--- 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: 6 published: 1913-04 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Passing Events," *Improvement Era* 16, no. 6 (April 1913): 651–654.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1606unse 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: improvementera1606unse start_page: 651 end_page: 654 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1913-04) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1606unse 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. --- # Passing Events Passing Events An Extra Session of Congress to consider the tariff has been called for April 7. Mr. Joseph P. Tumulty, of Jersey City, was chosen secretary to President Woodrow Wilson, on February 3. Mr. Tumulty was graduated in 1899 from St. Peters college, Jersey City. He was admitted to the bar in 1892, and served four terms in the New Jersey Legislature, being elected first in 1897. King George of Greece was assassinated in the streets of Salonica on the afternoon of March 18, by a Greek, educated anarchist, named Aleko Schinas. Crown Prince Constantine has been declared King of Greece. He was at Janina, in command of the Greek troops, when called to the throne. King George had been in Salonica since Nov. 12 last year. He was in his sixty-eighth year and had ruled fifty years to the day, as he was elected King, March 18, 1863. William Eddington, pioneer of 1853, prominent in political and Utah for the past sixty years, died at religious circles, a resident of Salt Lake City, March 3, 1913. He was born in England, November 27, 1821. He was a school teacher for a number of years, and one of the founders, with Lorenzo Snow, of the Polysophical Society. He was major of the Third Regiment of the Nauvoo Legion, an actor in the Echo canyon war, a member of the High Council of the Salt Lake stake in 1859, mayor of Morgan City for a period of eight years, and at one time a member of the board of regents of the University of Deseret. Winslow Farr, for many years a resident of Utah, and a pioneer of Weber county, died at his home February 18. He was a brother of the late Lorin Farr, and was born May 11, 1837, in Vermont. He moved to Kirtland, later to Nauvoo, and was acquainted with the Prophet. He went to Winter Quarters with his parents, in 1847, and came to Utah in September, 1848, walking barefooted across the plains. He took part in the Echo Canyon war, was ordained a Seventy in 1852, and went on a mission to England in 1868. In 1890 he moved to Mexico, and was for nine years bishop of Colonia Dublan. In 1899 he was ordained a patriarch by the late A. Owen Woodruff. He was a temple worker since 1906. The Utah Legislature passed one excellent bill tending to the moral welfare of the State of Utah, in the Mabey Anti-Gambling bill. 652 IMPROVEMENT ERA early in February, and it became a law on the 17th of the month. The Utah anti-race-track "ambling law is practically a copy of the New York law, which has effectively stopped horse-race betting in that slate. The Utah law makes book-making and pool selling a felony, and provides a punishment to offenders of a fine up to two thousand dollars or imprisonment not to exceed a year. The pool-sellers have already decided to contest the law, a case being now before the courts. If it stands muster, it will abolish betting and pool-selling. The Leg islatureadjourned promptly March 13, the first legislative body in the history of the state that did not over-run its allotted time. The Mexican Situation continues very grave. A half hour after General Victoriano Huerta, with the aid of Felix Diaz, and the army, had deposed President Francisco I. Madera, Feb. 18, Huerta was elected provisional president by the national congress. On February 19th, Gustavo Madero, brother of the deposed President, who was largely held responsible for the misdeeds of President Madero, was shot while "attempting to escape." On February 23rd, President Madero and Vice- President Jose Pino Suarez, while being taken from the palace to the penitentiary, were shot and killed in the streets "while attempting to escape," an expression famous in Mexico as convenient words for murder. President Huerta, however, said they were killed by shots from a party of their friends who were trying to rescue them, but the common belief is that they were killed by their guards in pursuance of a plot to get rid of them. The new government immediately began FELIX DIAZ the struggle with the problems confront- Jephew of Former President ing it, and in the meantime President Porfirio Diaz Taft assembled ten thousand United States troops in Texas prepared for any emergency. Since then, during March, battles have occurred in various places between the Huerta soldiers and the Constitutionalists, which the Maderists now call themselves. The states of Sinaloa and Sonora, on the Gulf of California, have declared against the government, and a number of conflicts were reported in the towns near the Arizona border. Woodrow Wilson, of New Jersey, was inaugurated President and Thomas R. Marshall, of Indiana, Vice-President, of the United States, on March 4, in the usual form and with appropriate ceremonies at Washington, D. C. This is the form of oath taken by the President: PASSING EVENTS 653 "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office ofPresident of the United States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." At the conclusion of President Wilson's inaugural words, retiring President Taft clasped his hand, and, his face beaming with a broadening smile, he said, "I wish you a successful administration and the carrying out of your aims. We will all be behind you." "Thank you," said President Wilson, and he turned to shake hands with his Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan. It was a great sight. There stood the standard bearer of a vanquished party, sixteen years Photo from the New York Independent in power; Bryan, persistent PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON plodder of progressive Democracy, thrice defeated, accepting a commission from a new chieftain, and Wilson, the man of the hour, victorious, mustering, as he expressed it, "not the forces of party, but the forces of humanity." His inaugural address was short and pointed, and touched upon the living topics of the day in a classical manner. Criticisms of the press agree it is a masterpiece of literature, but some fear that the practical execution of its ideas will be more difficult than expected. Tiere are some of the things he said needed to be changed: We have itemized with some degree of particularity the things that ought to be altered, and here are some of the chief items: A tariff which cuts us off from our proper part in the commerce of the world, violates the just principles of taxation, and makes the government a facile instrument in the hands of private interests. A banking and currency system based upon the necessity of the government to sell its bonds fifty years ago and perfectly adapted to concentrating cash and restricting credits. An industrial system which, take it on all its sides, financial as well as administrative, holds capital in leading strings, restricts the liberties and limits the opportunities of labor, and exploits without renewing or conserving the natural resources of the country. A body of agricultural activities never yet given the efficiency of great business undertakings or served as it should be through the instrumentality of science taken directly to the farm, or afforded the facilities of credit best suited to its practical needs. Watercourses undeveloped, waste places unreclaimed, forests untended, fast disappearing without plan or prospect of renewal, unregarded waste heaps at every mine. 654 IMPROVEMENT ERA The address began: There has been a change of. government. It began two years ago, when the House of Representatives became Democratic by a decisive majority. It has now been completed. The Senate about to assem- ble will also be Democratic. The offices of President and Vice-Presi- dent have been put into the hands of Democrats. What does the change mean? That is the question that is uppermost in our minds today. That is the question I am going to try to answer, in order, if I may, to interpret the occasion. It means much more than the mere success of a party. The success of a party means little except when the nation is using that party for a large and definite purpose. No one can mistake the purpose for which the nation now seeks to use the Democratic party. It seeks to use it to interpret a change in its own plans and point of view. The address closed with these words: This is not a day of triumph; it is a day of dedication. Here muster, not the forces of party, but the forces of humanity. Men's hearts wait upon us; men's lives hang in the balance; men's hopes call upon us to say what we will do. Who shall live up to the great trust? Who dares fail to try? I summon all honest men, all patriotic, all forwardlooking men, to my side. God helping me, I will not fail them, if they will but counsel and sustain me! The New Cabinet of President Wilson is composed of the following men: Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, of Nebraska, publicist, orator, lecturer, and author, born in Illinois, March 19, 1860: Secretary of the Treasury, William Gibbs McAdoo, of New York, lawyer, author, engineer, and railroad president; born in Georgia, 1863. Attorney General, James Clark McReynolds, lawyer; born in Kentucky, 1862. Postmaster General, Albert Sidney Burleson, Texas, lawyer; born in Texas in 1863. Secretary of the Navy, Josephus Daniels, North Carolina ; born 1862; home, Raleigh. Secretary of the Interior, Franklin Knight Lane, California, lawyer; born Prince Edward Island, Canada, 1864; chairman interstate commerce commission since 1905. Secretary of Agriculture, David Franklin Houston, Missouri, educator; born North Carolina, 1866; home, St. Louis. Secretary of Commerce, William Cox Redfield, New York, iron and steel manufacturer since 1883, and member of the sixty-second Congress; born Albany, 1858. Secretary of Labor, William Bauchop Wilson, Pennsylvania; miner, member of Congress since 1907, author of the bill creating the Department of Labor; born Scotland, 1862, came to the United States in 1870, and is known as a representative of organized labor; home, Blossburg, Pennsylvania. He is the first secretary of this new department.