--- 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: 9 number: 4 published: 1906-02 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, \"Benjamin Franklin's Bi-Centenary,\" *Improvement Era* 9, no. 4 (February 1906): 323." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0904unse 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: improvementera0904unse start_page: 323 end_page: 323 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1906-02) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0904unse publication_year: 1906 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 1906, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Benjamin Franklin's Bi-Centenary A TOTTERING EMPIRE. 323 rushed into the stables and tortured, in a barbarous manner, and killed, the aristocracy of horse blood. It must not be imagined that what is going on in Russia today affects Russia only. The political power of union labor has never been ?o forcefully exercised as it is in Russia today. There it ha^j taken on political power sufficient to overthrow the government. There can be no doubt that the example of union labor in Russia, today, will encourage Unionism here and elsewhere in Europe to assume political power. Unionism has shown itself to be, in some of its demands, infinitely more arbitrary than the Czar of Russia. In this country, and in England, Unionism would be met with an almost equal political force in favor of the open door, or the right to sell one's labor in the open market without hindrance. Such a conflict might be, in this country, just as peculiar and anomalous as it could be dangerous. It would not be bounded by cities, it would not even be determined by family ties. In the same family might be found the Unionist and the advocate of the open door. It is very easy to imagine a civil conflict in the labor world more appalling than the world has ever seen. The example of Russia, today, may have consequence more dreadful and farreaching than can even at this time be imagined. Salt Lake City, Utah. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S BI-CENTENARY. The bi-centenary of Benjamin Franklin was observed on Januaryl7, 1905. He was bom two hundred years ago, and was America's first self-made man,-the greatest example in his day, of a rise from obscurity to wealth and position. He owed his success entirely to his own efforts. His parents were unable to give him a liberal education. When he landed in Philadelphia, a mere boy, he owaed onb^ a few pennies over a dollar, but at the time of his death, he was easily the richest and most prominent man in America. In money, art scholarship and science he stood at the top-and his attainments were honored by de^ees from Scot ish and American Universities. His fame as a scientist extended to every country, and he was the most many-sided man in all our public he. He could see opporti^i^ and had the ability to grasp it. He was a gentleman and a scho ar, and Tl long the greatest of many Americans who have risen from nothing to