Department of Vocation and Industry

162 IMPROVEMENT ERA will make but very slow progress, if these are the agencies to be used ; but it should be remembered that we must work by wit, since we may not work my magic ; and the things to be accomplished in this world, that are great and permanent, are achieved by educational methods, and are built up by slow and sometimes toilsome progress. So let us proceed, remembering that we have undertaken a very great work. Meantime, the committee of the General Board, B. H. Roberts, Edward H. Anderson, B. S. Hinckley, Benjamin Goddard, ClaudeRichards, will be pleased to receive suggestions and plans for the work of this Department. We shall expect of stake chairmen an immediate report on the subject of the stake committee, the committeeman's name and address ; likewise a report on the appointment of the committeemen in the respective ward associations of each stake, and after that a regular monthly report of this Department from each stake, which may be addressed to Moroni Snow, the General Secretary of the Associations. Let these several instructions be carried out promptly and we shall have made a substantial beginning in the Department of Vocation and Industry. The Mexican situation has not improved. On the 26th of October, Geperal Felix Diaz was tried by court-martial and sentenced to death on account of the revolt which he led at Vera Cruz against President Madero. His trial was secret, and lasted for twenty-five hours. A stay of execution was ordered, and General Diaz is still in prison at Vera Cruz at this writing. Two other army officers were sentenced to death and shot, and imprisonment was imposed upon others. There is much disorder in the south, and in Chihuahua, near the colonies, looting and thievery still prevail. Saluting the Flag. — It appears that there is a commendable custom among the grades in the Salt Lake schools to salute the American flag. When the emblem appears, the children are requested to rise to their feet, make the salute, and say: "I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty, and justice for all." At the Franklin school, Salt Lake City, there was a little girl, the daughter of Socialists, Lena Eyler, thirteen years of age, who refused to salute the flag and repeat the sentence. This caused trouble between the teacher and the little girl. The little girl absolutely refused to salute Old Glory, but said she would salute the red flag which, she says, stands for socialism, fraternity and justice. She was suspended from school and the action of the superintendent is widely approved. T

he French Mission BY ROSGOE \V. EARDLEY, PRESIDENT NETHERLANDS-BELGIUM MISSION [A very important event occurred in France recently in the organization of the French mission. Elder Eardley has given the Improvement Era an account of the transaction in this article. Over three score years have elapsed since the late beloved Apostle John Taylor dedicated the great land of France to the reception of the gospel. Many have forgotten his labors, and others have failed to realize their importance; but his dedication, spoken in the authority of the priesthood, has remained, and now, after all these years of waiting and of preparation, some of the people are beginning to accept the gospel. President Eardley states that in his judgment the conference held in Paris, recently, will mark a new epoch in religious work among the French; and the event, in connection with the dedication of the land by President Taylor, will be looked upon as of decided importance. Many who think of France think only of exquisitelymade gowns, sparkling, glittering diamonds, made-up women, and all the gay, light things of life. Elder Eardley says, "One will find these things, too. if he seeks for them, but during the last twelve months I have made a number of visits to France, and I think that I can say truthfully that the bulk of the French people are honest, earnest, sincere, upright and clean. There are millions of men and women seeking for the truth, and the French mission will prove a real blessing to many of these. The address of the French mission is No. 49 rue du Faubourg du Temple, Paris, France, where President E. B. Brossard may be addressed. There are thirty-one elders at present laboring in the mission, and it is expected that the numbers will be largely increased, since the territory is practically unlimited." Edgar B. Brossard, the new president of the French mission, who was set apart by Presidents Clawson, Valentine, and Eardley, the firstnamed being mouth, is a young man twenty-three years of age. We are informed that he is bv descent a Frenchman, has traced his genealogy back to 1653. and finds that his ancestors formerly lived in LaFleche, France. The past nine generations have made their homes in Canada, in and near Montreal. Elder Brossard's father was born EDGAR B. BROSSARD President of the French Mission

164 IMPROVEMENT ERA there, but removed some years ago to the United States, and finally settled in Idaho, where Edgar B. was born, in the little town of Oxford, on the first day of April, 1889. He is the seventh child of Alphonse Brossard. All of his father's people speak French as their native language. President Brossard sper.ks his native tongue today through a preference for it, having adopted it as a matter of choice. He was educated in the public schools cf Idaho and Utah, and finished his school work in the Agricultural College of Utah, from which school he was graduated with the degree of B. S., in 1911. He took a live interest in the student activities of the college, was a member of the foot-ball squad, played on the baseball team, was a member of the editorial staff of the college paper, and was president of the class during his senior year. He was an active Church worker, and labored in the Sunday School in the ward where he resided. He was set apart for his present mission on the 2nd of October, 1911. His choice for president met with the hearty approval of all the elders, who regarded him as a man of strict integrity, whose whole soul is wrapped up in the gospel. President Eardley declares he has a strong, sympathetic heart, is clean in his habits, and entertains the highest ideals. He is thus a man to whom the Saints may confidently look for counsel, sympathy, and wisdom, and whom the elders may trust and follow. — The Editors.] What will undoubtedly be recognized as the first most important meeting of our people held in France, convened in the city of Paris, October 15, 1912. The meeting was called by Apostle Rudger Clawson, President of the European Mission, as a result of an authorization by the First Presidency to effect the organization of a French Mission. The place of meeting was a small, convenient and cozy hall at No. 46 Rue Richer. The conference was conducted bv President Rudger Clawson, attended bv President Hyrum W. Valentine, of the Swiss and German Mission; President Roscoe W. Eardley, NetherlandsBelgium Mission, and the following French-speaking elders : Edgar B. Brossard, Collins T. Cannon, Herbert A. Snow, Clifford C. Give, James L. Barker, William Read, Eli S. Forsgren, Melvin C. Morris, Isaac Daniel Stewart, Johannes Klaphaak, Leonal T. Read, John E. Everett, Orson A. Carstensen, Jonathan S. Browning and Joseph B. Storrs ; also Bernard Parry, conference president, Hull conference, British Mission. The door of the gospel was opened to the French people in the late fall of 1849, by the late President John Taylor, who dedicated the land and commenced the translation of the Book of Mormon, which work was subsequently finished under his supervision during the years 1850 and 1851. President Taylor also had a number of other very important Church documents translated into the French language. However, no regularly organized mission has ever existed in France, until now, the work of recent years having been conducted by the presidents of the Swiss and German and Netherlands-Belgium missions. On the frontiers of these missions, one may say, a number of prosperous branches have been T