--- 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: 11 number: 4 published: 1908-02 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* 11, no. 4 (February 1908): 315–320.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1104unse 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: improvementera1104unse start_page: 315 end_page: 320 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1908-02) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1104unse publication_year: 1908 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 1908, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Events and Comments EVENTS AND COMMENTS. BY EDWARD H. ANDERSON. A New Senator. — A young lawyer of Jacksonville, Florida, William J. Bryan, not the original William J., of Nebraska, has been appointed by Governor Broward, to fill the vacancy in the United States Senate, caused by the death of former Senator Mallory. Great Charity Gifts. — According to the Chicago Tribune, the gifts to charity in the United States for 1907, amounted to $120,000,000, of which amount sixty-two millions went to universities and the higher education, and twenty- two millions to art galleries, museums and such like institutions. Onefifth of the gifts were made by women, and Mrs. Russell Sage alone gave $13,- 800,000 mostly for miscellaneous charities. ' The National Conventions.— For the first time, a great party will hold its national convention in Denver, a city six hundred miles further west than a convention has hitherto been held. The Democratic delegates will gather there on July 7, to nominate a candidate for the Presidency. The Republican national convention will be held in Chicago, June 16, which will be the 11th national party convention held in that city since 1856. Prohibition in Georgia. — On January 1, the new law prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor went into effect in Georgia. In Atlanta alone saloons and breweries amounting in value to one and a half million dollars were compelled to go out of business. The officials are determined to enforce the law, and it has been announced that imprisonment and not fines will follow violations of the law. Previous to the passage of the new law only seventeen out of forty-eight counties in the state allowed the sale of liquor under license, and four or five through county dispensaries. Punished for Treason. — After the dissolution of the first Douma, many of its members in the flush of their first anger assembled in Viborg, Finland, and there published a manifesto, in which they urged the Russian people to insist upon popular representation, and advised them to furnish neither money nor soldiers to the government while the Douma was suspended. Among the members who signed 816 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . the manifesto was the president and vice-president and many of the most prominent leaders of the constitutional Democrats. All these except two have now been tried for treason, and on December 31, were sentenced to three months' imprisonment and the loss of their civil rights. China Advancing. — That religious liberty has been promised in China by a recent imperial decree, is an evidence that the Chinese are awakening to modern ideas. It is also said that Chinese magistrates have been admonished to make no distinction between Christians and non-Christians in the dispensing of justice. Missionaries will also be protected in their lives and property by Chinese officials who are commanded to afford such protection. Undoubtedly many difficulties will arise with the carrying out of the decrees, but these are steps in the right direction which afford a hope that a constitution may eventually be granted. With the ruling power in favor of these progressive acts, the people of the country will grow rapidly into a knowledge of the value of broad and liberal government. Coal Land Fraud Cases. — Judge Robert E. Lewis of the Federal Court at Denver has quashed a large number of indictments against people accused of land fraud in Colorado. Large railway corporations for years have been obtaining control of immense areas of coal lands in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, by engaging persons to enter lands, and furnishing money to make payments, on agreement that they would in return deed the lands to the companies as soon as entry was perfected. The government, which has spent two or three years in working up these cases, held this to be fraudulent, but Judge Lewis now declares there is no law against such an agreement. The Department of Justice will perhaps make an appeal on writ of error, to secure a final ruling from the Supreme Court as to whether or not Judge Lewis' decision shall stand. Naval Bureau Battle. — A controversy in the Navy department over who should command hospital ships, resulted in the resignation of Rear-Admiral William H. Brownson. On January 1, President Roosevelt, who took a vigorous part in the controversy, appointed Captain John E. Pillsbury, to be chief of the Bureau of Navigation, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Admiral Brownson. Surgeon- General Rixey, of the Navy, urged that hospital ships should be commanded by surgeons; but Rear- Admiral Brownson as strongly maintained that line officers shall be in command, as in the past ten years. The dispute culminated in connection with the hospital ship relief for the Pacific fleet. The President ordered that a medical officer be placed in command; then Admiral Brownson resigned, and his resignation was promptly accepted. The incident has caused considerable amusement for the press writers and cartoonists, as well as the writing of some vigorous letters on the subject by President Roosevelt. Lord Kelvin Dead. — William Thompson, the first Lord Kelvin, one of the greatest mathematicians and physicists of our time, died at Glasgow, on December 17 last, at the age of 83. He was born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1824, and graduated from St. Peter's College, Cambridge, in 1845. The next year he was EVENTS AND COMMENTS. 817 called to the chair of Natural Philosophy, at Glasgow University, which position he held for a period of 53 years. He gave valuable assistance in the making of inventions for receiving messages, through the first cable across the Atlantic ocean, completed in 1866, by Cyrus W. Field, an American; for perfect methods of taking deep-sea soundings while the ship was under way; and also for devising provisions for overcoming the influence of a ship's magnetism on a compass; all of which indicates that he was greatly attracted by the science of electricity and submarine telegraphy. He constructed'several delicate instruments for the measurement and study of electricity. He was made a knight in 1866, and a peer in 1892. In 1884, 1897, and in 1902, he visited America, and became profoundly interested in electrical development at the Niagara Falls. With Prof. Tait, he is the joint author of a well known treatise on natural philosophy. Japan's Pacific Intentions. — A fresh outbreak between the Japanese and British in Canada has revived tne interest in the trouble between Great Britain and Japan. Many think that the sending of the Pacific fleet has had a tendency to excite both parties unduly. There is scarcely any cause, however for apprehension, either for one or the other reason, since the Japanese government has promised verbally to limit emigration both to the United States and to Canada, and during the month has taken measures to carry out the agreement. It is estimated that there is room for more than three million colonists in Korea. The Japanese government intends to divert emigration to that unfortunate country, and to this end has co-operated with the Oriental Colonization Company to advance capital to Japanese emigrants to Korea. Again, large reductions in the appropriations for the army and navy have been made, for there has been a financial earthquake in the coountry, leaving money matters very shaky; and there is a general concentration of effort by the Japanese government to make a success of the great international exposition which is to be held in Japan in 1912, all of which would seem to be fresh proofs of the pacific intentions in Japan. The Labor Trouble in Nevada.— For the past year the Western Federation of Miners and the mine owners of Goldlield, Nevada, have been in constant dispute. About the time of the cash stringency, a general strike was made over the payment in checks instead of in cash. The mine owners then declared their independence of the labor union, and as they feared trouble they called on the governor for protection, knowing, as they did, that the sheriff was in sympathy with the miners. But Nevada has only seven officers and two enlisted men in her state militia, and hence Governor Sparks transmitted his responsibility of keeping order and peace to the National Government, by sending an exciting telegram to President Roosevelt, in which he set forth the troubles that were likely to occur at Goldfield, unless government troops were immediately sent to preserve order. The President responded by ordering a detachment of Federal troops from San Francisco, whereupon Governor Sparks was satisfied and rested. But the President now grew restless, and sent a commission to investigate. The Governor told this commission that he was quite at ease, and wjuld not call the legislature to provide for state protection for Goldfield, or for the purpose of forming a state 318 IMPROVEMENT ERA. military force. Then the President sent a wire in which he said: "Thetroops were sent to Goldfield to be ready to meet a grave emergency which seemed likely at once to arise, and not to provide a substitute for the exercise by the state of its police functions." This was on December 17, and three days later he stated that there appeared to be no serious trouble threatened which the state government could not control, and further, that the state appeared to be taking no steps in the matter. On the 27th, the Governor replied that, in his judgment, the troops should be kept for an indefinite period; that it was useless to convene the legislature, for at the regular session that body had refused to establish a state constabulary, and had passed a resolution in sympathy with Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone: and in any case, it would take three weeks to convene an extra session. Then President Roosevelt sharply reminded Governor Sparks that the Constitution imposed upon the legislature, not the governor, the duty of calling upon the National Government to protect a state from domestic violence. ''You now request me," said the President, "to use the armed force of the United States, in violation of the Constitution, because, in your judgment, the legislature would fail to perform its duty under the Constitution. The state government certainly does not appear to have made any serious effort to do its duty by the effective enforcement of its police functions." He then insisted that the Governor call an extra session of the legislature within five days, or in case of failure, the troops would be withdrawn. Then the Governor surrendered, and summoned the legislature, which met January 14. Whether the legislature will do anything to establish a militia or otherwise relieve the situation remains to be seen. The condition has given the eastern papers cause for expressing scathing remarks about ' 'Nevada's helplessness and impotence." Utah's Public Schools. — While complete statistics for 1907 cannot, of course, be provided until the close of the school year, the following interesting data of the public schools of Utah, given the Era by State Superintendent of Public Instruction, A. C. Nelson, and based on the last school year, will be of general interest: There are 668 common schools in 338 districts of the state. Out of this number, 417 are graded and 251 mixed. There are 34 high schools. A total of 567 male and 1,325 female teachers are employed, governed by 47 superintendents and supervisors, and 1,000 members of school boards. The average monthly salary for male teachers is $86.40, and for female teachers $55.41; and the sum of $951,780, is annually paid in salaries. Last year there were 77,947 pupils enrolled in the schools, out of a total of 95,768, attending by grade as follows : 1st grade, 11,533; 8th, 4,716; promoted from the 8th grade, 2,813. There were 235 high school graduates. Superintendent Nelson says further: The school census of Utah at present is 98,660, showing the number of children in the state entitled to school privileges free of charge, and between the ages of six and eighteen years. For the education of these children during the last year there was expended approximately $20 per capita . Besides this great financial outlay for the education of our youth, the best efforts of two thousand men and women are given, a. large percentage of whona EVENTS AND COMMENTS. 319 have devoted the best years of their lives to careful preparation for their work. Yet this constant effort and expense are essential to the well being of our communities and commonwealth. That education pays is a settled question. In one year or two, the results may not be so apparent. The nurseryman is not repaid in one season, nor in two, for the painstaking care which he gives to his young orchard; but in time there comes forth an abundance of fruit of a superior quality which is in demand : and which repays him well for care and expenditures made. Without the effort, he could have secured a crop of seedlings, but these would have been of no special value. So it is with the training of our boys and girls. Their enhanced value, secured mainly from the education they are receiving, does not show itself in a pronounced way at any period of their school career. Nevertheless, jhe school fits them to enter as valuable personalities into the vital activities of the community, the State and the Nation. Still, the schools are by no means beyond criticism. The impatient observer may think that they respond very slowly, indeed, to the changing needs of the times. In many respects, it is well that they do. If Utah, during the last year, should have introduced into its schools only a fractional part of the fads and fancies proposed— proposed, too, by intelligeat, well-meaning people, the results would have been incongruous and ridiculous . At the same time, this is not a reason why the schools should not lend their efforts to supply great and pressing demands. Industrial conditions in our country are such that to cope with them successfully, not only is a well developed mind required, but a well developed mind which has learned in early life, at least the elements of industrial processses. How to make the home most attractive is a problem well worth the best efforts of our girls. Today, in the grades of the common schools, the boys are taught manual training: the girls, domestic science and art. The best grammar schools of the state now have good elementary courses in these branches. The secondary schools are giving more thorough courses in manual training, agriculture, commerce, domestic science and art, than heretofore, and thus are the schools preparing the children at graduation to enter more readily and efficiently into the fields of activity where so much of the best effort of man is demanded at the present time. While emphasis has been placed on industrial work, this year, the schools have improved commendably in all of their regular work, there have been no large expositions in which the schools of the state have competed and secured gold medals, but the uniform strength secured attests the progress just as well. Home Manufacture and Co-operation. — Sarah E. Pearson contributes to the Era these thoughtful expressions on a very important subject: "A long pull, and a strong pull, and a pull all together! " Speaking of home manufacture and President Smith's article thereon, in the January number of the Era, I am inclined to believe there are fewer of our people need converting to this sanest of all business theories than is generally supMany a time when I was rearing my little children on my income from transient boarders, an uncertain quantity, have I been forced to buy the States-made shoddy suits for my little boys, simply because the first cost of a home-made suit was beyond my reach, and never have I got them without a distinct feeling of dissatisfaction at what I knew was false economy. The most ordinary observer eould see that the home made suits of my more fortunate neighbors, retained their shape and respectability when mine were limpy and sodden, and the coat corners bulged with waste. In buying family supplies to advantage one must be a judge of quality. Time 320 IMPROVEMENT ERA. was when eastern mills with their sweat shops ran our own too close a margin, but with recent inflated prices on everything, we have to pay high prices for our eastern clothing, and are by no means sure of getting our money's worth anymore than when we frankly bought shoddy "because it was cheap," I think we have learned to appreciate our own, and can afford to buy our own honest cloth at no advance , quality considered, greater than that we send east for, for the common people dress much better and spend much more on clothes than formerly. To run our mills at a fair margin of profit, to wear our own cloth, use our own blankets, find employment for our own at home, and keep our money in circulation at home, that's just plain common sense. I wish we had more of it. The vital question is, can we furnish home-made cloth, quality considered, as cheaply as can be imported? for most people consider they have a right to ' 'buy where they can do best." If you touch on their "patriotism" they will reply that "charity begins at home," and that to pay more for a home-made article simply takes the difference out of his own pocket and puts it in his neighbor's, to his own loss. If you ask him where he would have had any money at all to buy with, if his neighbor had not given him employment, it may set him to thinking that the question is one of reciprocity, and goes deeper than the simple transaction of buying and selling implies. What is the remedy of all this clashing of interests, this passionate assertion of mine and thine? — for there is a remedy as plain as the nose on our faces. Cooperation— not of ten or a dozen men, but the clubbing together of our thousands. In union all our needs can practically be supplied, so that world- panics will carry for us only the minimum of danger. We want to have the same pride in our local products, which was evinced by some Pleasant Grove acquaintances of mine, a few years ago. We were having a "Married Folks' Picnic Social," and when I came into the hall my eye was at once caught by the unusual costumes of the Sisters Anderson and Anna Larsen, and one or two others,! think, who were on the floor dancing. I suppose my face expressed my curiosity as I watched them through the set, for Sister Larsen smiled at me, and when the cotillion was ended, came and sat down by me. I stroked a fold of her neatly-made dark, maroon dress, and looked in her eyes enquiringly. Yes, it was as I suspicioned, carded and spun, dyed, woven and made at home, an old fashioned linsey-woolsey, finished at neck and wrists with soft bands of maroon plush. Her lips modestly depreciated her achievement, but in her eyes shown an honest pride, and I meant every word I said when I told her I thought it beautiful. However, we don't have to depend on the hand-loom, which means harder labor and more time than many women of today can perform. We can have our own beautiful goods from our own mills, if we want to; heaven knows we have had counsel and encouragement and urging enough, but sometimes we have to be spanked into knowing what is good for us.