--- 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: 10 published: 1908-08 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. 10 (August 1908): 819–824.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera11010unse 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: improvementera11010unse start_page: 819 end_page: 824 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1908-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera11010unse 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. Senator Smoot Goes to Europe,— Senator Reed Smoot left Utah on thel2th of July to sail for Europe in a few days, to study forestry-science and practice, and to report on the same to the United States government. France, Germany and Switzerland will be the chief fields of study. In all probability he will also visit Russia if time permits. Important Events. — On June 29, the Swiss Arrow Club balloon. Cognac, succeeded in crossing the Alps; Thomas Lipton decided to challenge again for America's Cup; the Equitable Life Assurance Society filed plans for a 62-8tory building on Broadway, New York; the funeral of Ex- president Cleveland was held at Princton, N. J., on June 26; and Murat Halstead, veteran journalist, died at Cincinnati, July 2; Luke E. Wright succeeded Wm. H. Taft as Secretary of War, July 1, when he took the oath of office. The Fleet Leaves San Francisco.— At 2 o'clock on July 7, the great American Atlantic fleet under command of Rear- Admiral Charles S. Sperry left the port at San Francisco on its return journey around the world by way of the Pacific Ocean and the Suez Canal. More than 12,700 enlisted men are on the ships, and nearly 350,000 indicated horsepower is represented in the ships. They will plow the seas and carry our flag to the leading ports of the world. Thous- ands of people witnessed the "departure of the battle-ships which left silently and with little ceremony, on their way to Honolulu. The Right Kind of Postal Cards to Send to Your Friends.- The Bureau of Information has received a souvenir postal-card album of the birthplace of the Prophet Joseph Smith, at Sharon, Windsor County, Vermont. The album consists of a series of twelve postal-cards neatly bound in a paper cover and containing artistic views of the White River valley, ruins of the old homestead, the monu- ment, the memorial cottage grounds, the cottage entrance, the old hearthstone, the lily pond, a view of the woods, and of South Royalton village. No more beautiful souvenir could be presented to a friend to enlighten him upon the beau- ties of the country immediately surrounding the birthplace of the Prophet Joseph, 820 IMPROVEMENT ERA. and the green hil]s of Vermont.— Bureau of Information, Salt Lake City, Utah, price 25 cents, or 30 cents by mail. Republican Platform. — The platform of the Republican party paid a trib- ute to President Roosevelt's achievements, declared allegiance to the policies which he had inaugurated, and pledged their continuance under the Republican administration of the government. Among other things that it favors are: A revision of the tariff by a special session of Congress, immediately after the inauguration of the next president, with maximum and minimum schedules; postal savings-banks; the amendment of the anti- trust and interstate commerce laws; the admission of Arizona and New Mexico as separate states; the celebration of Lincoln's one hundredth anniversary, on February 12, 1909, by all the people throughout the nation, and especially by the public schools ; and it declares for a more definite law on the rules of procedure for the issuance of injunctions by the federal courts. National Democratic Platform.— The Democratic National Convention adopted a platform demanding, among other things, economy in every department of the national administration; federal legislation providing for campaign publicity; declaring against centralization of power; demanding tariff reform, and such legislation as would increase the power of the Interstate Commerce Commission; favoring an income tax and an eight- hour day on all government works; an employees' liability act; a generous pension policy; and the admission of Arizona and New Mexico as separate states of the Union; laws for the conser- vation of the country's natural resources; the independence of the Philippine Islands as soon as stable government can be established ; territorial government for Alaska and Porto Rico ; also the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. Death of a Pioneer. —The widow of Parley P. Pratt, Ann Agatha Pratt, died at her home in Ogden, Utah, after a lingering illness, on the morning of June 26. She had resided in Utah since 1847, having arrived in the Salt Lake valley that year, on the 28th of September, crossing the plains with an ox team which she drove the entire distance. She is said to have been the first woman to perform such service. She is also said to have been the first white woman to ride up and down Parley's Canyon, named for her husband. She was the daughter of William Gibson and Mary G. Walker, and was bom at Leith, Staffordshire, England, June 11, 1829. She was baptized into the Church, July 18, 1843, and came to America in January, 1847. She was a woman of many noble qualities, active in Church work, and for many years was president of the Relief Society of the 19th Ward, Salt Lake City and also secretary of the First Ward Society, in Ogden, for many ; years. New Secretary of War. — Lu^e E. Wright, former Govern«r-General of the Philippines, was appointed to succeed Secretary Taft as head of the War depart- ment, on June 30. Mr. Wright is a native of Tennessee. He was formerly a captain in the Confederate army, and served on the Philippine Commission for EVENTS AND COMMENTS. 821 four years. He became Vice-Governor and then Governor-General of the Philip- pines, and finally was selected as the first American Ambassador to Japan. He is a gold Democrat, and his appointment is the first instance where the President has gone outside of the lines of his own party in selecting a member of his cabi- net, since Grover Cleveland made Walter Q. Gresham Secretary of State, in 1893. The purpose of his appointment was undoubtedly to break the solid south, as the official statement from the White House said: "In appointing Mr. Wright, the President was influenced somewhat by the desire to recognize in an emphatic way the fact that there is no longer any dividing line between the north and the south; that all good Americans are in thought and deed one." Utah is Again Distinguished. —At the Republican National Convention, held in Chicago, June 16-20, Mrs. Lucy A. Rice Clark had the distinction of being the one accredited woman delegate. In the absence of Senator C. E. Loose of Provo, the regular delegate, she, being an alternate, was given the place in the Convention. Mrs. Clark was born in Farmington, Utah, in 1850, and has been active in politics for a number of years. Her residence is in Garfield, and she was elected from Box Elder County. She is the mother of eleven children and has eleven grand children. The papers all over the United States have made very favorable comment over "the one woman delegate from Utah who is an ardent suffragist." It is the general opinion that the cause of women suffrage in this country received a perceptible impetus from her presence in the great National Republican Convention. In 1900, Utah had a woman delegate at the Democratic Convention, at Kansas City; aside from this, Mrs. Clark holds the unique position of being the first woman delegate to sit in one of the great party conventions. Her bearing and general dignified demeanor was a great help to the woman's cause, and her presence in the great convention, a distinct credit to her native state. Race Track Gambling Ended in New York.— On the 11th of June, race track gambling was made a felony in New York, punishable by a year's imprison- ment. On that date a bill abolishing race- track gambling was enacted by the legislature. The struggle leading up to this result was one of the most memor- able in the political history of the state. Governor Hughes took an active part in the bill's passage. The bill passed the Assembly in the regular session, but was defeated in the Senate by a tie vote. Governor Hughes then called a special ses- sion of the Legislature to consider the measure. In the meantime a vacant seat in the Senate had been filled by the choice of a senator who was in favor of the bill. In the special session, if each senator voted as before, this would make the passage of the bill certain, except for the fact that one of the Governor's support- ers, Senator Foelker, of Brooklyn, was disabled by serious illness and a surgical operation, and for days it was uncertain whether he could go to Albany to vote. He did so, at last, against the advice of his physician, at great personal risk, and the race track gambling bills passed the Senate by a vote of of 26 to 25. The law went into effect at once and arrests were made under it the very next day. Governor Hughes wrote to Foelker, "Your courageous performance of duty at so 822 IMPROVEMENT ERA. grave a risk, deserves the highest praise, and will long be pointed to as a fine illustration of fidelity and patriotic devotion to the interests of the state." A Boosting Excursion — The Manufacturers' and Merchants' Association of Salt Lake City, and the State Agricultural college, arranged a conjoint excursion to Nephi on Friday, July 10. Some four hundred people went from Salt Lake City and intermediate places. The day was spent in Nephi at the experimental dry farm, on the south of that city. A lunch was provided on the farm, and immedi- ately thereafter the excursionists were divided into parties, and took a trip over the farm. Dr. John A Widtsoe and Prof. L. A. Merrill and others gave practical advice on arid farming with explanations of the various varieties of wheat and grass and other growing matter to the interested crowds that followed them. Some five hundred varieties of grass, grain and vegetables are growing on the farm, located in a burning desert. Hundreds of acres of wheatfields lay beau- tifully green in the vicinity, which will produce from twenty-five to thirty bushels per acre. The excursionists held a meeting in the Tabernacle at 4 o'clock, at which Dr. Widtsoe, Hon. John Henry Smith, Lon. J. Haddock, secretary of the M. and M. A , President George S. McCallister, of theM. andM., and Governor John C. Cutler, gave enthusiastic speeches on the industries, the farms and the manufac- turing establishments of our state. An address of welcome by President Winn of the Nephi Commercial Club, made the visitors feel at home. The purpose of the excursion, namely, to boQst for home manufacture, and to enlighten the people on the value of arid farming, was well served. Democratic Nominee for President of the United States.— William Jennings Bryan, of Nebraska, was nominated for the third time for the office of President of the United States, at the Democratic National Convention assembled in Denver, July 8. The convention was in session all night of July 9, and at 3:40 o'clock on the morn- ing of July 10, the nomination was made, and Mr. Bryan declared the Democratic Standard bearer. Mr. Bryan received 892>^ votes. Governor John A. Johnson, 46; Judge George Gray 59>^; absent or not voted 8, total, 1,006. The result of the nomination was received with wild demonstra- tions, equaling in turbulence, if not in duration, the display which was made on Wednesday afternoon, when the Convention was one of continuous wild cheering for Bryan which lasted for an hour and a half. John W. Kern, of Indiana, was chosen nominee for Vice-president. Through the efforts of Judge William H. King, and other Utah dele- WILLIAM J. BRYAN. gates, the anti- "Mormon" plank which Senator Dubois of Idaho sought to have inserted in the platform, was defeated. Delegate S. S. Smith, of Utah, succeeded in having inserted the GoodfRoads plank. EVENTS AND COMMENTS. 823 Ex-President Grover Cleveland.— On the 24th of June, Ex-President his home in Princeton, Grover Cleveland died of a complication of diseases at New Jersey. He was the 22nd president of the United States, and was born at Caldwell, New Jersey, March 18, 1837. In 1881, having acquired an excellent position as a lawer, he was elected mayor of BuflFalo, New York. The year following he was elected Governor, by the Democrats of New York state, and on November 4, 1884, having previously been nominated by the Democratic National Convention at Chicago, he was elected President of the United States. He was re-elected for a second term in 1892. While in the White House, he was married June 2, 1886, to Miss Frances Folsom, who, with four children, survives him. Civil service and tariff reform were strongly advocated by him during his term of office. At his funeral, which occurred on the 26th of June, there was no military display, no sermon and no eulogy. The services were very GROVER CLEVELAND. simple. Ex-president Cleveland was considered one of the strong characters of the United States, President Roosevelt, said to have been the only person who shed a tear at his fu- neral, declared in a proclamation, on hearing of his death: In his death the nation has been deprived of one of its greatest citizens. By profession a lawyer, his chief services to his country were rendered during a long, varied and honorable career in public life. As Mayor of his city, as Governor of his State, and twice as President, he showed signal power as an administrator, coupled with entire devotion to the country's good, and a courage that quailed before no hostility when once he was convinced where his duty lay. Since his re- tirement from the presidency, he has continued well and faithfully to serve his countrymen by the simplicity, dignity and uprightness of his private life. Governor Hughes of New York, in a similar proclamation, said: He personified civic virtue and exalted the ideal of public office as a public trust. Firm, resolute, incorruptible, unseduced by flattery and unshaken by fear, just and tenacious of conviction, he enriched the nation with a noble example of strength and fidelity. Thousands of messages of condolence were received by Mrs. Cleveland, and many leading characters of the nation expressed deep sorrow at his demise. Secretary Taft said that "Ex-president Cleveland had the highest civic ideals, a rugged honesty and a high courage. He is revered, loved and respected by his countrymen." Vice-president Fairbanks spoke of Mr. Cleveland as the "very best type of a public servant and a private citizen. His influence was always for good." Speaker Cannon called him "one of our greatest presidents. " Secretary Straus said, "He was one of the great fathers of the republic, a mighty giant of political right, eousness." Secretary Cortelyou said he knew of "no man in our history more 824 IMPROVEMENT ERA. unflinchiDg in the performance of what he believed to be his duty," and Mr. Bryan is quoted as saying that "he was one of the strongest characters known to the political world during the present generation. ' Mr. Cleveland was president when Utah was admitted to the Union, and one of the most valuable documents on file in our state archives is his proclama- tion admitting Utah to statehood. Mr. Cleveland was buried in the Princeton cemetery, and his grave is by the side of his beloved daughter Ruth's. Republican Nominees for President and Vice-President.— William H, Taft, of Ohio,was named on the first ballot, taken on the third day of the National Republican Convention, as nominee of the Republican party for President of the United States. The convention assem- bled at Chicago from the 16th to the 20th of June. The vote stood as follows: Taft 702; Knox 68; Hughes 67, Cannon 50; La Follette 25; Fairbanks 40; Foraker 15; Roosevelt 3, absent 1 ; total 980 delegates. Senator Burrows was temporary chairman, and Senator Lodge, Massachusetts, permanent chairman. When the latter in his speech described President Roosevelt as "the best abused and most popular man in the United States," the convention and spectators ap- plauded and cheered for forty- seven minutes. Mr. Taft, who is in his 51st year, possesses many qualifications for ofiice, and has an attractive personality. Since Febru- WILLIAM H TAFT. ary 5, when President McKinley ap- 1900, pointed him chairman of a commission to inaugurate a civil government in the Philippines, he has been one of the most prominent characters in the . government of the United States. Prior to that time, 1892-1900, he was Judge of the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court of Ohio. He was appointed Civil Governor of the Philippines, in 1901 and his history from that time on is well , known to every reader in the land. He succeeded Mr. Root as Secretary of War in 1904, which office he has now resigned. The San Francisco Chronicle char- acterizes him as: "A candidate whose personal and political virtues have com- mended him not only to America but to the world." The Washington Post says: "The Republican party has nominated its strongest nian. " The Philadelphia Public Ledger considers him "peculiarly the man to take up the constructive work which Mr. Roosevelt has made possible, and thus to carry on the debated policies with a safe and sound conservatism that will re-establish confidence and win support." Mr. James Schoolcraft Sherman, of Utica, New York, was chosen Republican nominee for Vice-President, on June 19. He is an excellent parliamentarian. He received 816 votes on the first ballot, and the nomination of Mr. Taft as well as that of Mr. Sherman, was made unanimous.