--- 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: 10 number: 2 published: 1906-12 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* 10, no. 2 (December 1906): 155–160.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1002unse 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: improvementera1002unse start_page: 155 end_page: 160 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1906-12) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1002unse 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. --- # Events and Comments EVENTS AND COMMENTS. BY EDWARD H. ANDERSON. The President's Visit to Panama. —The Chief Executive of our nation, who hab just paid a visit to the Isthmus of Panama, has broken one of the precedents that have been observed by former presidents of the United States. While there is no constitutional provision which would prevent the Chief Executives of our nation visiting foreign soil, it has nevertheless, been deemed prudent in the past by them, to remain during the term of their office within the confines of the country over which they preside. President Roosevelt has taken a very lively interest in the gre^t canal. So far as the work may proceed under his administration, he is extremely anxious that it be done with dispatch, that it be free from graft, and that no public scandal shall be attached to the most gigantic piece of work undertaken by our country. Already, newspaper correspondents are beginning to throw discredit upon the administration and work of the canal. It is quite natural, therefore, that Mr. Roosevelt is anxious to learn something about the real status of the situation there with his own eyes and ears. From reports, he is well pleased with the progress and conduct of the work. Japanese Children in our Public Schools. — A short time ago the Board of Education in San Francisco promulgated an order excluding oriental children, namely, those of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese origin, from the Regular public schools of that city. The order was accompanied by a provision that separate schools be established for these orientals. The order was at once observed by both the Chinese and Koreans, but the Japanese, who are very much more sensitive to national discrimination of such a character, at once withdrew their children from the school, and entered a protest to the Japanese Consul at San Francisco, and at the same time began a suit to test the validity of such an order. Our treaty with Japan recognized the rights of the Japanese to the enjoy- ment of the public institutions of our country, as well as to the rights of trade. Such a discrimination will, therefore, give rise to some very delicate and technical questions between that empire and our country. The government of the United States is divided, and its powers are exercised by Federal and state governments. Questions of education have from the beginning of our republic been 1 56 IMPRO VFMENT ERA. regarded as purely local, and coming wholly within the principle of State Rights. Now, nowever, we find a city acting in such a manner as to really nullify, at least the spirit, if not the actual words, of the treaty entered into between the United States and Japan. This fine discrimination in the exercises of power by the states and the General Government is not, as a rule, understood by the Japanese, and most of them would he unable to comprehend it. Just at this time, San Francisco is governed by the labor element, whose organizations are strongly opposed, not only to the Chinese, but also to the Japanese laborers. The Japanese have found California an excellent field for their industry. The little Japs throng the great fruit-growing centers of the golden state in large numbers. Now that Japan has won her way to proud distinction in the eyes of the civilized world, and has made such rapid strides in education, it is not likely she will submit to such humiliating discriminations without some strong and effective protest. Meeting House Burned. — On Thursday morning, November 1, a fire completely destroyed the new ward meetinghouse, at Tabor, Alta, Canada. All the furniture went with it, including an organ, a piano, chairs, books, library, Sunday School and Primary records, and a $35 sacrament set. All was destroyed except a few benches which were on the outside. It will be a great loss to the people in that district, and their friends can only wish that they will be blessed in a temporal way to speedily regain all that they have lost. The Coming Douma. —Russia is preparing to give her subjects another parliament, called, in the language of the country, the Douma. The one which was prorogued some time ago was too clamorous for popular demands which the Czar and his advisers were unwilling to grant, and so was dismissed, and the country was pacified in some measure by the promise that a new election for a new Douma should be held. Power to diminish the franchise and to establish rules for the regulaaon of the election has been conferred upon the Russian Senate. It is really the creature of the Czar and his advisers, and the exercise of this power by the Senate is final. No appeal can be taken from its decrees. As a result, the franchise is very greatly limited. Certain classes of railroad and other government employees are not allowed to vote. The peasants will not enjoy a franchise so general and broad as that which enabled them to take part in the last election. It looks very much as though the bureaucracy of Russia was determined to whittle down the rights of voting in such a manner as to secure for the coming Douma a class of men who would yield to the imperial will. In the meantime, revolutionary bandits carry on sudden, swift and unprovoked raids. In Warsaw, Odessa, Riga, Mitau, Baku, Tiflis, and other places, every man carries his life in his hands, and the landowners in the country know not the day or hour when the raiders shall choose to torture and kill them and theirs. These raiders are often mere lads, truant schoolboys, who carry death-dealing revolvers. Then we hear of the government capturing them, and, notwithstanding they are mere children, ordering the soldiery to shoot them. But it is astonishing how really little change there is in the two capitals, Moscow and St. Petersburg. There it is said, one might EVENTS AND COMMENTS. 157 live for months and not witness any firing, or stabbing, or fighting in the streets. It appears now that all parties are moving towards radicalism, and the fate of the monarchy will depend upon whether the new Douma is to be revolutionary or pliable. — Hudson River Tunnel. This engineering feat was completed in October. The tunnel was built under the Hudson River by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and was begun five years ago. Its purpose is to land passengers directly in New York City, instead of on the New Jersey shore of the river. The work involved the driving of two enormous steel tubes, 23 feet in diameter, for 6,000 feet underwater. When the shields were 125 feet apart the work was stopped, in order that a test might be made of the accuracy with which the work had been done, and it was found that the tubes were only one-eighth of an inch out of alignment and three-quarters of an inch out of grade — a deviation so slight as to admit of a perfect meeting of the bores. Mrs. Jefferson Davis Dead.— On the 16th of October Varina Howard Davis, widow of the President of the Southern Confederacy, died, aged eighty. She married Mr. Davis in 1845, and remained his devoted companion through his political career at Washington, 1847-61; during his presidency of the Confederacy 1861-65; and during his second year's imprisonment at Fortress Monroe, and until his death in 1889. She published a memoir of his life in 1890. Cabinet Changes. — has been announced from Washington that several It changes will soon take place in President Roosevelt's cabinet. Attorney-General Moody will retire in January, and will be succeeded by Mr. Bonaparte, now Secretary of the Navy. Mr. Bonaparte's place will be filled by Mr. Metcalf now at the, head of the Department of Commerce and Labor. Mr. Oscar Solomon Straus of New York, who has twice been minister to Turkey, will succeed Mr. Metcalf. In March, Mr. Shaw, Secretary of the Treasury, will retire, and Mr. Cortelyou, now Postmaster-General, will succeed him. Mr. George von L. Myer, of Massachusetts, will take Mr. Cortelyou' s place at the head of the Postoffice Department. Mr. Straus is amember of the permanent court of arbitration at ihe Hague. He is in his 56th year. Mr. Myer, who is 48 years old, was ambassador to Italy from 1900 to 1905, when he was appointed ambassador to Russia. Ethan Allen Hitchcock, for eight years Secretary of the Interior, has voluntarily retired, and Commissioner of Corporations James R. Garfield, son of the late President Garfield, has been chosen to succeed him, March 4th. Died. — On Tuesday,October 2,Mrs. Bodil Kjar, a citizen of Manti since 1873, and its oldest resident, born in Denmark 96 years ago. —In Salt Lake City, 4th, Rachel Helm, born Utah, July 20, 1855, a faithful and active member of the Church and wife of Andrew D. Helm. — In Santa Monica, Cal., Wednesday, September 26, William C. Mocdy, born Alabama 1819, joined the Church in Texas, 1850, and came to Utah in 1853; he was a colonizer and pioneer, and a resident of Thatcher, Ariz. —In Indiana, about October 11, on a mission, NephiM. Perkins, president of the Indiana Conference, bom Franklin, Idaho, May 1, 1867, a resident — 158 IMPROVEMENT ERA. of Dayton, Idaho; he leaves a wife and several children.— In Ogden, Friday, October 5, Annie Bowring, daughter of the late H. E. Bowring, Brigham City, and for 20 years bookkeeper for J. G. McDonald Gandy Go.— In Baker Gity, Oregon, Wednesday, September 26, William Swansea Lewis, born England, January 24, 1835; he joined the Ghurch in 1849, came to Utah in 1856, and taught school in Moroni, North Ogden, Kaysville, Malad, Ogden and other cities where he is well — known; a resident of Baker Gity since 1897. In Salt Lake Gity, in a street car accident. Judge Gharles W. Bennett, founder of the old law firm of Bennett and Harkness, an able jurist, born New York, October 14, 1833, and came to Salt Lake Gity in 1871, the great Ghicago fire having wiped out his business in that city where he practiced in the firm of Ben tier, Bennett, Ulman and Ives. In — Taylorsville, Salt Lake Go., Wednesday, October 24, Susan Sneath Harker, the first woman to cross the Jordan river, a pioneer of 1847, born England, June 20, 1821, came to America in 1845, and joined the Ghurch in Winterquarters. — In Salt Lake Gity, Saturday, 13th, Thomas Marshall, a leading lawyer of the west, and a resident of Salt Lake for over 40 years, born Kentucky, Aug. 25, 1834. In Ogden, Monday, 15th, William McGregor, born Glasgow, Scotland, Oct. 4, 1842 came to Utah in 1850, a faithful member of the Ghurch. — In Gedar Valley, Utah CO., Sunday, 14th, Eli Bennett, a pioneer, and bishop of Gedar Valley for 24 years, bom Tennessee, Nov. 26, 1831, came to Utah in 1852. — In Gardston, Ganada, Saturday, 13th, Mary Ann Atkins Hymas, born England, 1815, joined the Ghurck in 1854, and came to Utah in 1861, settling in Tooele, and later in Bear Lake, but a resident of Ganada since 1898. She left 100 grand children and 153 great grand children and 5 children of the 5th generation. — November Elections. The Republican ticket at the election November 6, was victorious in the State of Utah by large majorities in nearly every county. It won in Salt Lake Gounty by about 2,000 plurality, though Salt Lake Gity was carried by a small vote, about 800, for the "American" party, about 200 decrease from their vote of last year. Weber, Utah, Davis, Summit, Sevier, and other leading counties of the state, went largely Republican. Hon. Joseph Howell for Gongress and Hon. jos. E. Prick for Justice of the Supreme Gourt, who headed the Republican ticket, were elected by large majorities. The constitutional amendment: Shall state funds be used to help high schools? carried in Salt Lake county by a vote of Yes, 3,410, as against No, 2,875; and the other amendment: Shall mortgages be exempt from taxation? by a vote of Yes, 4,893, against No, 1,687, which is undoubtedly an indication of how the amendments fared in the state. In New York, Ghas. E. Hughes, the insurance inquisitor, for Governor, carried the state by a plurality of 62,000, though the city went for Hearst, the Democratic candidate for the same ofl!ice. In Idaho, Senator Fred T. Dubois, who advocated the Democratic cause, with his principal issue an Anti- Mormon resolution, and a desire to succeed himself in the senate, was defeated, and Hon. W. E, Borah will be elected to his place. Governor Gooding was reelected. Returns from 42 states where Gongressional elections were held, insure Republican control of Gongress by a majority of 56, as against 112 in the present Gongress. The EVENTS AND COMMENTS. 159 joint statehood of Arizona and New Mexico was defeated by the adverse vote of Arizona. A Correction. — Elder Rudger Clawson desires to correct a wrong report of his statement at the late semi-annual conference, in which it is said: "During this season 105 car loads of peaches were shipped out of Brigham City alone, from which over $100,000 were realized." What he said in substance was: "from which about $50,000 were realized, with another $50,000 for berries and other fruits, mak.ng a total of about $100,000." The wrong statement has appeared in several prints, and in an article on "Peach Day" in the November Era. Central States Mission.— During the time that Elder James G. Duffin pre. sided in the Central States Mission, the following work was done and changes made. This embraces a period of six and a half years, and does not include six months that he labored in the State of Texas as a traveling elder and president of a conference, before taking charge of the mission. The work done as expressed by statistics, for the six and a-half years, is as follows, as given by Elder Duffin at the late semi-annual conference, and later in a report to the First Presidency: Families of strangers visited for the first time in presenting the gospel, 709,- 314; families revisited, 55,226; visits to members of the Church, 64,994; gospel conversations, 738,879; tracts distributed, 1,146,848; books disposed of, 54.349; books loaned, 14,807; meetings held, 43,036; attendance at the meetings, 944,798; baptisms performed, 1,808; and children blessed, 1,576. The smallest number of pages of reading matter contained in any tract distributed is sixteen, all other tracts contain from thirty-two to forty-four pages with neat, illustrated cover. Of the sixteen- page tracts, 46,848 have been distributed, which would leave 1,100,000 tracts of thirty- two and forty- four pages, or a total pages of tract literature distributed of 35,949,568. The smallest number of pages contained in the books distributed is 102, and they range from this Tip to 1,000. Taking an average of book pages distributed, we get 24,500,000, which, added to the pages of reading matter contained, in the tracts distributed, gives a grand total of 60,449, 000 pages of reading matter distributed in the mission, during the period of six and a half years. In addition to this, thousands of copies of the Deseret News, Improvement Era, Juvenile Instructor, Young Woman's Journal, Elders' Journal, and other publications, have been dis- tributed. Since January, 1901, there have been published by the mission the following number of books: Book of Mormon, 11,500; this was the first edition published by the missions in the United States. Voice of Warning, 20,000; Cowley's Talks on Doctrine, 5,980. Tracts published, 1,923.000, one half million of which have been sent to other missions; 250,000 Article of Faith cards. The number of missionaries laboring in the mission, during the above period, was 515; of this number two remained in the mission one month, one remained two months, three remained three months, three remained six months, two remained four months, and three ten months, the balance served from fifteen to thirty , 160 IMPROVEMENT ERA. months in the mission field. Of the missionaries that returned home under the time that might be called a full missionary term, but two deserted their fields of labor, and not one returned home by reason of improper association while in the mission field. Failing health of the missionary himself, or sickness or death of loved ones at home, have been the principal causes of their early return home. In October, 1900, the states of Missouri and Louisiana were added to the mission, and, in December of the same year, the headquarters of the mission were removed from St. John, Kansas, to Kansas City, Mo. The mission now embraces the states of Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma including Indian Territory. The following buildings are now owned by the Saints and the Church, in the mission. Two good meeting houses in the state of Kansas, two in Indian Territory, three in Texas, two in Louisiana, and two in Arkansas. Seven of these have been built since 1901, without cost to the Church. There has been secured for Church purposes real estate in the states of Kansas, Missouri and Texas. In Texas a strong colony has been established, at which point, Kelsey, Upshur Co. a town was laid out in November, 1902, by Elders Owen A. Woodruff and James G. Duflin. At this place there are now about three hundred and fifty members of the A good day-school with two competent teachers, Sunday School, Church. Mutual Improvement Association and Relief Society, are in good working order. In East Kansas, another flourishing branch has been established, which now has a membership of between seventy and eighty. The Sunday school work is in good condition throughout the mission, there being now something over twenty schools in successful operation. A very important work accomplished during the past four years has been the revising of all the records of the mission, genealogical, historical, and statistical. To complete this work took three years of time. These records are as follows; CONFERENCE RECORDS. 8 Genealogical records in use at present time, 8 Historical records in use at present time. 8 Statistical records in use at present time. — 42 General and Statistical records Completed. — 4 Historical records Completed. 6 Sunday School records. MISSION RECORDS. 1 Genealogical record in use at present time. 1 Statistical record in use at present time. 1 Historical record in use at present time. The North Pole. —Commander Robert E. Peary, of the U. S. Navy reached Hopedale, Labrador, on his return from a search for the North Pole, November 2, and Sandy Point, N. F. , November 20. He left July 26, 1905, in the steamship Roosevelt, sailing from Sydney, Cape Breton. While he did not reach the pole, he achieved the distinction of reaching 87 deg. 6 min. north latitude, which is the farthest north reached by any explorer, and is within 203 statute miles of the pole. The Duke of Abruzzi's expedition, in 1900. stands next with 237 statute miles.