be one of the most brilliant feats in theannals of war. New Manchurian Army. A second army for operations in Manchuria has been ordered organized by the Czar. Mobilization is now going on, and it is said three hundred thousand additional men will immediately be placed in the field in the far East. The completion and opening to traffic of the around Lake Baikal railway, September 25, will greatly facilitate the despatch of these new troops, and aid in more readily than heretofore providing the army with supplies, especially during winter, when the ice prevents the passage of the laketransports. The Czar retains Kuropatkin in command of the firstarmy, and has appointed General Grippenberg to command thesecond. This latter general is sixty-six years old, and gained distinction in the defense of Sebastopol, in the campaigns of Turkestan, and in the war with Turkey. The Prince of Piedmont. To the King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III, has just been born. (Thursday, September 15, in Rome,) an heir to the throne of Italy^ Some specu'ation and agitation have been indulged in as to how" this new heir to the throne should be designated. Should they call him the Prmce of Rome, a title that would indicate that he was to be the King of Rome as well as the King of Italy? In 1870, the King of Italy took the Kingdom of Rome from the Pope, and formed a united Italy. The Popes have chosen since then to regard themselves as prisoners in the Vatican, as a protest against the occupation of the City of Rome and the accompanying strip of country running in an easterly direction across Italy. The^ TOPICS OF MOMENT. 55 question of Church and State, therefore, in Rome is, perhaps, the most acute question of that character to be found anywhere in the world. Wherever the religious influences are strong enough, Roman Catholics are prevented from taking any part in the elections of parliament, as a standing protest against the occupation of the Holy City by the King of Italy. The anti-clericals, as the extreme opponents of the Pope are styled, urged that the heir to the throne be styled the Prince of Rome. The clericals, or religious adherents to the Pope, would have regarded such a designation as a slap in the face of the Pope« It is gratifying that the King avoided such unnecessary antagonism, and styled the new born heir the Prince of Piedmont. Piedmont is the birth-place, in northern Italy, of the present reigning house in Italy. The leading countries of Europe, today, England, France, Germany, and Italy, have their heart-burning questions of Church and State. In some instances, anti-religious sentiment has reached a higher mark than it has ever been known to reach heretofore in the history of the world. Conservatism is called for among the contending parties to this great question. Senator Hoar. The death of Senator Hoar has removed from public life one of the most conspicuous characters of our national legislature. He had been in public life for thirty-five years; and during his office as senator, he was among those in the front rank of that body. Massachusetts was always proud of the Senator's great attainments. Though a strong partisan, he was nevertheless a free-lance whenever his party committed itself to a policy he could not conscientiously accept. During our recent period of expansion, he was strongly op- While his own state might posed to our policy in the Philippines. not endorse the Senator, in some of his digressions for conscience sake, Massachusetts always made due allowance for the individual liberty of Senator Hoar, without ever a thought of removing him from bis office because of his independent action. His services to the country were too great, and the state was too proud of the distinctions he had won to ever listen to any suggestion that he r.6 IMPROVEMENT ERA. was not in harmony with a considerable proportion of his constituency. Senator Hoar was one of the most learned men in public life. He loved books, and while a book- worm, he was never without opportunity or ability to apply what he read to the needs of innumerable cases at hand. His love of the classics had made him a refined thinker, and elegance of expression found its highest flow in his public addresses. There was a striking feature of the Senator's life in the truth that every day his mental powers grew stronger. His last addresses were more eloquent than any that preceded them. There was no distinguishable lapse in memory. His fund of knowledge was just as completely at his bidding in his last days as in the prime of life. In scholarly attainments, he had no equal in the United States Senate, and such a distinction was no discredit to a large number of eminent men in that body. During his entire public life he always commanded the greatest deference from political friend and foe alike. He was always lofty in the position he took. Not one word of distrust has ever attached to his public service. He died a poor man who has hande down to posterity a great treasure of learning and high-minded public service. Harcourt, Bismarck and Bartholdi Dead. On Saturday, October 1, in Muneham Park, near Oxford, England, Sir William Vernon Harcourt, one of the greatest leaders of the Liberal Party of England, died very suddenly. He was "one of the few eminent statesman who received their political training at the hands of Gladstone and Disraeli." Born in 1827, he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. He studied law and entered journalism, after his graduation. Under the pen name of "Historicus" in the London Times, he wrote on the American Civil War, a series of letters that distinguished him as an authority on international law. He entered Parliament at 41, and in 1873, became Solicitor General under the Gladstone government, and was knighted. In 1886-92 he was Chancellor of the Exchequer and established the death duties, ever since a part of the British fiscal policy. In 1898, he resigned as Liberal Leader in the House of TOPICS OF MOMENT. 57 Commons. Thrice he was offered a peerage, but refused to accept it. Prince Herbert, the oldest son of the famous former German Chancellor Bismarck, died in Freidrichsruhe, Germany, on Sunday, September 18. He was only fifty-five years of age. His father had trained him in diplomacy with the hope that he might succeed to hi'^ own place, but the death of the former kaiser,and the inauguration of the present ruler, blasted any such ambitions as the prince may have had in that direction. He lived a quiet life, taking little part in public affairs, and that as a member of the Reichstag. In 1885, he became under-secretary of state in the department of foreign affairs, retaining the post until his father was dismissed from the chancellorship in 1890. On Tuesday, October 4, Auguste Bartholdi, the Frederic sculptor, died in Paris, France. He will ever be remembered in the United States as the designer of the statue of "Liberty Enlightening the World," which he gave to this nation, and for which Americans will always hold dear his name. He died of tuberculosis, and was aware of his approaching death, having designed and completed his own tombstone, which shows an allegorical figure holding out a laurel wreath. He leaves an uncompleted group, in honor of the aeronauts who distinguished themselves at the siege of Paris- Tibitan Treaty. The treaty signed at Lhasa, September 7, is now recognized by the press of all countries as a great triumph of British diplomacy, just as Col. Younghusband's expedition itself against theTibitans is a triumph of British prowess. Russia is deprived of any valid ground of objection, because the British have disclaimed a protect- orate, and have not left a garrison at the Tibitan capital; China is friendly to the movement, because the approval of Pekin was sought and obtained, and because it practically restores Chinese authority over Tibit which had almost vanished; by raising up a rival to the Dalai Lama, the sacred ruler, in the person of his spiritual peer, they have divided the native religious authority, in theological as well as religious matters; and at the same time the British have secured their main objects: freedom of trade between India and her northern neighbor Tibit; an indemnity for their exhibition of some ,.,, 58 IMPROVEMENT ERA. three million dollars; the checking of the influence of Russia by debaring Tibit from entering into political relations with other countries; the occupation of the Chumbi Valley until the indemnity is paid, thus keeping open a route by which they can return whenever they wish, on any of the various pretexts which will necessarily occur. All this appears to most people as a virtual protectorate, but Russia is busy with Japan, and just now is pleased to view the action not as a political event directed against Russia's interests, but as a possible mutual good that will have no evil influence on^ Anglo-Russian relations. Time will tell, however. The Possibilities of the American Rice Crop. During a recent visit of the writer in western Louisiana and southeastern Texas, he found unusual interest in the growth of rice, and in the sale of rice lands. Great numbers of men were on the trains going to and coming from the Texas rice fields. The Southern Pacific railroad was sending out great quantities of rice literature. In many places, great pumping plants have been established, and the great subterranean reservoirs had their contents lifted on to the rice fields, which only a few years ago had been a comparative waste. "And so we are to have a rice boom," was the frequent exclamation heard from the lips of interested and surprised travelers, in that section of the country. It is said that during the year 1902, it required ten thousand cars of the ordinary size to transport the rice from the fields of Louisiana and southeastern Texas, At present the annual output is something like two million barrels a year. This is about two-thirds the consumption of that article in the United States. This, too, is remarkable, when it isconsidered that not more than one- tenth of the land available for rice-growing is at present under cultivation. The rice-fields of these two states are making a wonderful change in the appearance of the country. One might almost imagine himself in eastern Kansas or Nebraska. New towns have sprung up within the last two years, equipped with all the facilities - of modern improvements. This section was started on its present boom by a thrifty class of people who were there from Iowa, and TOPICS OF MOMENT. 5^ applied to the country the modern methods of agriculture. Large canals intersect great tracts of land, including thousands of acres. The question naturally arises: What effect will the abundant growth of rice in this country have upon our national diet, in years to come? We have not been a nation of rice- eaters, like the Japanese and the Chinese. We have used rice occasionally to vary our diet, although its consumption in the southern states has grown very greatly, among both whites and negroes, in recent years. Scientists tell us that rice is really one of the most beneficial diets that a nation can have, and point to the vigor of the Japanese and the Chinese as a result of the rice diet. As Japan grows in popularity, gains more and more the admiration of the world, and shows to the world the unsurpassed vitality of her soldiers, we may be turned to an imitation of her prudence in matters of diet. It is not unlikely, therefore, that within a generation rice may become one of the staple productions of this country. The assured success of rice-culture in the southwest has given rise to a great deal of speculation about competing with China and Japan in the rice markets of the world. These states border on the Gulf of Mexico, and it is only a short distance from the ports of the Gulf to the Panama Canal which is in direct line with eastern Asia whose people consume so many million barrels of rice every year. This new industry will add enormously to the commerce of the United States, and add wonderfully to the resources of our country. In many ways, the South is all astir, and has made, in this and other directions, greater strides, within the last ten years, than were made within forty preceding years. It is now, "Go south, young man."