--- 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: 17 number: 10 published: 1914-08 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* 17, no. 10 (August 1914): 998–1000.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera17010unse 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: improvementera17010unse start_page: 998 end_page: 1000 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1914-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera17010unse publication_year: 1914 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 1914, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Passing Events Passing Events One-third of the city of Salem, Massachusetts, was destroyed by fire on June 25, with a loss estimated at $10,000,000. Most of the his- torical land-marks of the city, however, were saved. A thousand buildings were laid waste, and ten thousand people rendered homeless. A direct telephcne line from New York to San Francisco was completed on Saturday, June 20, by the laborers setting the last pole in Nevada. Direct communication may now be had between New York and San Francisco without delay, by telephone. The fees are $18 per minute. The Niagara Falls Mediation Conference adjourned lime 30, awaiting the hoped-for meetings between representatives of Huerta and Carranza. Their labors, though apparently in vain, have had a wonderful influence in hastening the solution of the Mexican problem and the promised occupation of Mexico City by the Constitutionalists. Prohibition has been adopted by all the political parties in Idaho. Republicans, Progressives, and Democrats, all have gone on record in declaring for state wide prohibition in some form or other. Our neighboring state is to be commmended for this action. Each of the parties adopted a resolution in its platform favoring an amendment to the constitution which shall "forever prohibit the manufacture and sale of liquor in Idaho." Murray, Utah, went "dry" again at the recent special election held — June 30. Elections were also held in Midvale, Copperfield, and Sandy. Copperfield went "dry" by a majority of four; Murray, by 14; and Midvale went "wet" by 163; Sandv, by 50. The retaining of Murray as a "dry" town was a distinct victory for the prohibitionists. The Law and Order League of Murray, have determined that the "blind pi^s" and other illicit places for the distribution of liquor shall be wiped out completely, since the league have now the sentiment of the city with them and aganst the law breakers. The laws will doubtless now be enforced without fear or favor. The Moffat Tunnel, for the building of which the city of Denver recently voted a bond of $3,000,000, has received another setback. The supreme court of Colorado recently declared the bond to be unconstitutional and invalid because it would be lending public money to foster private enterprise. It took many years to induce the peo- ple to make this provision for making the tunnel, and it is feared it will take many more years now to raise the money to continue the^ work of building a road to Salt Lake through the Uintah reser- vation, from Denver, though some still have hopes that the project will succeed and that in the near future. Baseball w«as sixty-eight years old, on June 19. Sixty-eight years ago, on that date, the first match game of ball on record was plaved between the Knickerbocker and New York baseball clubs in the Ely- sian fields, at Hoboken, New Jersey. Today baseball holds the nation in its grip. Over thirty million fans pay more than ten million dol- lars every season to watch the five thousand professional ball players mnkinor up the more than fifty major and minor leagues. It is not only the national game today but is rapidly becoming inter-national. PASSING EVENTS 999 The leading nations are beginning to adopt baseball as a national sport. It may well be said that the sun never sets on the kingdom of baseball. However, some complaint is made this summer that the enthusiasm for the game in this country is not as pronounced as usual. West Virginia and prohibition. State-wide prohibition became effective June 29, in West Virginia. There are now nine prohibition states in the union: Georgia, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, North Caro- lina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and West Virginia. The total prohibition territory and the local no-license area make up 2,132,726 square miles in which 46,029,750, or nearly 50% of the coun- try's copulation live, according to the latest figures of the prohibition leaders. West Virginia accepted the "dry" proposition with a ma- jority vote of 92,000, relatively the largest ever given by any state. The state has a population of 1,221,119, according to the census of 1910. A commissioner of prohibition for the state was appointed to close twelve hundred liquor selling places in the state, which was promptly done. A mimic war in the air was held at Vienna, June 20. The Austrian army dirigible baloon "Kertling" and an aeroplane and other craft were engaged in the sham battle. The mosquito craft soon overtook her big sister and immediately began a sham attack in encircling the airship several times at a height of fifteen hundred feet maneuvering to take a position directly above the airship. In coming down, the ncse of the biplane crashed through the envelope of the airship and npptd it wide open. A terriffic explosion followed, the airship took fire engulfing both the biplane and the airship, and in a few moments the remnants of both craft, with nine aviators, crashed on to the slopes of a mountain. The heat was so great that the watches of nen were melted in coming down, and the bodies were so charred and mangled that they were scarcely recognizable. This is one of me greatest accidents in the history of aerial flight Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austro-Hungary, and his morganatic wife, the Duchess of Hohenburg, were assassinated in Sarajavo, the capital of Bosnia, on June 28, by a young Herze- govinian student named Prinzip, who discharged an automatic pistol at them, killing them almost instantly as they were returning from the town hall after a reception. A bomb was first thrown at the royal automobile but it exploded in the street without doing any serious damage. The assassination is believed to express the resentment of many Serbes at the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Aus tria in 1908, for which Franz Ferdinand was held largely responsible. The children of the archduke, owing to his morganatic marriage, cannot succeed to the throne, hence the next heir is archduke Karl Franz Josef. The murder caused the aged emperor of Austria great sorrow, and the people throughout Austria much apprehension. It is feared that there are Servian plots to detach Bosnia and Herzegovina from Austria. This adds one more difficulty to the great troubles of the Balkan district. Duchesne will be the name of a new county in Utah, authorized by vote of the people of the old Wasatch county, on Monday, July 13. For some time agitation has been going on to divide Wasatch county, the east half to be called Duchesne, and the west half to re- tain the old name. By a substantial majority vote, the people both on the east side and on the west side agreed to the division of the county. The Wasatch "Wave" informs its readers that the assessed valuation of Wasatch county, in 1914, west of the proposed new line 1000 IMPROVEMENT ERA was $1,932,587, while the assessed valuation east of the proposed new line, which will now be called Duchesne, is $1,209,347, a figure larger than the valuation, in 1912, in each of the following counties: Kane, Garfield, Piute, San Juan, Wayne, and Washington. The fol- lowing cities and towns are located in the west, of Wasatcl county: Heber, Midway, Charleston, Wallsburg, Elkhorn, Center, Daniels, Riverdale, Bench Creek. The following settlements are located in the proposed new Duchesne county; Havden, Packer, Cedarview, Alexan- der, Roosevelt, Myton, Lake Fork, Boneta, Midview, Antelope, Theo- dore, Stockmore, Frnitland. The east side will have the largest share of territory much of which is undeveloped. Mexico. Zacatecas, a city in Central Mexico, was captured by General Villa, June 23, after four days of preliminary fighting. The battle with the Federals was the most hotly contested during the present revolution. Fourteen thousand Federals were entrenched in almost impregnable positions. Villa's loss in dead is put at 2,200, and the Federal loss at about 4,500, rive thousand prisoners besides were captured. Many officers fell, among them, it is said, was Colonel Fierro, who it is generally believed was the murderer of W. S. Benton, an English ranch owner whose death was a matter of diplomatic inquiry last winter. The difficulty between Villa and Car- ranza continued, and it was stated at one time that ammunition had been denied to Villa which caused his delay on the march to Mexico City. On the 8th of July Guadalajara on the west coast, fell before the Constitutionalists' forces, twelve thousand Federals being utterly routed by General Alvaro Obregon, leader of the Constitutionalists. For three days the fight continued, only a few Constitutionalists being killed. Five thousand out of twelve thousand Federals were taken prisoners with much ammunition and large supplies. On July 13 General Huerta sent his family, via Vera Cruz, on the way to Europe, and on the 15th he presented his resignation as Provisional President, to the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, who accepted it by a vote of 121 to 17. General Victoriano Huerta who has oc- cupied the Provisional Presidency for about 17 months then turned his office over to Francisco Carbajal, The new Provisional President. The resignation and the change was received calmly by the populace. General Huerta in the text of his resignation assigns his failure to the "outrage committed at Vera Cruz by the American Fleet." To show that he was not seeking his personal interests, but that of the republic, General Huerta closed his resignation by saying, "Some say I, come what may, seek my personal interest and not that of the re- public, and as I need to refute this allegation with facts, I tender my formal resignation of the presidency of the republic." General Huerta took the oath as Provisional President of Mexico, February 19, 1913, the day after Francisco I. Madero had been arrested at the national palace. Three days later Madero and vice-president Suarez were shot to death under guard while being taken from the palace to the penitentiary, and their deaths have never been explained satis- factorily. Huerta telegraphed President T-aft: "I have the honor t} inform you that I have overthrown this government. The forces are with me, and from now on peace and prosperity will reign." But the Constitutionalists under Carranza and Villa continued the war- fare, which has now ended in the flight of Huerta and the downfall of his administration, which has been one of the bloodiest in the his- tory of Mexico. Negotiations for a peaceful entrance into the City of Mexico by the Consttutionalist forces were going on, but on the 21 si of July it was said Carbajal would not surrender unconditionally to Carranza.