--- 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: 16 number: 2 published: 1912-12 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Church School Department," *Improvement Era* 16, no. 2 (December 1912): 179–180.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1602unse 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: improvementera1602unse start_page: 179 end_page: 180 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1912-12) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1602unse publication_year: 1912 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 1912, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Church School Department Passing Events A new wireless telegraph station, at Arlington, Virginia, was opened for experimental purposes, October 28. Antennae for the electrical waves are stretched from three towers on the banks of the Potomac, opposite Washington, the highest of which is 600 feet tall. It is expected to send messages 3,000 miles. It is stated that messages can be sent without relay direct to San Francisco, the Panama canal, and various points in Europe. The station is to be used chiefly for communicating with the ships of the navy in all the seas of the world. James Schoolcraft Sherman, Vice-President of the United States, died at his home in Utica, New York, October 30. His illness was bright's disease, with which he had suffered for several years. He was born on October 24, 1855, graduated from Hamilton College, in 1878, and admitted to the bar, in 1880. At the age of twenty-nine he was mayor of Utica, and was elected to Congress at the age of tirty-two. He served ten terms, and in 1908, when nominated for the vice-presidency, was still in the House of Representatives. He was candidate with President Taft for re-election, and his death left a vacancy on the Republican national ticket at the election, November 5. Woman suffrage made four steps forward in the last election, one might say. The necessary constitutional amendments were adopted in Michigan, Kansas, Arizona and Oregon, giving suffrage to women in those states,. The number of states in which women are entitled to vote is now ten. On the 9th of November, the accession of these four states was celebrated in New York by a grand torch-light parade of 20,000 women who marched down Fifth avenue from Central Park to Union Square, where addresses were made. Not less than 400,000 people saw the procession from the sidewalks and windows,- all of whom treated the marching women with respect. The use of liquor and tobacco in the United States for July, August and September, 1912, was as follows: The nation smoked 3,800,- 000,000 cigarets, an increase of 1,000,000,000 over the corresponding period last year. The nation drank 33,150,000 quarts of whiskey, an increase of 450,000; smoked 1,950,000,000 cigars; and drank 19,800,000 barrels of beer, an increase of 320,000 barrels. All this increase occurred in spite of the prohibition sentiment. No doubt the fundamental cause of the increase, both in the use of tobacco and liquor, lies in the prosperous times, and so the people have more money to spend for intemperance. Jane Snyder Richards, widow of the late Apostle Franklin D. 182 IMPROVEMENT ERA Richards, died at the home of her daughter, Josephine R. West, Ogden, Utah, November 17. She had been in failing health for some time. She ^^^^^^ was born in Pamelia, Jefferson county, New ^A Hk York, January 31, 1823; was baptized in January, JA WL 1840, and married Franklin 1). Richards in HanM A cock county, Illinois, Dec. 19, 1842. With her fl H husband she arrived in Salt Lake valley October ^>y AM 19, 1848, and settled in Ogden in 1868. In 1872 ^J0m sl" u;is appointed president of the Relief SociW\ ...7 W et) in Ogden, and on July 19, 1S77, was called ^B '; ^m upon to preside over the Relief Societies of ^H ' ^r Weber stake, this being the first stake organ- ^^^^^ ization of Relief Societies perfected in the JANE SNYDER Richards Church. She was later counselor to Zina D. H. Young, president of the Relief Society of the Church. She was an active worker in the cause of the poor and the sick, and devoted her life to her family and to comforting those who were in sorrow and distress. Soldier's Summit is to be double-tracked by the Denver and Rio Grande Railway. The road over Soldier's Summit, where the railroad crosses the Wasatch mountains in Utah, is seven miles long. The grade is four percent, or 211 feet to the mile. The doubletrack detour will be fifteen miles long, with the grade reduced to two per cent, or 105 feet to the mile. It is expected that the easier grade will more than offset the increased mileage. The cost of this detour, grading, and double-tracking, will be approximately $3,000,000, and is one of the most important improvements yet authorized by the Denver and Rio Grande under the new management. It is expected the work will be completed by July of next year. The increase in traffic owing to the opening of the Western Pacific Railway, as well as to the great coal and coke output going from the Utah mines to Salt Lake, Nevada and Montana smelters and reduction plants, is given as the cause of the authorization of this great improvement and immense expenditure. The road will be electrified, the first unit being the 114 miles between Helper and Salt Lake, and twenty-five millions additional will be spent for the transition from steam to electricity. Report of New Wards and Changes in Bishops, Etc., for the month of October, 1912, as reported by the Presiding Bishop's office: New Bishops — Wm. H. Branch, Grass Creek ward, Summit stake, to succeed Edward Sawley; address, Grass Creek, Utah. H. Edward Sutton, Paris First ward, Bear Lake stake, to succeed Hyrum T. Humphreys; address, Paris, Idaho. Wm. Armstrong, Eleventh ward, Ensign stake, to succeed Robert Morris; address, 50 Seventh East, Salt Lake City. David R. Lyon, Twentieth ward, Ensign stake, to succeed George Romney, 435 E street, Salt Lake City.