---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Iverson, Minnie
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 16
number: 3
published: 1913-01
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Iverson, Minnie, "Lines," *Improvement Era* 16, no. 3 (January 1913): 238–239.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1603unse
  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: improvementera1603unse
start_page: 238
end_page: 239
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1913-01)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1603unse
  publication_year: 1913
  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 1913, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Lines

<!-- page:238 -->

—

238                          IMPROVEMENT ERA

      Among the sixty illustrious men and women comprising the
membership of this committee, we find such beacon-lights as Dr.
Lewellys F. Barker, Jane Addams, James B. Angell, Arthur T.
Hadley, Mrs. William James, David Starr Jordan, Harry Pratt
Judson, Morris Loeb, Jacob A. Riis, and Dr. Henry P. Walcott.
    The chief aims of the National Committee are "to serve as a
clearing-house for the nation. on the subject of mental health, the
prevention of nervous and mental disorders; the care and treatment of the insane, and to serve as a co-ordinating agency for all
state and local agencies interested in such problems."
     The Committee accomplishes these aims by giving verbal and
printed advice for those          who desire information regarding the
avoidable causes of mental disorder and the general principles of
mental hygiene       ;   by looking after the hitherto unprovided needs of
the insane   ;   by enlisting the support of philanthropists by endeavor-
                                                                  ;

ing to regulate the present cumbersome laws of commitment                         ;   by
endeavoring to secure the best methods of treatment by creating a
                                                              ;

public sentiment in our universities for the further intensive study
of the preventable causes of insanity, and the wide publication of
results; the relation of heredity to insanity,          and the relation of
crime and criminality to insanity        ;   and by providing for the after
care of patients in the critical period following their discharge
from hospitals, in order that they might be helped to re-establish
themselves in society.
    With such a capable organization, having so magnificent a
program, at the service of the American people, there is no reason
why the people of Utah, together with the people of the other
states, cannot be instrumental in minimizing the stupendousness of

one of the most vital sociological problems of today         —        insanity.
PROVO, UTAH

                                     Lines

       A cloud of thoughts, as black as night, came thronging
       I said, "Be gone! not unto me belonging;
       Hist to thy cave, mine inner peace thou'rt wronging!"

       A flock of thoughts, like scattered light, came straying,
      As calm, as free, as happy hearts a-Maying;
       I called them home, and they are staying, staying.

LAI, OAHU, H. T.                                    MlNNIE IvERSON.

<!-- page:239 -->

LOOKING ACROSS THE BOSPHORUS