--- 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: 12 published: 1913-10 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. 12 (October 1913): 1241–1246.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera16012unse 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: improvementera16012unse start_page: 1241 end_page: 1246 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1913-10) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera16012unse 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 The National currency bill passed the House on September 18, by a vote of 286 to 84. Twenty-four Republicans voted for it and three Democrats against it. It may be some weeks before it is reported to the Senate where further debate is expected to delay the final passage of the bill. The Ogden Tabernacle Choir is to sing at the Panama Exposition in San Francisco, in 1915. The presidency of the Church some time ago approved the movement for the appearance of that choir at the exposition, on condition that no expense will be entailed upon the Church. It is the only choir that will receive the sanction and ap- proval of the Presidency for that purpose. Christina Hadlock Allen, eighty-five years old, died at her home in Huntsville, March 20, 1913. She was born April 2, 1828, and came to Utah in 1850, joining the Church when its membership numbered only a few hundred. She was the mother of seven boys and seven daugh- ters, twelve of whom survive her, also one hundred thirty-seven grand- children and ninety-five great-grandchildren. She was faithful to the gospel, true to the faith, and a pioneer of strength and achievement. The impeachment trial of Governor William Sulzer of New York opened on September 18, at Albany. The first session of the high court met on that date. The articles of impeachment against the Governor by the Assembly of New York charge that he compiled false statements of his receipts and money transactions during his guber- natorial campaign, and committed perjury thereby, and also that he committed larceny in speculating in stocks, money and checks con- tributed for his campaign, and threatened to use his office and influ- ence to affect the vote of public officials. Wm. K. Rice died in Farmington, Utah, and his funeral was held at that place on July 10, 1913. He was born in Manchester, Ontario County, New York, in 1832. Edmond Rice, his progenitor, came to America in 1638, and 313 of his descendants fought for the independ- ence of the colonies in the Revolutionary War. William K. Rice was the father of seventeen children and his posterity in Utah and sur- rounding states now number about eight hundred. William went through the scenes of Nauvoo and came to Winter Quarters in 1846, and to Utah with the second company in 1847, where he has resided since, passing through all the toils of pioneer days. 1242 IMPROVEMENT ERA Water was turned into the Strawberry Tunnel on Saturday after- noon, September 13, for the test of the mechanical part of the project. The four-mile long tunnel carried 518,400 second feet of water which appeared at the west portal fifty-five minutes after the water entered from the reservoir. It is reported that the water cut a deep dent down the mountain side into Diamond Creek and enlarged that natural con- duit in its passage to the Spanish Fork river, through which it flowed into Utah Lake. After six hours of flow it was decided that a thorough test had been made, and the gates at the east portal were again closed. They had been opened by the project engineer J. L. Lytel, assisted by S. W. Carter, assistant engineer, and statistician C. J. Blancherd, of Washington, D. C. Robert Lindsay McGhie, son of Patriarch James McGhie and Isabel Lindsay, died Sunday, June 22, 1913. He was born at the old woolen mill, near Parley's Canyon, April 14, 1874. He was educated in the common schools, University of Utah, and University of Chicago, which fitted him for his work as associate professor of Latin and Greek at the University of Utah. He was greatly interested in higher education, and was a man of sweet disposition and lovable character, a lover of music, and for a time leader of the choir in Sugar House Ward. He was married June 16, 1899, to Aggie Gabbott, and they had five children, four of whom with his wife survive him. Elder Walter P. Monson was chosen successor to the late Presi- dent Ben E. Rich of the Eastern States Mission on Thursday, Septem- ber 11, at a regular meeting of the First Presidency and Twelve Apos- tles, Elder Rich being released on account of sickness. Elder Monson has been manager of the Eccles Lumber Company, of Ogden. He was born in Richmond, Cache County, his father being one of the early settlers of Utah. Elder Monson was engaged in the lumber business in Richmond for many years, and has always been prominent in religious and business affairs in Utah. He was president of the London Conference of the British Mission for about fifteen months in 1909-10. Capable, broad-minded and a man of keen business percep- tion, he will doubtless fill the responsible position of president of the Eastern States Mission with honor and satisfaction to all concerned. Mayer William Jay Gayncr of New York died on the steamer Baltic, in mid-ocean, September 10, of heart failure. He sailed from New York September 4 for a brief vacation on the ocean. His death removes one of the candidates for mayor of New York and gives the fusion nominee, John Puroy Mitchell, a clear field against the Demo- crats. Mayor Gaynor was born on a farm near Whitestown, New York, in 1851. Graduating from the Whitestown seminary, he taught school in Boston and studied law in the office of Ward Hunt, in Utica. He was later justice in the supreme court of New York. In 1873 he was a Brooklyn newspaper reporter, and was admitted to the bar in PASSING EVENTS 1243 1875, and from that time until his death he lived in the midst of a continual political warfare, fighting the lawless saloons, the McLaugh- lin ring in Brooklyn, and John Y. McCane, boss of Sheephead's Bay, Coney Island. He was elected justice of the supreme court in 1893, re- elected in 1907, and resigned to accept the nomination of mayor of New York, to which office he was elected in November, 1909. His body was returned to New York for burial. Word from Cardston, Alberta, relates the success of one of our Mutual Improvement boys, Mr. Zebulon W. Jacobs, son of Bishop H. C. Jacobs, of Ogden. Mr. Jacobs attended the Weber Academy for three years, afterwards took one year at the Latter-day Saints' University at Salt Lake City. He was called to Canada on a mission and located at Magrath. After being principal of the Magrath public school, he studied law. He was admitted as a barrister and solicitor | of the Supreme Court of Alberta, August 11, 1913, the first "Mormon" to be admitted in that province. He is opening an office in Cardston. At present he is first counselor to President Henry L. Hinman in the High Priests' quorum in the Alberta stake of Zion, and also one of the members of the Super- intendency of the Y. M. M. I. A. in that stake. Agriculture as an issue is forcing itself to the front. The public are demanding that more and more of it be taught in the schools. Knowing this fact, it is pleasant to note the progress made by our own State Agricultural College, as indicated in the demands for its grad- uates. Four were sent to Argentina, last winter, at a salary averaging $2,000 per year and expenses. The admirable leadership of Dr. John A. Widtsoe, who is considered a master in his line, together with the good corps of men and women teachers at the college, most of them native westerners with the best training that American and European colleges can give them, account for the great success of our state insti- tution at Logan. Nearly all the ninety-six graduates of last June have been appointed to positions as farm experts in the state and federal government service, either as superintendents of agricultural enter- prises or as teachers in this and other states. Several will be teachers in their alma mater, others principals or instructors in high schools, and some will work in the Church schools of Utah and Idaho. Alto- gether, it is encouraging to note the demand for graduates from this institution. Besides those thus engaged publicly, many are engaged in independent agricultural pursuits. The Elders' Reference is a book of some sixty-four pages of mat- ter designed for elders of the Eastern States Mission, and published 1244 IMPROVEMENT ERA by the late President Ben E. Rich, in New York, June 2, of this year. It contains a sermon delivered by President Joseph F. Smith directed to elders going on missions, and containing practical suggestions to them, also a series of practical notes by President Francis M. Lyman of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles to be referred to daily by mis- sionaries. There are several pages of practical instructions to the mis- sionaries on the methods of performing their work, such as instruct- ing the candidates for baptism, administering the sacrament, excom- munications, recognition of authority, fast offerings, responsibility of senior elders, debates, keeping promises, answering letters promptly, keeping records, traveling together, clothing, cleanliness, wasting time in pleasure seeking, let the mysterious alone, the length of a mission, how to baptize, confirm, ordain, keeping a journal, conduct, tithing, borrowing money, and many other practical points upon which elders need instruction. There are also daily hints to missionaries, and counsel to returning missionaries, by President Joseph F. Smith. The book concludes with a fourteen or fifteen page appendix, containing important sayings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. It is printed in handy form for pocket use. "The Pioneer Trail" is the title of a book printed by the Deseret Nezvs, and published by Alfred Lambourne. It is a combination of The Old Sketchbook and The Old Journey which were predecessors of the Pioneer Trail. The present volume contains much additional mat- ter, indeed. The character of the work is somewhat changed. The former books gave more expression to the description of scenery, whereas the work now in hand is rather more an epitome of human emotion and experiences in the trying journey by ox team over the plains. There are seven sketches of beautiful scenes on the journey. The book is one of the Y. M. M. I. A. reading course, just such a one as a person will delight to sit down with in a contemplative mood. It touches the poetic spots on the journey, and awakens long-hidden emotions in the experienced, and curiosity with the young reader. The incidents narrated are of a general character that fit not only -the train which the author accompanied over the plains, but all the trains that made the journey. Here is a little incident quoted from one of the pages: Many a time had Captain Holladay with his natural caution gained from experience, his sagacity and knowledge, given a timely warning. The girls must not be led too far by their passion for the gathering of flowers. How often had the desire to possess some especially beau- tiful or brilliant, some alluring bunch, of desert bloom tempted them beyond the lines of safety. Especially true was this among the Black Hills and the mountain ranges, too, beyond them. There was danger, also, in the going for water, the dipping places were often at quite a distance from the camp. How terrible an example was that which occurred in one of the trains which crossed the Hills the year before our own. It was on the banks of the La Bonte River. A band of five Sioux suddenly dashed out from amid a clump of trees on the river PASSING EVENTS 1245 bank, and carried away, beyond all hope of rescue, one of two girls- who had rashly gone too far down the stream. The train remained at the river for a period of three days, the Indians were pursued for many miles, but it was all in vain. The young husband never saw his young wife again. One of the young women was slightly in ad- vance of the other, and those few steps made this difference, that one was lost, the other saved. And the young woman who escaped was the writer's sister. Something of all the passions; something of all the passions — joy, love, hope, fear, and the others, too, must have been recorded in the pages of my last diary. Or, rather, there should have been, had the youthful writer of those pages put down upon them what he once actually looked upon, as now he recalls them mentally. They must have told, too, how a foe even stronger than the Sioux, one not to be gainsaid, took away a sister at last. We took the oaken wagon seats to make her little coffin. Did it tell how we laid her away to rest, after those days of suffering, when she was carried by turns in our arms, to save her what pain we could? did it tell, then, how she was laid beneath the cottonwoods, where ripple the waters of Laramie, and how the soil was hardly replaced in the grave ere we must depart? Did it tell of the wild night of storm and darkness, through which later we passed? The remainder of "The Journey" was for us, dark- ened by that ever-remembered tragedy. President Ben E. Rich of the Eastern States Mission died Saturday night, September 13, in New York, from the effects of a stroke of apoplexy which was the culmination of an illness of long duration. During the past year President Rich had experienced a nervous break- down, and for four weeks prior to his death he was critically ill. At his bedside when he died was Mrs. Diana F. Rich, Benjamin L. Rich of Salt Lake, and Dr. Lorin Rich of Ogden. The body left New York for Salt Lake City on Tuesday, 16th, and the funeral services were held in the Tabernacle in this city on Sunday, September 21. President Ben E. Rich was the son of Charles C. Rich, a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles from 1849 to 1883, and was one of the early settlers in Utah, arriving here October 3, 1847. President Rich was one of fifty-two children. He received his education in the Salt Lake City Schools. For twelve years he was employed as salesman in Z. C. M. I. When twenty years of age he removed to Ogden, and later became manager of the Equitable Co-op. On December 7, 1877, he married Diana Farr, daughter of Lorin Farr. In 1880-83 he filled a mission to England, returning with a party of 700 emigrants for Utah 1246 IMPROVEMENT ERA and Idaho. He labored in Ogden for himself in a variety of activities, on his return from his mission, mingling religion, politics and business and becoming prominent in each. In 1893 he removed to Rexburg, Idaho, where he edited the Rexburg Press, and the Silver Hammer. Later he removed to St. Anthony. Tn 1893, he published Mr. Durrant, That Mormon, and later wrote numerous pamphlets and booklets which were widely distributed, among them Scrapbook of Mormon Literature, two volumes. January 10, 1898, he was set apart to take charge of the Southern States Mission and there founded the Elders Journal which was later combined with Liahona and called Liahona the Elders' Journal. Since that time he has been continually engaged in missionary work making frequent visits to Utah. For eleven years his home was in Chat- tanooga. On July 21, 1908, he was called to the presidency of the Eastern States Mission, where he was engaged at the time of his last illness. In both these missionary fields he became widely known, and his work has been an important factor in the growth and spread of the work of the Church. By his courage, loyalty and independence he won friends in every locality he visited. He was one of the most fearless expounders of the principles of the gospel, and in his career, begin- ning at Ogden, he has met and debated frequently with active anti- "Mormons", always leaving a strong impression with the hearers in favor of the truth. One of his strong characteristics, aside from his courage, was his great fund of humor, which gave him prestige wherever he appeared. The Underwood-Simmons tariff bill was passed by the Senate September 9, by a vote of 44 to 37. The bill was sent promptly to the conference committee, which had not reported, up to September 23. On free wool and free sugar, the cardinal features of the new tariff, the Senate and House were in complete harmony. After the bill had passed the House, President Wilson declared that, "A fight for the people and for free business, which has lasted a long generation through, has at last been won, handsomely and completely." The bill has been in Congress over five months, being introduced in the House on April 7, passed by the House May 8, referred to the finance com- mittee of the Senate, May 16, reported to the Democratic caucus, June 20, where it was discussed until July 7, and reported to the Senate by the finance committee July 11. It was discussed in the committee of the whole on September 6 and, as stated, passed by the Senate, Septem- ber 9, and taken up by the conference committee September 11. The Senate reduced the exemption limit of the income tax from $4,000 to $3,000, and also exempted from the income tax provision the incomes of mutual life insurance companies, which revert to the benefit of the stockholders. Cattle and wheat were placed on the free list, and the first reduction in the present sugar duties was postponed to take effect March 1, 1914. It was feared that foreign relations would be unsettled by the tariff changes, and the administration is therefore providing a new measure to forestall all possible trade wars.