--- 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: 14 number: 6 published: 1911-04 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Mutual Work," *Improvement Era* 14, no. 6 (April 1911): 562–563.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1406unse 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: improvementera1406unse start_page: 562 end_page: 563 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1911-04) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1406unse publication_year: 1911 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 1911, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Mutual Work Mutual Work. Annual Reports and Conferences. A supply of annual report blanks for the ward and stake reports has been mailed to stake superintendents of Y. M. M. I. A., which we trust will reach them promptly. Please see that the reports are dis- tributed without delay to wards, in ample time for the ward presidents to make up their reports at the close of their season's work, and return them promptly by May 1, to the stake secretary, who should then prepare the stake report, and see that it reaches the general secre- tary not later than May 10, in order that there may be time to compile the general report for presentation at the June annual conference, which will be held this year June 2, 3, and 4. There is no change in the ward reports. They should be carefully filled out, and all the information asked for furnished. Be careful to call attention to the fact that the twenty-five cent M. I. A. general fund money should not be included in the ward financial reports. A new form for the stake reports has been prepared which should be carefully studied, and the instructions complied with, as printed on the blanks. On the line marked "stake," at the bottom of the report, enter all stake board meetings, conventions, conferences and anything of that nature that does not come within the jurisdiction of the wards, and also the stake financial report. Be sure, also, to fill in the names of the ward officers on the back of the report. This is an important and new request, which it is hoped will be promptly attended to. Two cop- ies of the ward reports should be prepared, one retained by the ward and the other forwarded to the stake secretary; and likewise two copies of the stake report, one retained by the stake secretary, and the other forwarded to the general office. An extra blank for each ward and stake is sent in case one should be damaged. If these blanks do not reach you within a reasonable length of time please notify the general secretary without delay. Your attention is called to the general M. LA. fund. Please urge the wards to send in their remittances to the stakes, in order that the stake remittances may reach this office in ample time to be included in the report for the June conference. Passing Events. Exports from the United States in January, 1911, showed a gain of $52,500,000 over the same month in 1910, as announced by the Bureau of Statistics, Washington. An extra session of Congress has been called by President William H. Taft, to convene April 4. The cause of the assembling is the failure of the sixty- first Congress to take action on Canadian reci- procity. The House approved the tariff agreement, but it was not voted upon by the Senate. Richard A. Ballinger, of Seattle, Secretary of the Interior, resigned January 19, as a member of President Taft's cabinet. This resignation was made public and accepted, March 7, and Walter L. Fisher, of Chicago, was appointed as his successor. President Taft reluctantly accepted the resignation and declared unchanging faith in Mr. B's integrity, motives and official standards, and declared that Mr. Bal- linger had been the ''subject of one of the most unscrupulous conspiracies for the defamation of character that history can show." Avard Fairbanks, thirteen years of age, son of John Fairbanks, the artist, secured recognition on the 28th of February, at the hands of the National Academy of Design, in New York", by the acceptance and admission of his group, "Fighting Panthers," into that institution. The bright and talented young lad was born at Provo, though he has resided the greater part of his life in Salt Lake City, where his brother Leo is the director of drawing in the public schools. His father is a well-known landscape painter, now in New York, with his son Avard. Harriet Barney Young, widow of President Brigham Young, died February 14, in Salt Lake City. She was born October 13, 1830. and was the daughter of Royal and Sarah Eastbrook Barney. She embraced the gospel in the early days of the Church, passing through the hardships and privations of the pioneer days. In faith and works she was the embodiment of all that is good,extending a helping hand to all, and working for a period of thirty-five years for the redemption of