Editor’s Table: Changes Among the General Church Authorities

Editor's Table. Changes Among the General Church Authorities. Several important changes among the general authorities were made at the last annual conference, owing to the death of President John R. Winder. President Anthon H. Lund was chosen and sustained first counselor to President Joseph F. Smith, Elder John Henry Smith as second counselor in the First Presidency, and Elder Joseph F. Smith, Jr., to fill the vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve, caused by the promotion of Elder John Henry Smith. Elder Rudger Clawson was also honorably released from the Auditing Committee, being a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles who pass upon the distribution of funds, and Heber Scowcroft was chosen and sustained a member of that committee, of which William W. Riter is now chairman. President Lund's life and labors are now an open book before the people. For many years he has faithfully served the Saints in deed and counsel in many capacities. His promotion from second to first counselor in the First Presidency is not only well merited, but received with hearty satisfaction by all. President John Henry Smith has well earned the third position in the Church to which he is now promoted after several decades of unceasing, earnest and faithful work in its cause, both spiritually and temporally. He is a broad-minded and a big-hearted man in the right place. Both of President Joseph F. Smith's counselors are tried and true, and men with whom the interests of the Saints and the most important affairs of the Church may be trusted and imposed with perfect confidence. Joseph F. Smith, Jr., the new apostle, is a son of President Joseph F. Smith and Julina L. Smith, and is a native Utahn, born

EDITOR'S TABLE. 655 n Salt Lake City, July 19, 1876. He has been an active worker in the Church from the beginning. On the 19th of July, 1884, he was baptized, and four years later was ordained a deacon, and thereafter a teacher in the 16th ward. On September 8, 1897, he -was ordained an elder, and a seventy on May 12, 1899. The following day he left for Great Britain on a mission. He labored in the Nottingham Conference, under the presidency of Piatt D. Lyman, returning home in July, 1901. He served as one of the presidents of the 24th quorum in 1903, and acted as instructor of the quorum thereafter and for some time previous thereto. In March, 1904, when the Salt Lake Stake was organized, he was set apart as one of the High Councilors of that stake, which position he held up to the time of being called to act in the Quorum of the Twelve. He married Louie B. Shurtliff, daughter of President Louis W. Shurtliff, of Ogden, on the 26th of April, 1898. She died on the 30th of March, 1908, leaving two small children. Recently Elder Smith married Ethel G. Reynolds, daughter of the late Elder George Reynolds. He is very much interested in the Genealogical work of the Church, and is assistant editor of the Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, besides being secretary, treasurer and librarian of the Genealogical Society of Utah. In the summer of 1902, he labored in Massachusetts, gathering the genealogy of the Smith family, securing hundreds of names, and straightening out the family line from Robert, the earliest ancestor in America. He has been actively engaged in the Mutual Improvement work of the Church, acting as aid in the Salt Lake Stake M. I. A., in 1898-9, and a member of the General Board since 1903. Last year he was made a member of the General Board of Religion Classes, also, and in 1906 he was sustained as assistant to Church Historian Anthon H. Lund, which position he still holds. He has served as a home missionary in the Salt Lake Stake, from the year 1901 to the present time. A young man, spiritually inclined, energetic and capable in all his work, full of the spirit of the gospel, he gives every promise of continuing a faithful and competent servant of the people, and an effective worker in the cause of the Lord, in his new appointment and calling. The Era is pleased to present to its readers in this number, excellent recent photographs of the new officers.

JOSEPH F. SMITH, JR., Sustained April 6, and ordained an Apostle and set apart as one of the quorum of Twelve Apostles, April 7, 1910.