Passing Events

Passing Events The Strawberry Valley tunnel was recently completed. This great irrigation project will place under irrigation over 60,000 acres of choice land adapted to fruit culture, in Utah. Elder Thomas J. Cole of Thatcher, Arizona, a missionary, was drowned on the 5th of July near Buchanan, Georgia, while bathing in the river. He was a member of a picnic party composed of Church members. His body will be brought to his home town for burial. The Thomas Smart Gymnasium of Logan is announced completed. When fully equipped this gymnasium will be in a condition to give elementary and advanced work in physical education for both men and women. The building is most modern in all respects and is a joint gift of the Hon. Thomas Smart and the Utah State Legislature. At the Olympic games in Stockholm, Sweden, on July 8, in the final running high jump, Alma W. Richards, of America, — of the Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, — beat the Olympic record of six feet, three inches, made by Porter, American, at London, in 1908, with 193 centimeters, a little more than six feet four inches. Americans led the world in points made during the great contests. The Committee on Priesthood Course of Study is preparing a course for the Deacons on "The Lives of our Leaders." Relatives of the following leaders are requested to send to David A. Smith, at the Presiding Bishop's Office, Salt Lake City, any anecdotes or incidents they may have relating to the lives of Heber C. Kimball, Willard Richards, Jedediah M. Grant, Daniel H. Wells, Parley P. Pratt, Orson Pratt, Orson Hyde, George A. Smith, Charles C. Rich. Affairs in Mexico have terminated in guerrilla warfare since the defeat of General Orozco by the federal troops at the recent second battle on July 4, in Chihuahua. Rebel bands now carry on a guerrilla warfare in the various colonies, particularly in Morelos and Oaxaca just south of Agua Prieta, Sonora. In these colonies conditions grew very serious during the early part of July. The "Mormon" colonists have organized to defend themselves and their property against rebel as well as federal devastation. Senator Smoot called the attention of the State Department at Washington to their danger, but no action has been taken as Orozco has again expressed the wish that all Americans be left unmolested. A box of beautiful peaches and apples from Hurricane, Washington county, reached the Era, through courtesy of Frank Barber, July 12. The condition of the fruit was first-class and the flavor is incom-

958 IMPROVEMENT ERA. parable. The opportunities for raising fruit in that district are unsurpassed, but a railroad is needed to facilitate shipping. The sample shipment made by Mr. Barber, though hauled by wagon sixty miles, and thence by rail to Salt Lake, sold rapidly and at prices largely in advance of those paid for California fruit. A railroad is wanted and should be built to the southern parts of the state which would enable thousands of the enterprising young men of northern Utah to find employment, homes, and wealth in that paradise of our wonderful Utah. At the Republican National Convention, on June 22, in Chicago, President William Howard Taft was re-nominated. He received 561 votes. Mr. Roosevelt's name was not formally presented to the convention, but he received 107 votes, 344 of his supporters refusing to vote for anyone. La Follette got 41 votes, and Cummins 17. Vice President Sherman was also re-nominated. After the convention a large number of the Roosevelt delegates who refused to vote denounced the action of the regular convention "in refusing to recognize the claims of the contesting delegates pledged to vote for the former president, and in seeking a sufficient number of fraudulently elected delegates to control the proceedings." They nominated Mr. Roosevelt for the presidency as "the candidate of our party." The nomination was accepted by Mr. Roosevelt on condition that it should be ratified by a convention to be held later, and the plans for the third party are proceeding in various parts of the nation. The Democratic National Convention met in Baltimore, June 25. After organization the unit rule was abandoned by the convention. The first ballot resulted in Champ Clark receiving AAll/2 votes, Woodrow Wilson 324, Judson Harmon 148, Oscar W. Underwood 117^, Thomas K. Marshall 31, Simeon E. Baldwin 22, William Sulzer 2, William J. Bryan 1. On the 46th ballot, on July 2, Woodrow Wilson, governor of New Jersey, by a vote of 990 against 84 for Champ Clark, was named for president while Thomas K. Marshall of Indiana was chosen vice presidential nominee. Mr. Wilson is a finished scholar, a well-known educator and a recent convert to "progressive" ideas. He was born in Virginia in 1856 and is a lawyer and historian. He became president of Princeton in 1902, and was elected governor of New Jersey in 1910. William J. Bryan exercised a leading influence in the convention. C. C. A. Christensen, a pioneer missionary of Scandinavia, writer and artist, a well-known worker in the Church for many years, and a resident of Ephraim, Sanpete County, died July 3, 1912. He was born at Copenhagen, November 28, 1831, receiving a good education, besides considerable instruction in the art of painting. He was baptized on the 26th of September, 1850, into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and became an active missionary for the cause until his emigration to Utah, in 1857. He came across the plains with

PASSING EVENTS. 959 a hand-cart company and later settled in Sanpete County where he pursued the farming industry, living at Fairview, Mt. Pleasant, and Ephraim. He filled a mission to Norway in 1865-8, and another to Denmark in 1887-9, where he edited Scandinavians Stjerne. Many of the hymns found in the Danish hymn book are from his pen, and he is not unknown to the readers of the Era having contributed several articles for our magazine. He was ordained a patriarch some years ago, and in later years has written much for Bikubcn and other Danish publications. He was faithful and true all his days, and was a man of sterling integrity in all things. New Stakes and Wards, as reported for June, 1912, by the Presiding Bishop's Office: New Stakes. — San Juan stake disorganized. See Platte and Young stakes. Platte stake organized with Lemuel H. Redd, Jr., President, Albert R. Lyman first and George A. Adams second counselor, and Peter Allan, stake clerk. This stake includes all the wards situated in the state of Utah, in the former San Juan stake. Young stake organized with David Halls President and Hiram M. Taylor first counselor and John H. Hammond second counselor, and Herbert Halls stake clerk. This stake includes all the wards situated in New Mexico and Colorado in the former San Juan stake. Moapa stake organized. Part of the St. George stake, includes all the wards situated in Nevada. Willard Larson Jones, President, John M. Bunker first and Samuel Henry Wells second counselor, and Isaac Ellis Turnbaugh stake clerk. _ New Wards.— Raymond second ward, Taylor stake, with John Wm Evans, bishop and Octave F. Ursenbach, ward clerk. Grassy Lake ward, Taylor stake, with Wm. O. Lyons, bishop and Job Llewellyn Jr., ward clerk. Lethbridge ward, Taylor stake, with Brigham S Young, bishop and Leland Walder, ward clerk. Malad second ward, Malad stake, with Wm. H. Thomas, bishop and John M. Richards, ward clerk. , New Bishops.-Jos. H. Wood, Monticello ward, Platte stake, to succeed Geo. A. Adams. Elmer F. Taylor, Burnham ward, Young stake to succeed John T. Nielson. Leo S. Taylor, Redmesa ward, Young stake to succeed Hiram M. Taylor. Edward I Cox Bunkerville ward, Moapa stake, to succeed Jos. I. Earl. Wm A. Whitehead Ove ton ward, Moapa stake, to succeed Willard L. Jones Robert6 Gibson, St. Thomas ward, Moapa stake, to succeed John M^ Bunker Lee Taylor, Freedom ward, North Sanpete stake , to succeed Andreas Tensen Wm. R. Sloan, Logan second ward, Cache stake to ££ C— Sf KkTstaJ, .succeed W. Wood™, C'arM W„H Clerks -Otto Neumann, E. T. ward, Tooele stake, to succeed wlaYales Chas. Anderson, Mi.lvllle ward, Hyrum stake, to succeed James A. Hovey.

960 IMPROVEMENT ERA. The University of Utah Central building is begun. Ground was broken July 8 for this new structure which is to cost $300,000. The important educational event was celebrated by two thousand students and friends of the institution. There were short addresses by Pres. J. T. Kingsbury, Governor William Spry, and Chairman W. W. Riter, of the Board of Regents. At a signal from Mr. Riter a whistle was blown, the band played a patriotic air, and the big steam shovel lifted its first load into a waiting wagon. The new building will be 270 feet long, 71 feet wide, and four stories high. It is to be constructed of stone, in classical design. The building, which will lie directly across the east end of Second South street set back on a terrace and approached by a broad flight of steps reaching across the entire front of the terrace, will stand out grand and beautiful viewed from any point in the valley. One floor will be devoted to the library, and. the upper floor to art and archaeology, and the remainder of the building to class rooms, offices and students' rooms. According to contract, the building will be ready for occupancy by September, 1913. What is the greatest education? is a question which the Agricultural College of Utah desires to have answered. Some very excellent answers have reached the college as a result of advertising in the Era and other publications. A young man from Utah county says: "A high ideal of citizenship is the best result of the greatest education." A newspaper editor says: "The greatest education is the ability to conform to natural law." Hon. Heber J. Grant writes: "The greatest education is the common sense to know how to use what you know." D. C. Johnson, of the Springville Independent, says: It "is the ability to know what we do not know." Ten book prizes were offered by the college for ten best answers which must be sent to the Contest Committee at the Agricultural College, Logan, by September 1, 1912. Only fifty words may be used in the answers and one person may compete only once. The State Agricultural College has been greatly honored at the International Dry-Farming Congress to convene at Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, October 21-26. The roster of officers for the Congress is made up of agricultural experts from all over the western states and from most of the civilized countries of the world. On this roster the Utah Agricultural College figures more prominently perhaps than any other institution, many of its graduates being on the executive committee: Dr. John A. Widtsoe is the president of the Congress, and on the Executive Committee are: Prof. Lewis A. Merrill, of the Utah Agricultural College; W. M. Jardine, now from Kansas State College; F. D. Farrell now in the office of Western Irrigation Investigation of the United States; Ed. H. Watson in charge of the dry-farming experiment station in Wyoming. Besides the representatives from the western states of the United States, there will be representatives in the Congress from the British empire, Brazil, Chili, France, Hungary, Russia, Mexico, Turkey, and Uruguay.