--- 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: 18 number: 8 published: 1915-06 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* 18, no. 8 (June 1915): 751–755.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1808unse 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: improvementera1808unse start_page: 751 end_page: 755 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1915-06) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1808unse publication_year: 1915 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 1915, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Passing Events Passing Events Utah Day at the San Diego exposition will be July 17. It is ex- pected that Governor Spry and the entire state commission will be present at the opening ceremony, most of which will be held in the Utah state building. The famous Ogden tabernacle choir will give the first of a series of concerts that day, singing with a great outdoor organ. Outside of the choral societies of California, the Ogden choir will be the first large organization of the sort to appear at the exposi- tion. The Mexican situation was somewhat quiet during the past month. General Villa was defeated by General Obregon at Celaya. Obregon's army pursued Villa; but it was announced he was endeavor- ing to establish immediate re-organization of his forces at Aguas Calientes. General Huerta was in New York, April IS, and declared himself guiltless of President Madero's death. He declared the revo- lution of the Constitutionalists a failure, and said only a strong arm could put an end to the anarchy now reigning in Mexico. The opening of the Celilo canal, a part of a water-way which gives an all water-way route from Lewiston, Idaho, to the Pacific ocean, was celebrated, according to the news dispatches, May 3 to 8. It has been ten years in construction and cost the government six million dollars. The construction was begun in 1905. The canal has a minimum depth of eight feet with ten passing basins and five locks. It is estimated that boats will traverse the canal in three hours con- necting with the Snake river and thence the Columbia to the Pacific ocean. Rufus B. Ensign, an Indian war veteran and Utah pioneer of 1847, died May 9, 1915, at his home in Salt Lake City. He was born in Westfield, Massachusetts, December 28, 1832. His parents joined the Church in about 1840, and arrived in Salt Lake valley in the company of Daniel Spencer, September 20, 1847. Mr. Ensign par- ticipated in the Walker Indian war, and later removed to Cedar City, and was a freighter and Indian interpreter for many years. He was well-informed on Utah history, honest and kind-hearted. Caroline Rogers Daniels Smoot, a pioneer of 1850, prominent Re- lief Society worker, and well-known worker in Logan and Salt Lake temples, died March 14, 1915, in Salt Lake City. She was born in Dun- kirk, New York, March 20, 1827, the daughter of David White Rogers, a lineal descendant of John Rogers burned at the stake in England in 1554, one of the first martyrs to religion in England. Mrs. Smoot was in Nauvoo when Joseph Smith and his brother were killed, and at- tended their funeral, being seventeen years of age at that time. She worked in the Logan and Manti temples, beginning in the year 1886, and continued for seven years, working also in the Salt Lake temple after its completion, being a regular temple worker until 1911, when she discontinued because of advancing age and poor health. The great syphon across the valley at Jordan Narrows was tested on April 24, when a number of officers of the company and prominent citizens gathered to see the water transferred from the east side of the valley to the west side where it is to he applied to a large area of land for irrigation purposes. The water is taken from lakes at the liead of Provo river, Drought down the river, then taken, across the high lands on the east and north of Utah county to the point of the mountain, the entire distance from the lakes being about 100 miles. It is then syphoned across the Jordan to be distributed through canals On the west side of the Salt Lake valley. The perfection of this irriga- tion project will mean the reclamation of a large area of arid land in Salt Lake county. William Howard Bancroft, genera! manager of the Oregon Short Line and first vice-president of the Salt Lake Route, died in Salt Lake City, April 22, 1915. Mr. Bancroft had served the Oregon Short Line for twenty-one years as vice-president and general manager. He retired November 1, 1914, still remaining with the company and retaining the title he had carried, performing only such duties as were assigned him by the chairman of the executive committee of the Union Pacific. He was born October 20, 1840, at Newburg, Ohio, and entered the railway service in April, 1856, as telegraph operator, persistently working his way up and serving many rail- road corporations until he became vice-president and general manager of the Oregon Short Line. He was considered one of the best known and ablest railroad characters in the West. Church Chronology. An addition to this work has just been prepared and issued. It contains the chronology of the Church from 1905 up to the close of the year, 1913. A feature is the addition of an in- dex which covers the whole chronology from the beginning, in 1805, to the close of the year, 1913. This is a very valuable reference work and should be in every public and organization library in the Church. Andrew Jenson, the author, has taken great pains to gather infor- mation and historical facts that can be obtained in no other book as handily as in the Church Chronology. The proceeds of the sale of the book are devoted to the new Church administration building, in which the Church Historian's office will be located. Officers of the Church are urged to place as many copies as possible in the homes and libraries of the Church. Three volumes of "How-to-Do-It" books, published by the New York Book Company, and written by J. S. Zerbe, M. E., in language that everbody can understand, entitled "Electricity", "Carpentry" and "Practical Mechanics," for boys, have been received. For keep- ing the boys busy with tools and mechanical appliances and for showing them how these may be used and constructed, no better nor more practical texts have come to hand on these subjects. These books are richly illustrated and especially adapted to the busy hour tor scouts. The boys learn from the beginning the use of tools, and the most advantageous way of handling them. The successive steps in developing electricity are pointed out; and in carpentry it is' shown how the real fundamentals of the trade may be acquired. Price, 60 cents per volume, subject to discount in lots. Guy C. Wilson, for fifteen years president of the Juarez Stake Academy, in Mexico, and late principal of the Granite seminary, was appointed president of the Latter-day Saints University, April 23, to succeed Colonel Willard Young whose resignation takes effect at the close of the present school year. Osborne J. P. Widtsoe, principal of the high school, it was expected would succeed Colonel Young, but he accepted an appointment recently as the head of the English department of the University of Utah. It is expected that under Mr. Wilson the office of the president and principal will be combined, so that Mr. Wilson succeeds both Colonel Young and Professor Widtsoe. He was born at Fairview, Sanpete county, April 10, 1864, educated in the public schools, at the Brigham Young Academy, and later the Brigham Young University at Provo, and has spent his whole life time in educational work. He is a man of deep spirituality as well as great firmness and kindliness. "Religious Education in the Faxrjtf" by Henry F. Cope, Univer- sity ofChicago Press, Chicago, Illinois 296 pages, 12 mo. cloth, $1.25 postage extra, weight one pound five ounces. This book is the twenty- eighth volume in the constructive studies in religious education, issued by the University Press. It is well adapted as an aid for teaching in the home, and would be valuable among our people in such stakes and wards as have adopted the Home Evening. Many excellent sugges- tions applicable to this purpose are found in this volume. Among other topics the text treats of "The Present Status of Family Life," "The Meaning of Religious Education in the Family," "The Home as a School," "Stories and Reading," "Use of the Bible in the Home," "Family Worship," "Sunday in the Home," "The Needs of Youth," "Dealing with Moral Crises," "Personal Factors in Religious Educa- tion." At the close of each chapter there are references for study and reading, and topics for discussion. The chapter on "Jiunday in the Home" contains an explanation of the meaning of the day, the ques- tion of play, and the Sunday afternoon problem. One of the questions suggested for discussion is, "Is there any essential relation between the play of children and the wide-open Sunday of commercialized amusement?" Another is, "What characteristics should distinguish play on Sundays from other days?" Still another, "Is the resi problem of Sunday in the family that of securing quiet, or of wisely directing the action of the young?" The Right Reverend Laurence Scanlan, bishop of the Salt Lake diocese of the Roman Catholic church, died May 10, 1915, in Salt Lake City. He was the pioneer pastor, priest and bishop of the Catholic church in Utah having succeeded the Reverend P. Walsh who was the first Catholic priest in Utah. Bishop Scanlan arrived here, August 14, 1873, and was elevated to the bishopric of Salt Lake in .1887. In 1891, with a nucleus of seventy thousand dollars, the present Catholic cathedral, St. Mary Magdalene, an edifice costing several hundred thousand dollars, was begun on his initiative. It seats 1200 people. The Holy Cross hospital was started under his direction amid humble beginnings, in 1875, but is now one of the largest and best equipped institutions of its kind in this western country. Bishop Scanlan was born about seventy-two years ago, his native land being Ireland. In the estimation of his ecclesiastical as- sociates he stood very high, and some six years ago, when the cathedral was dedicated, Cardinal Gibbons came all the way from Baltimore to be present on that occasion. The funeral services for Bishop Scanlan was held in the cathedral Friday, the 14th of May, and, according to the wish of Cardinal Gibbons, he was buried under the altar, after elaborate ceremonies. President Smith in expressing his regret at the death of Bishop Scanlan said: "I share in the public sorrow for a man who has been so energetic and so conscientious in accomplishing what he considered his life's mission." Judge Charles S. Zane, whose death on March 24, 1915, at his home in Salt Lake City, was noticed in the May number of the "Era" was born in Marsh River Township, Cumberland County, New Jersey, March 2, 1831, and not 1834, as erroneously stated in the notice last month with a number of other errors. His mother was a relative of Benjamin Franklin. He was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1857, elected city attorney of Springfield in 1858, and re-elected in 1861-1865. He became the successor to Abraham Lincoln in the law firm (if Lincoln and Herndon in the year of Lincoln's, inauguration, and continued with Herndon until 1869, at which time- he joined the law firm of Cullom, Zane and Marcy. The senior partner, Shelby M. Cullom, was the famous author of the Cullom bill. With this firm he remained until 1873, when he became judge of the circuit court of Illinois, comprising two counties, which position he occupied for six years, and was then re-elected, holding jurisdiction over six counties. It was in this orifice that he was officiating when on July 2, 1884, he was appointed by President Chester A. Arthur, through the influence of Senator Cullom, to be chief justice of Utah. Judge Zane came to Utah on the 23rd day of August, 1884. He took the oath of office on the first day of September following, and was as- singed to the Third District court by Governor Eli H. Murray. He officiated in this office until the end of his term, when, on July 9, 1888, he was succeeded by Hon. Elliot Sanford, of New York, who was appointed by President Grover Cleveland. President Harrison being inaugurated on March 4, 1889, Judge Sanford was superceded, and Judge Zane was re-appointed on the 24th day of May, 1889, taking the oath of office on the 3rd of June, and entering on his second term the day following. "He remained as chief justice until 1893, since which time he practiced law in Utah to the end of his days, except for one term as Chief Justice of the State of Utah. It was provided in the state constitution that of the three judges elected to the supreme court, of whom Judge Zane was one, that the judge who drew the short term should be the Chief Justice. Judge Zane drew the three-year term and thereby became the first Chief Justice of the state of Utah, entering upon his duties on Janu- ary 6, 1896. In his diary he wrote, "I was not sorry that I drew the short term." The Great War. — The defeat of the Russians in the Carpathians, where it was stated that 3,500,000 men were engaged in the battle line; and renewal of activities in the west, in what will likely be known as "The Second Battle of Ypres," in which asphyxiating gases were a feature of the fighting; a renewal of the effort to force the Dardanelles, and the submarine campaign of the Germans, which cul- minated in the destruction of the great and popular British Cunard liner "Lusitiania," were characteristics of the great war between April 12 and May 12. — April 12 Petrograd reported that Russian troops penetrated twenty miles within the Hungarian borders. — April 16 German war correspondents estimated that 3,500,000 men are engaged in battle in the Carpathians from eastern Galicia to north- ern Hungary, and call this the greatest battle in the history of the world. — April 18 Fierce engagements center about "Hill No. 60," south- east of Ypres. The hill was captured on the 17th by the British. — April 20 The Russians evacuate Tarnow in Galicia. April 21 — The Austrians take twelve thousand Russians prisoners at Yzsok pass. Thirty-five thousand British and French land at Enos, to attack Constantinople. — April 22 The Bombardment of the Dardanelles is resumed by the Allied fleet. Paris announces that by the use of asphyxiating bombs the Germans gain a mile and a half in the Ypres battle, which is designated the "Second Battle of Ypres." — April 25 Fighting continues furiously about Ypres. Great Britain suspends all shipping between the United Kingdom and Holland. The British troops begin landing on the Gallipoli peninsula, after three days of sharp engagements with the Turks. April 26— The French cruiser "Leon Gambetta" was torpedoed and sunk in the Ionian sea by Austrian submarine U-5, with a loss of over 550 men. — April 27 The Russian fleet bombards the Bosporus forts. — April 28 The British are able to consolidate their positions and land stores on the Gallipoli peninsula. — April 29 The Germans advance from eastern Prussia seventy miles into Russian territory. Fierce fighting is reported between the Turks and British forces on the Gallipoli peninsula. The British car- ried several lines of defense between Cape Helles and Kalid Bahr. — May 1 The American oil steamer "Gulflight" was torpedoed and sunk off the Scilly islands. The crew claims that no warning was — given. The "Gulflight" is one of thirteen vessels, -five neutrals, four belligerent steamships, and four trawlers, sunk in seventy-two hours on May 1, 2, 3. The Austrians are concentrating on the Italian border. — May 2 Canadian losses in the second battle of Ypres are reported to be six thousand. In this battle asphyxiating gases were freely used by the Germans. The British sank two German torpedo boats in the North sea, and the Germans sank nine British Trawlers. May 4— War budgets introduced into the House of Commons provided for a daily cost for Britain's military and naval expenses of $10,500,000 a day. — May 6 The Danish steamer "Cathay" was torpedoed in the North sea. May 7 — The Cunard liner "Lusitania," leaving New York, May 1, with 1917 people all told on board, was torpedoed by a German sub- marine at 2 o'clock, without warning, and sunk in twenty minutes. The great ship, valued at $10,000,000, was just west of Queenstown, Ireland, about eight to ten miles when struck. The number of passengers was 1250, and the total of people who lost their lives was 1152, a disaster surpassed only by the "Titanic" when 1503 were drowned. The number of Americans on board was 179 of whom 114 perished, among them being many persons of prominence: Charles Frohman, the theatrical producer; Charles Klein, dramatist, author, of "The Music Master;" Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, capitalist; Justus Miles Forman, novelist; Mr. and Mrs. Elbert Hubbard, of the Roycroft shop. East Aurora, New York; and forty babies and over eighty older children. — May 10 The British steamer "Queen Wilhelmina" was torpedoed by a German submarine on the 8th. The Austrians report taking 70,000 Russians prisoners and capturing 70 guns in West Galicia. — May 11 Dispatches indicate that the Turks are massacring thou- sands of Armenians in Van, Asiatic Turkey. May 12— Germans were mobbed in London riots, as a result of the "Lusitania" tragedy. There are strong indications that Italy will enter the war with the Allies. The British battleship "Goliath" was torpedoed in the Dardanelles. Out of 700 on board 500 of the crew were lost. A British submarine pierced the straits to the sea of Marmora, sinking two Turkish gun- boats and a large transport.