--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Anderson, Edward H. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 9 number: 1 published: 1905-11 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Edward H. Anderson, "Events and Comments," *Improvement Era* 9, no. 1 (November 1905): 75–80.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0901unse 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: improvementera0901unse start_page: 75 end_page: 80 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1905-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0901unse publication_year: 1905 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 1905, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Events and Comments EVENTS AND COMMENTS. BY EDWARD H. ANDERSON. New Surveyor-General.— On Saturday, September 30, Surveyor-General Edward H. Anderson was succeeded in oifice by Hon. Thomas Hull. During the in- cumbency of the former, from April 10, 1901, to date, 942 mining surveys were ordered, embracing 2,373 locations. The cash received for this work aggregated $61,479. For the same period in the agricultural division of the office, fifty contracts for surveys were awarded, and 324 full and fractional townships were approved, including 5,569,531.11 acres of land. This included seventeen contracts in the Uintah reservation, embracing 2,063,996.21 acres. This was in addition to the nearly 400,000 acres which had been previously surveyed there, making the total number of acres within the reservation, not including the Fort Duchesne military reservation, 2, 424, 857. 32. The total number of acres of land now surveyed in the State amounts to 22,555,433.86, the number on April 1, 1901, reaching only 16,985,002.75. The salaries and contingent expenses of the office for the period named amounted to $132,508.77, of which $67,885.54 was for mineral work. This amount did not include the payment of engineers, which was made directly by the department and amounted during the time named, for agricultural surveys, to $187,242.35. Neither did the sum include the pajonent of mineral engineers, this being paid directly by claimants. At present there are sixty-seven deputy surveyors. The number of clerks in the office is twenty, the largest number employed at any time being thirty-three. The statement shows a vast volume of work, and gives a good idea of what is being done in new mining ventures in the state. Before patent is issued, every location for survey costs the claimant from $200 to $300, aside from the improve- ments. Utah Municipal Tickets. —Throughout the state of Utah, municipal elections will be held on Tuesday, November 7. -The Republicans, Democrats, Socialists, and other parties generally, had their nominations before the public in the early part of October. The so-called "American" ticket, in Salt Lake City, is composed entirely of non- "Mormons" and is nominated with a view to pushing "Mormons" entirely out of politics. Outside of that city, however, it is not conceded that : 76 IMPROVEMENT ERA. much showing will be made by this class of agitators ; and even there, the more conservative people of all classes will remain with their party tickets, or vote for ' their personal choice, so that it is doubtful whether the * 'knockers, ' as they are termed, will win any political place. Following are the party nominees in Salt Lake City: Republican: Mayor, William J. Lynch. Auditor, Willis E. Vigus. Attorney, W. R. Hutchinson. Recorder, Calvin S. Buckwalter. Treasurer, Walter J. Beatie. Democratic: Mayor, Richard P. Morris. Attorney, W. H. Bramel. Recorder, John S. Critchlow. Treasurer, Joseph E. Caine. American: Mayor, Ezra Thompson. Attorney, Ogden Hiles. Recorder, John B. Moreton. Auditor, Rudolph Alff. Treasurer, Frank A. Swenson. In Ogden City: Republican: Mayor, Rudolph Kuchler. Attorney, John E. Bagley. Recorder, William J. Critchlow. Auditor, Mrs. Florence O'Neil Stan- ford. Treasurer, James E. Halverson. Municipal Judge, John D. Murphy. Democratic: Mayor, Dr. E. M. Conroy. Auditor, Mrs. George F. Wade. Attorney, John C. Davis. Recorder, Albertus Bragonje. Municipal Judge, T. D. Johnson. City Treasurer, James H. Riley. In Prove: Republican: Mayor, Joseph H. Frisby. Recorder, Wm. E. Hard- ing. Marshal, Silas L. AUred. Attorney, Daniel H. Thomas. Justice, A. A. Noon. Treasurer, Emma Simons. Democratic: Mayor, Wm. M. Roylance. Recorder, George B. Peay. Marshal, W. K. Henry. Attorney, Frank A. McGraw. Treasurer, Mrs. Amanda Young. Justice of the Peace, M. M. Kellogg. The State Fair. —At no recent exhibit has the Deseret Agricultural and Mfg. Society, J. G. McDonald, president, scored a greater financial, as well as artistic, success, than at the fair held during the first week of October, this year. The large new building was opened, and it, with all the others, was full of credit- able displays. The attendance counted above 50, 500, while the receipts were per- haps thirty per cent greater than last year. Many needed improvements are con- templated for next October, and the Portland exhibit and furniture will then be added to the display, including the entire mineral exhibit, which will be a perman- ent feature of future fairs. The receipts total $5000 above the outlay, this year. Pathfinders Guests of Senator Clark.— On October 9, the following "Mormon" pathfinders, pioneers of the San Bernardino Trail, left Salt Lake for Los Angeles, over the Salt Lake Route W. C. A. Smoot, James A. Bean, A. H. Hale, Benjamin Cluff, W. W. CluflF, S. L. Ensign, S. S. Worthington, Ruel Barrus, William Price Jones, James Oakley, William C. Mitchell, William Robbins, Chartes Crismon, Alexander Gemmill, I. N. Dunyon, George Speirs, A. Milton Musser, Elliott Wilder, George Harrison, Thomas Dallin, Hop Pender, James Lawson, Nathan Tanner and Phil Margetts. They were the guests of W. A. Clark, who had invited them to pass over his road in Pullman cars, following nearly the same route which they traversed 58 and 50 years ago, when they blazed the trail from Salt Lake City to San Bernardino : : EVENTS AND COMMENTS. 77 Los Angeles and San Pedro Harbor, as pioneers, enduring hardships and privations untold. The first company of eighteen or nineteen men under Horace K. La- throp, 0. P. Rockwell, and E. K. Fuller, left Salt Lake about Nov. 16, 1847, for California, to secure animals for the Utah settlers; as near as can be learned these were the names Horace Lathrop, Elijah K. Fuller, William Peacock, Orrin P. Rockwell, Joseph M. Davis, Eli Harvey Pierce, Thurston Larsen, James Hyrons, Jake Workman, Jackson Workman, Jefferson Hunt, Gilbert Hunt, Peter Nease, James Shaw, John Y. Greene, Elias F. Pearsons, William B. Cornogg and John Hunt. The second company, consisting of thirty men, was called at the April confer- ence, 1851, and was under the direction of Amasa M. Lyman. The object of the going of this company was to establish a half-way station between Salt Lake and Los Vegas, California, and to establish friendly relations with the Indians and people of the far West. Union Depot for Salt Lake.— The Union Pacific stockholders elected their Oliver Ames, Boston W. D. Cornish, New directors on October 10, as follows : ; York; Thomas T. Eckert, New York; Henry C. Frick, Pittsburg; E. H. Harriman, Arden, N. Y. ; Marvin Hughitt, Chicago; Otto H. Kahn, Morristown, N. J.; R. S. Lovett, New York; Charles A. Peabody, New York; W. G. Rockefeller, New York; Henry H. Rogers, New York Jacob H. Schiff, New York; Joseph F. Smith, Salt ; Lake James Stillman, New York P. A. Valentine, Chicago. ; ; In this connection it was announced that the Harriman roads and the Salt Lake Route will soon build a $600, 000 union Station in Salt Lake City, across the foot of South Temple, just west of 3rd west street, on the present site of the 0. S. L. yards ; also that a through Pullman train over the Union Pacific via Ogden and Salt Lake will be put on between Chicago and Los Angeles. Large expenditures for yard rearrangements, coaches, locomotives and steel rails will be made. M. I. A. Lecture Bureau. —The first lecture of this season was delivered at the Salt Lake Assembly Hall, on the evening of October 13, by Elbert Hubbard, he ' of the Philistine. It was on the ' 'Gospel of Work, ' and proved to be very inter- taining, and full of thought expressed in catching epigrams. He believes in edu- cation, but it must be practical. Here are some of his sentiments Some people can do everything but make a living. That man who is best edu- cated is most useful, and the most useful man is the best educated. The educated man, the really educated man, is the useful man. If he isn't useful he isn't educated. I don't care if he is a college graduate. A college doesn't supply an education: it simply affords opportunity. A philosopher has said: "Take twelve men out of Harvard, the pick of the whole faculty, and put them on a raft and they will all drown. They can't handle it. They only understand the theory of rafts at Harvard. One of the professors at Harvard had a fine Jersey cow presented to him by some admiring friends. She was sent by express. When she arrived he was asked if he could milk her. He replied, "No, but I'm reading up on it." And it tran- spired that he was reading Herschel on the Milky Way. If you ever get to heaven and sit down to rest and take it easy all the time, — ': 78 IMPROVEMENT ERA. what will you find? I'll tell you what you'll find. You'll find it hell! That's what you'll find. Heaven is a place of progression. It is a place of work. If it isn't I don't want to be there. It is a place where they do things. Among others announced to lecture this season, are President David Starr Jordan of Stanford University, Jerome K. Jerome, Mrs. Bertha Kunz Baker, Opie Bead, and Edmond Vance Cooke. Utah and the Portland Fair.^On October 15, the Lewis and Clark Exposi- tion closed. President Goode has made public the statement that stockholders will receive a dividend offrom 30 to 40 per cent of their stock, from which one must conclude that the fair was a pronounced financial success. It was a success, besides, from all other standpoints, for of the hundreds of thousands of strangerg who came to see, many invested in various lines of endeavor, while nearly all the western states including Utah, felt the stimulus and the advantage of the Western travel. About two and one-half millions of people passed through the gates. Utah is among the states which were at the front, at the great exposition, as the awards granted for her mineral display, her products and industries, testify. In educa- tional matters, Utah stands high on the list, as witness the following awards Gold medals for the state as a whole school for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind, ; on cabinet and contents and live exhibit; University of Utah, on entire display; Agricultural college, on manual training work in wood and iron sewing and cook- ; ing, and as a whole kindergarten training school as a whole, Salt Lake City ele- ; ; mentary education, Ogden Elementary and commercial department, silver medals ; Logan Latter-day Saints Church school and Presb3i;erian academies Brigham Young ; College and Latter-day Saints university; Brigham Young University; Park City, Provo, and Normal training school; University of Utah. On unified course of study, bronze medals: Snow academy, Weber Stake academy, Cache county. Salt Lake county, Davis county, Utah county, Weber county, and Eureka. Honorable mention Indian Industrial school, Ephraim Rowland Hall, Box-elder county, Kate : ; B. Anderson's notaphone. Prof. L. A. Ostein, in charge of Utah's educational exhibit, said to State Supt. Nelson : ' 'I have the honor to inform you that the State of Utah has received eight gold medals (highest award), nine silver medals, eight bronze medals, and honorable mention in five other cases. We have fared well in competition with ' other states. The three state schools, Ogden and Salt Lake 'drew' gold medals. Hon. Spencer Clawson and associates are entitled to the thanks of the people, for the able and economical administration of the State's interests at the Lewis and Clark Exposition. Died. —September: Wednesday, 6th, in Beaver, Mary A. B. Parkinson, a pio- neer of Beaver, born in 1826, in Kent, England. —In Grantsville, Wednesday, 6th, Wilford Hudson, a veteran of the Mormon Battalion, born in Harrison county, Ind., Sept. 19, 1818. —Friday, 8th, in Pleasant Grove, Mrs. Celia H. Griggs, a veteran of Missouri and Nauvoo, born Oct. 29, 1819. —Tuesday, 12th, in Sanpete county, Mary T. Beal, a pioneer of southern Utah, born May 27, 1827, in Nottingham, England. — In Lehi, Friday, 15th, Hans Hammer, one of the oldest residents of that place. —Saturday, Teton, James Gardner, who crossed the plains by Hand- 16th, in cart, in 1856. — In Juarez, Mexico, Joseph Davis, a veteran of the Sept. 21, C. ' EVENTS AND COMMENTS. 79 Church and pioneer of Southern Utah.— Tuesday, 26th, in Bountiful, Patriarch Joseph Argyle, bom in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, Sept. 18, 1818.— In West .Jordan, 26th, Catherine Phillips Smith, a widow and plural wife of Patriarch Hy- rum Smith, born Aug. 1, 1819.— Saturday, 30th, in Layton, Arizona, Wm. J. Packer, a High Priest in the St. Joseph Stake, and an active Church worker, born Salt Lake, Utah, October 26, 1848. Died.— October: in Salt Lake City, Sunday 1st, Henry Dinwoodey, one of the most prominent and influential business men of Salt Lake City, and a faithful Church worker, aged 80 years.— In Sandy, 7th, N. Parley Thompson, a recent California missionary, and faithful Church worker, age 25 years.—Sunday, 8th, John E. Cox, Secretary of the Deseret Agricultural and Manufacturing Society, aged 50 years. —Wednesday, 11th, Reddick N. Allred, one of the members of the Mormon Battalion, and a Utah pioneer, born in Tennessee, Feb. 21, 1822. —Thurs- day, 12th, Mrs. Aura A. Cummings, a veteran of Nauvoo, born Feb. 17, 1827, in Mansfield, Conn. — Wednesday, 11th, in Salt Lake City, Thomas Adams, a well- known attorney, and husband of Emily Caldwell Adams of the Y. L. M. I. A. Board, age 45 years. Christ of the Andes.— Senora de Costa has appealed to the governments of Argentina and Chile, for aid to build a Monastery-Refuge, a humanitarian estab- lishment similar to that of the Monks of St. Bernard, in the Alps, on the summit of the Andes, and adjoining the "Christ of the Andes." She says that, "there on that very lofty summit, numbers of travelers, surprised by the snowstorms of the Andes, perish every year during the winter for lack of timely and effective assist- ance." It is designed that this new refuge shall prevent the suffering and render the needed aid to the wanderer in distress. Senora de Costa, who is the president of the "Christian Mothers Association" of Buenos Ayres, was, with Bishop Bena- vente, the leading spirit who conceived the idea and carried to completion the ex- ' traordinary monument to eternal peace, ' 'Christ of the Andes, ' erected on the summit of the Andes, and on the border line between Chile and Argentina. It is a colossal statue of Christ, by Mateo Alonso, a young native sculptor of the latter country, and commemorates a remarkable arbitration and peace treaty between the two nations — one that may indeed be pointed to as an example to the world. The statue which was set up March 13, 1904, is cast from bronze of old cannon left by the Spaniards at the time of Argentine independence: and on this interna" tional monument, standing on the mountain tops nearly 14, 000 feet above sea level, is this remarkable inscription, ' 'Sooner shall these mountains crumble into dust than Chileans and Argentines shall break the peace which, at the feet of Christ' ' the Redeemer, they have sworn to maintain. Senora de Costa in a recent article in the Independent, appeals to the United States for help to build the Refuge, and hopes that all nations shall contribute generously to its realization. — Sweden and Norway. These Scandinavian countries came to an agreement September 23, by act of their representatives in the Karlstad conference, and the peaceful separation of the two countries is assured. Concessions were made on 80 IMPROVEMENT ERA. both sides. Both countries agree to submit to the Hague Court, for a period of ten years, all matters of dispute except those which affect the independence, integ- rity and vital interests of either. The question of the fortification of the fron- tier, which seemed at times likely to break up the conference, was settled by the establishment of a neutral zone, fifteen kilometres wide, on both sides of the southern portion of the frontier of the two countries. Within this neutral zone neither nation shall station armed military forces, and no fortifications, war ports, or depots for the army or navy can be maintained in the zone. The Norwegian fortifications, now existing within the neutral zone, are to be demolished within the next eight months to the satisfaction of a commission composed of three foreign military officers. The fortifications at Fredrikstad, Gyldenloeve and Overbierget are to be allowed to remain, but in a demolished condition. The nomadic Lap- landers are to be allowed to pasture reindeer in Norway until the year 1917. The Swedish Riksdag and the Norwegian Storthing took up the articles of agreement in early October, and these were later accepted by both. King Oscar will rescind the union, and declare Norway an independent state. By the middle of November the Norwegian government will consider whether Norway shall be a kingdom or a republic, and submit the proposition to the vote of the people, in the elections of 1905. Bjornson, the veteran novelist, urges the election of a king, but public sentiment seems to favor a republic. Canton-Hankau Railroad. —About seven years ago, an American syndicate obtained permission from the Chinese government to build a railway between Can- ton and Hankau, and incidentally to develop along the line, the mining and in- dustrial interests of the country. It was reported some time ago that the attitude of the Chinese government was very hostile toward the continuing of the enterprize in foreign hands, and recently the government declared the lease cancelled, but in so doing oif ered an indemnity to the company which held it. After a consultation with President Roosevelt, the company's representatives accepted an indemnity of $6, 750, 000 for the surrender of their rights. It was the best thing to do, and the arrangement removes a question that might have become very seriously trouble- some in connection with other complications between our country and China, oc- casioned by the enforcement of the Chinese exclusion act, and the boycott of American goods in the celestial empire.