--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Tanner, Joseph M. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 17 number: 12 published: 1914-10 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Tanner, Joseph M., "A New National Danger", *Improvement Era* 17, no. 12 (October 1914): 1120–1121.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1712unse 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: improvementera1712unse start_page: 1120 end_page: 1121 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1914-10) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1712unse 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. --- # A New National Danger A New National Danger BY DR. TOSEPH M. TANNER The people of the west seriously realize a new danger with which the American people are confronted. The government has issued bulletin No. 393, on the spread of the drug habit, in the United States, and it is declared that from eighty to ninety per cent of the opium imported is put to improper uses. In other words, it is used in a secret vice, which is destructive to the lives and happiness of hundreds of thousands of people. It is said that four hundred thousand pounds of opium are imported into the United States every year, and that for medicinal purposes fiftv thousand pounds would be quite sufficient. Here are some of the statistics given: Italy, with one-third of our population, uses only six thousand pounds per annum. Germany, with a population of sixtv millions, imports only seventeen thousand pounds. Austria-Hunsrary, with a population of about forty-six millions, has only from three to four thousand pounds per annum. Tt is further said, in this document, that in the United States there are somewhere in the neighborhood of four million drug habitues. Such a statement is alarming, but it is made bv such a reputable paper as the New York Sun, and it carries with it a warning to those who tamper with drugs in any form. It is known that the cocaine habit is spreading very raoidlv. Recentlv. in Chicaeo. venders were found selling it to little school children. The negroes of the south are perhaps the worst of all drug fiends hut : the drug habit may have taken hold of a man or woman vear^ before its ravaging effects are recognized. Now and then, the peculiar expressions of the eyes reveal the cocaine or morphine user: but as the vice is a secret one. it is concealed as much as possible, and when its victim finallv becomes unfitted for any of the duties or responsibilities of life, he is hidden away from the ea^e of his fellows until death is merciful and removes him from the earth. Drug fiends do not last lonsf. They soon end their career and become the most miserable of all beines. Tt his been suooos^d bv some that the habit was confined rhi~flv to the negroes and the Chinese, but such is not the case. Tt is snid that women are ranidlv becoming victims of the use of rt rlr"° '. tint the cocaine habit is permeating all elates of soci°tv and beco'^incr a real national danger. Tt is absolutely certain that if three hundred and fiftv thousand nounds of cocaine are used every year in excess b°vond thnt required for medicinal purposes. A NEW NATIONAL DANGER. 1121 there is a monstrous evil against which the people of our country must protect themselves. The general government has made laws restricting its use and importation. With it the state governments must co-operate, but before the evil can be checked, it will have taken a strong hold upon the lives of so many hundreds of thousands of our people that it will indeed be a difficult thing to eradicate it. What victims we become, as a nation, to the abuse and excesses of life The Weavers Over the worn loom bending, Weaving with patient art Gray threads that seem unending: Can they have a place and part When sombre and dull and cheerless They dim the radiance bright Of the soft-hued, shimmering fabric That gleams like the robe of night? Yet at length, beneath swift fingers. Like an answer unto prayer, The Weaver sees new meaning Wrought forth in beauty there! And a master's secret vision Await aoplause of man; Since a faithful, unknown toiler Worked out the perfect plan. Then, over life's loom bending, Weave thou, with faith sublime; Be thou a loyal worker Laboring at the loom of time. Black threads of pain and sorrow Weave thou, with steadfast hand. For perchance upon the morrow Thou shalt see and understand; And the web that thou art weaving Unto you. as unto God, Shall reveal its hidden meaning, Like the seed within the clod Waiting, prescient for the moment, To break forth (like Prophet's rod) Into divine transcendent beauty. Then, with threads the Lord hath given. Weave thou, with joy sublime For the heavens wait, fore-knowing Laborer, at the Loom of Time! Maud Baggarlev