--- 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: 13 number: 5 published: 1910-03 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Passing Events," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 475–480.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera135unse 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: improvementera135unse start_page: 475 end_page: 480 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1910-03) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera135unse publication_year: 1910 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 1910, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Passing Events Passing Events. Herbert John Gladstone, fifty-six years of age, and the young- est son of the late William E. Gladstone, has been appointed the first Governor-General of South Africa. William M. Laffan, editor and publisher of the New York Sun, and for many years one of the leading newspaper managers of America, died November 19, last, aged sixty-two years. The British Elections, beginning on January 15 and continuing until the 29th, gave the Liberal government the majority in the House of Commons. The new Parliament assembled February 15. W. Cameron Forbes was inaugurated Governor-General of the Philippines on November 23, which was a general holiday in Manila. He is the fifth to occupy the post since the organization of civil govern- ment in 1901— William H. Taft, Luke E. Wright, Henry C. Ide and James P. Smith. Football Fatalities for the 1909 season numbered 30 players, accord- ing to the Chicago Record-Herald. Eight of these were college students, 20 high school boys, and two members of athletic clubs. During the season 216 others were injured. In the annual report of the Isthmian Canal Commission, published November 21, it is estimated that the total cost of the canal will be three hundred and seventy-five million dollars. The President expects that the canal will be finished in five years. Floods in France, in the closing days of January, did serious injury along the Seine. The city of Paris suffered great damage from the water, one-fourth of the city being submerged. The loss of life was 476 IMPRO VEMENT ERA comparatively small, but the damage to property has been estimated at over $200,000,000. The Standard Oil Company was declared an illegal combination operating in restraint of trade, and ordered to cease such combination and operation. The opinion, rendered November 20, was given by the U. S. Circuit court for the eastern district of Missouri. The case now goes to the Supreme Court of the United States on appeal. Richard Watson Gilder, poet and editor of the Century magazine since 1881, and for eleven years prior to that time managing editor of Scribner's Monthly, died on November 18, 1909, age 65 years. He was president of the New York association for the blind, and interested in many charitable organizations. He wrote six volumes of verse. John Stewart Kennedy died in New York, October 31. He was not known as a wealthy man, yet he gave at his death to education alone almost as much as Rhodes gave to Oxford, (a little less than fifteen mil- lions) and to religious and charitable purposes as much again. For twenty-six years he was president of the Presbyterian hospital in New York, and in 1908, gave a million to that institution. The Governor's Conference, held at Washington on January 18- 20, was attended by the governors of thirty-one states. The uniformity of state laws relating to matters of divorce, labor problems, and conser- vation of natural resourses, was the important subject under consider- ation. It was decided to hold similar conferences annually, and here- after at state capitals, the next conference to be held between Thanks- giving and Christmas of this year. On November 20, just one week after the Cherry, Illinois, coal mine explosion, twenty out of the three hundred miners imprisoned in the St. Paul coal mine, were discovered alive and rescued. The fire was caused by the carelessness of a miner who threw a burning torch upon a pile of hay. Fire and an explosion followed. The superintendent and thirteen men lost their lives in a vain attempt to rescue the unfortunate men. Several serious coal mine disasters have followed in other places since then, and steps are being taken to prevent these fearful calam- ities in the future by better provisions and regulations. Conservation of the National Resources. — President Taft urged strongly in his message to Congress on January 14, the conserva- tion of national resources. Among other things, he urged the govern- mental control of water power sites in public lands to prevent their PASSING EVENTS. 477 absorption in a monopoly. He recommended the issue of thirty million dollars in bonds for reclamation of arid lands and for the extension of projects already begun. The beginning of the development of inland waterways by the improvement of the Ohio river and the upper Missis- sippi he also recommended. Ann Everington Woolley, mother of Elder B. H. Roberts, died on January 11, at her home in Bountiful. She was born in Norfolk, England, December 18, 1826, embraced the gospel in August, 1851, and came to Utah in May, 1862. She leaves a total of one hundred and five descendants. She was a woman of strong personality, gentle, refined and intelligent, and wielded power and influence in her large family up to the last. She took a lively interest in all the affairs of the commu- nity until the time of her death, and in the young people's organizations and the Sunday school she exerted a splendid influence. Federal Incorporation was proposed by President Taft in a spe- cial message sent to Congress on the 7th of January. The president rec- ommended the enactment of a law providing for the formation of corpor- ations to engage in trade and commerce among the states and with for- eign nations, and protecting them from undue interference by the states and regulating their activities. He suggests that such corporations should be prohibited from holding stock in other companies; that their issue of stock should be subject to Federal supervision; and that they should be required to file reports of their operations with the Department of Commerce and Labor. The Panama Canal will likely be opened by 1915. At any rate the great southwest is getting ready to celebrate the momentous event. The Panama-California-Exposition of San Diego have announced their intention to so celebrate in 1915. On December 7, last, San Francisco decided to hold a Panama-Pacific-International Exposition in that city in or about 1915 to celebrate the opening of the canal, In January the committee of two hundred chose an executive group of thirty, from the solid and progressive business interests, who will superintend the project- It is announced that next to the rebuilding of San Francisco, the Fair is to be the city's proudest work. A revolution in Nicaragua has extended rapidly, led by Gen. Estrada. The prisons have been filled with prisoners suspected of com- plicily in the revolulion. Two Americans, Cannon and Grace, who had joined the revolutionists, were recently put to death under President 478 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Zelaya's orders. This exasperated the United States government, which asked for explanations, but receiving none, sent the gunboat Vicksburg and the cruiser Des Moines to Nicaraguan waters to protect American interests. On December 1 Secretary Knox notified both the government of Nicaragua and the leaders of the revolution that the United States would hold strictly accountable for the protection of American lives and property, the factions in control of eastern and western portions of the republic. Secretary Knox severely condemned President Zelaya and described his administration a blot upon the history of Nicaragua. Louis Paulhan, the French aviator, gave an exhibition of his 1400-pound, 50-horse-power flying machine in Salt Lake City, on Satur- day aud Sunday, January 29, 30. The people were disap- pointed on Saturday, but on Sunday his biplane, over which he exercised splendid control, made an ascent of about 300 feet and remained in the air something like ten and a half minutes, sailing from the fair grounds to Jordan river and return. Between January 10 and 20, Paulhan attended a series of contests at Los Angeles, Photo by Shipler where on the 12th he suc- Paulhan Flying in the Rocky Moun- ceeded in reaching a height tain Air. of 4,165 feet, leaving behind all the world's records for altitude. The attendance at the contest increased from twenty to fifty thousand people per day, and thirty-five prizes were carried off by aviators and aeronauts, aggregating eighty thousand dollars. In Salt Lake City the mountain atmosphere was against high flights, and the aviator declared that a much lighter machine must be constructed to make flying a success in this high altitude. He and his company of avi- ators took in about $8,000 in fees for their exhibition, and he is so pleased that he is said to have promised to come again with a lighter machine. Early in February he exhibited in Denver, and came near get- ting killed in an accident. The Bishop's Building, the new home of the Presiding Bishopric of PASSING EVENTS. 479 the Church, the Seventies, the Relief Society, the Young Men's and Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Associa- tions, the Superinten- dent of Church Schools and Religion Classes, and the Primary Asso- ciations, was dedicated on the evening of the 27th of January, Presi- dent Joseph F. Smith offering the dedicatory prayer. Members of the boards of the or- Utah PhotoMaterialsCo ganizations especially The Bishop 's Building, No. 40 North Main St. interested, with their Home of the Improvement Era. friends, were invited to the exercises. At 5 o'clock the proceedings began with a reception, at which function the officers of the various organizations housed in the building acted as hosts and hostesses in their respective rooms. Bish- ops Charles W. Nibley, 0. P. Miller, and David A. Smith were in general charge. The utmost sociability prevailed, and the various rooms from the basement to the large banquet hall on the fourth floor were inspected. At 6 o'clock refreshments were served in the neatly decorated hall on the fourth floor, where Bishop Nibley acted as master of ceremonies. Dur- ing the refreshments the exercises were proceeded with. They consisted of prayer by President Anthon H. Lund, music, songs, addresses, and a hymn, "Come, come, ye Saints," closing with a response by President Joseph F. Smith, and the dedicatory prayer, the concluding hymn by the assembly being, "We thank thee, God, for a prophet." The benedic- tion was pronounced by President Francis M. Lyman. Among those who took part in the program of music were J. J. McClellan, Lizzie Thomas Edward, Ed. P. Kimball, Oscar W. Kirkham, Tracy Y. Cannon, George D, Pyper, Edna H. Coray, Orpah Walker, Evan Stephens and Hyrum M. Smith. Among the speakers representing the different organizations were President Seymour B. Young, of the First Council of Seventy; Bish- op Charles W. Nibley; President Anthon H. Lund, for the Religion Classes; President George H. Brimhall representing the Church Schools; Elder Heber J. Grant for the General Board Y. M. M. I A.; Bathsheba W. Smith for the Relief Societies; Martha Home Tingey for the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Associations; and Louie B. Felt, for the 480 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Primary Associations. From the opening at 5 o'clock to the close at 10 o clock, the utmost good feeling prevailed, and the Presiding Bishopric and their aids did grand service in making the affair one of the most pleasant of its kind ever held; as their two hundred and fifty guests would unanimously declare. In President Lund's address he referred to the needs of the Historian's Office and Genealogical Society for better quarters, and later President Smith stated that such a build- ing was the next that would receive attention. The Bishop's building itself is one of the most substantial in the state, and the architect, Don Carlos Young, was complimented for its beauty and stability. The Relief Societies, Young Ladies' Associations and Primaries donated altogether some $20,000 towards its erection, the Church providing the remainder. "The Great Apostasy" is the title of the latest addition to Church literature. Heretofore, on one or two occasions the book has been referred to in these pages. James E. Talmage, Ph. D., F. R. S. E., is the author, a guarantee that it is both logical and instructive. It is designed to give light on the general apostasy of the Church that devel- oped during and after the apostolic period. This it does in interesting text and argument, illumined by most striking passages of scriptural and secular history which go to prove the falling away, and the fact that the primitive Church lost its power, authority and graces as a divine institution, and degenerated into an earthly organization only. The establishment of the primitive Church is first treated; then are given the predictions foretelling the apostasy, followed by a chapter on its early stages. The causes of the apostasy, divided into external and internal, are discussed in six chapters containing convincing and strik- ing testimony and extracts from early Church writers to uphold the argument. The tenth and closing chapter is devoted to the results of the apostasy and its sequel, under which are discussed revolts against the Church of Rome, the Reformation, the Inquisition, the affirmation of the apostasy, the Revelator's vision of the restoration, and the re-establish- ment of the Church in the 19th century through the Prophet Joseph Smith. To the elder in the mission field, students in the priesthood quorums at home, the general reader and investigators of the teachings of the restored Church of Christ, a study of this exposition of a very significant and important subject, will bring great light. It proves, we believe conclusively, that the apostasy of the primitive Church was a reality; and it points to the truth that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a divine institution, restored and organized, by authority, prophecy, new revelation, and the sanction of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to take the place of the fallen Church. Price 60 cents at the Deseret News book store.