--- 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: 9 published: 1915-07 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. 9 (July 1915): 843–850.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1809unse 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: improvementera1809unse start_page: 843 end_page: 850 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1915-07) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1809unse 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 The Roosevelt-Barnes libel suit ended on May 22, the trial having consumed five weeks. The jury was convinced by the evidence that Mr. Roosevelt had not libeled Mr. Barnes. The Liberty Bell will be exhibited in Salt Lake City on July 11, next, and arrangements have been made to have all the school children and arrangements have been made to have all the school children view the bell, under the arrangements made. S. V. Derrah, assistant general freight agent of the Denver and Rio Grande railroad died June 4, 1915. He was one of the road's most widely known and respected officials and stood high in the esti- mation of railroad people as a man and gentleman. The Home Benefit Society was organized June 14 with a capital stock of $2,000,000 for home building purposes. Heber J. Grant, presi- dent, with many prominent men, including President Joseph F. Smith, John C. Cutler, C. W. Nibley, Francis M. Lyman, and H. G. Whitney, as directors. A peace pact has been entered into between Argentine, Brazil and Chili, signed May 23, providing that these three nations for five years shall submit to an inter-national committee of investigation and arbi- tration^ any causes for difference that may arise. The spirit of the treaty is much like the treaties that former Secretary Bryan negoti- ated on the part of the United States with more than thirty nations. D. W. Springer, secretary of the National Education Association, has mailed the Era a volume of the proceedings of the National Edu- cation Association for the St. Paul meeting, last July. The general character of the topics treated as well as the method of presentation are timely and commendable and of interest to all educators. The corner stone of the new Richards ward chapel, of Granite stake, was laid on Sunday, May 30. The chapel will seat three hundred and sixty people, and a choir of seventy-five voices. The amusement hall will measure forty-three and one-half by sixty-four feet. The ceremony of laying the stone was performed by President Frank Y. Taylor and the dedicatory prayer was offered by President Anthon H. Lund. A new non-partisan ministry, which is to direct the British gov- ernment, was announced on May 25. Herbert H. Asquith remained as prime minister and first lord of the treasury. The object of the resig- nation of the former cabinet was to form a non-partisan ministry which all the different parties of the British nation were to be repre- sented. The movement was especially favored by the people, and ap- parentyl has strengthened the British cause James Jensen, formerly of the presidency of the Jordan stake, and mayor of Sandy, died May 19, and his funeral was held May 24 at Jordan. He was born in Stamp, Denmark, July 14, 1847, and came to Utah with the company of John Murdoch, September 12, 1861. He was made bishop of Sandy in 1892, and was later chosen for the stake presidency in which capacity he acted until the stake was re-organized some months ago. He was a veteran of the Black Hawk war. He had also served as constable, justice of the 'peace and postmaster of Draper. The Curlew stake was organized May 17, 1915. Jonathan C. Cutler president, Joseph J. Larkin and Thomas W. Rowe counselors. Elders Rudger Clawson and David O. McKay officiated in the organization of the new stake. The superintendent of the Y. M. M. I. A. is Leon Taggart, of Blackpine, Idaho. The stake is composed of a portion of Oneida county, Idaho, and of Box Elder county, Utah. The wards are Snowville, Park Valley and Rosette in Utah, and Stone, Holbrook, Arbon, Mount View, and Blackpine, in Idaho, and the Canyon and Juniper branches in Idaho. Lassen peak, on the 23rd of May, again poured out a large erup- tion of ink black smoke. One other volcano was in active eruption in the United States during May, and one other in Alaska. The Lassen peak carried ashes a distance of over two hundred miles. Several million feet of standing timber has been destroyed by the volcanic discharges. The floods and eruptions bear a close resemblance to those of Mount Vesuvius. A dispatch from Redding, California, June 14, says that Lassen erupted that day for the one hundred and first time, belching forth a pillar of smoke a mile skyward. President Joseph F. Smith and Bishop C. W. Nibley and party returned June 16 from their trip to the Hawaiian Islands and Oregon. They left May 12, and announced to the Deseret News that their trip was one of the most enjoyable they had ever taken. The plantations of the Church as well as the branches of the Church in the islands were visited, and the party attended many meetings during the fifteen days they were on the islands. On June 5 they left Honolulu, arriving in San Francisco June 11, proceeding immediately to Portland, Ore- gon. Here, on the 13th, President Smith dedicated the new chapel which has just been completed there at an estimated cost of nearly $10,000. The building is Spanish in architecture, the plans being furnished by Pope & Burton. It is built of brick, concrete and steel, and has a large Sunday school and social room in the basement. Secretary William Jennings Bryan submitted his resignation to President Woodrow Wilson on June 8, and it was accepted. The resignation was accomplished with the utmost good feeling between the Secretary of State and President Wilson, so the announcements from Washington declare. The action resulted from differences of opinion over the note sent to Germany, in which the United States formally asked that country for "assurances that measures will be adopted to safeguard neutral lives and ships on the high seas. The resignation occurred because the secretary did not desire to embarrass administration the president by his opposition to the policy of the in the present foreign situation which has arisen between the United a note States and Germany. The secretary is said to have favored which under no circumstances would involve the United States in sent grave complications, whereas the note which was prepared to be protection of Amer- to Germany is emphatic in its insistence upon the ican lives and American ships on the high seas. Robert W. Lansing, note automatically became acting secretary of state, and signed the to Germany on the sinking of the "Lusitania" the text of which was given out June 10. A "Potato Study" poster has been issued by the Agricultural De- partment of the Denver & Rio Grande railroad. It is one of the most comprehensive potato studies that has yet been circulated. At the top of the poster the eye rests on a large plate of potatoes, clean, healthy and life-size. Below these are illustrations of potatoes afflicted with those diseases which cause the greatest amount of trouble in potato fields of the United States today; namely: common scab, Fusarium wilt, and Rhizoctonia, accompanied by a description of the disease carefully written in simple language, without the use of technical terms. Farmers can readily understand these descriptions, and, by the aid of the very clear pictures, determine whether the potatoes they are sav- ing for seed have any of these troubles. The rotation of crops is the surest plan to cleanse the soil of all crop disease germs. Eight methods of control are given in the poster, as well as the details of the corrosive sublimate treatment for seed potatoes, which is believed to be the most thorough and effective remedy. The Rio Grande Commissioner of Agriculture, in his endeavor to get this "Potato Study" poster into every farm home, in the potato growing districts served by this system, is doing a permanent and positive good in the potato territory of the Rocky Mountain region. Lewis A. Merrill, agricultural expert for the Salt Lake Route, and for many years prominent member of the faculty of the Utah Agri- cultural College, died June 1. 1915, following injuries received in an automobile accident on the night previous. Prof. Merrill was born June 2 1874, at Richmond, Utah. He was educated in the common the Brigham Young College, and later in the Utah Agri- schools' cultural College from which he graduated in 1895. He also studied in Iowa State College and the Agricultural College of Ohio, in 1898 and 1904 He was a teacher in the public schools, and in April, isyy, veterinary was appointed assistant professor of agriculture and science in the Utah Agricultural College. He served later in the iyU5. 1 he Utah experiment station and was agronomist from 1900 to following two years he was professor of animal husbandry at the of the Brigham Young University. In 1907-9 he was superintendent Agricultural College. In agricultural extension division of the Utah 1908 he was re-appointed agronomist of the Utah experiment station joint author of many experi- in charge of arid farming, and became his connection ment station bulletins. Four years ago he severed agricultural expert of with the Agricultural College, and became the energies to the improvement of the Salt Lake Route, devoting his the lines of that railroad, being recognized as arm conditions along Profess or Mernll one of the leading agricultural experts in the Wes t Salt Lake City. He was formerly bishop of the Thirty-first ward of with whom he has three was marked June 6 1895, to Miss Effie Ensign children. companion, Dr. Morris Dr David Ballantyne Anderson and Lake his George, near Bolton Kush were drowned while canoeing, in had been an interne in the New York Mav 27 1915. Dr. Anderson eighteen months out Ml Sinai Hospital New York City, for nearly of hi, term of thir y months, and had been granted a two weeks' vaca- sailed up the Hudson to Albany on the tion He and his companion P and walking from there to ardving at Lake George, niJh't of 22nd. BOlt e eX a Jane Ballantyne An- Dr/A nde r son was a son of Edward H. and derson, and was born in Ogden, January 30, 1887. He attended the Madison grade school, beginning the day after he was eight years of age, and graduated from the Webster school, Salt Lake City, on Jan- uary 31, 1902. He then took a three years' course in the preparatory school of the University of Utah, beginning that fall, at which time also he decided to study medicine. Finishing his preparatory school work in 1905, he became a stu- dent in the college for three years. During one of these years he assisted in medical work st the Latter-day Saints Hospital, staying there at night, thus help- ing to earn his way through col- lege. In 1908 he entered the University of Chicago, studying in the Medical College, and at the same time taking regular college work. He graduated with the degree of B. S. in June, 1910. The following autumn he entered by examination the sophomore year of the medical course in the Johns Hopkins University. Here he studied three years, graduating with honor as M. D., in June, 1913, being the second Utah student to graduate from the medical school of that great institution. That summer he took charge of the Mrs. Robert Garrett Chil- dren's Hospital, at Mt. Airy, near Baltimore. He also went to New York and took exam- inations as interne in Mt. Sinai Hospital, and was one of the DR. DAVID B. ANDERSON. eight chosen from about ninety applicants. During his vacation in 1912, he went to California with the medical staff of the National Guard of Utah. In September, 1913, he passed the Utah state medical examina- tion, and was employed by Dr. F. E. Straup for the remaining months of that year, doing good service in his profession at Bingham. He loved his work passionately and on one occasion stated: "I cannot understand why all men are not doctors." On December 27, 1913, he left for New York, entering upon his course in Mt. Sinai on the first day of January, 1914, where his respectful and modest demeanor gained the good-will and friendship of all, including many leading physicians. The House Staff, of which he was a member, wrote to his parents: "Not alone have you lost a dear, good and respectful son, but we have lost a staunch, honorable and kindly friend. Pro- fessionally, David possessed marked talent which he always exhibited in a quiet, unassuming manner. * * * Wefeel that a great fu- ture would have been in store for him." Some splendid tributes were paid him at the memorial services held at the hospital synagogue on June 4. Hundreds of friends attended. Dr. Anderson loved nature, and from early boyhood spent his summer vacations in the Wasatch or the Uintahs. Scarcely a spot rrom Nebo to Bear Lake, or from Timpanogas to Leidy Peak, and where the Green River sweeps round the eastern Uintahs, that he had not explored, camping in the woods and fishing in the lakes. As avocations, he delighted in music and photography. During his grade and University of Utah years he took active part in ward affairs, in M. I. A., Sunday School, and Lesser Priesthood quorum work. While studying in the University, he with his brother passed three summers fencing and cultivating, as pioneers in that district, with good success, a forty-acre farm on the Sand Ridge in Weber county. He often wrote that the physical strength that came to him in this work carried him in health through the strenuous years of mental toil in his professional study. While unsuccessfully drag- ging Lake George for his body, his brother Hugo wrote: "I shall do all in my power, but if I cannot succeed, then you should take consolation in the fact that he lies in as beautiful a spot as could be — found out in the nature he so dearly loved." Always David rendered to his family and friends (and he had friends in nearly every state in the Union) cheerful, helpful and lov- ing service. Besides the geniality of his nature, he possessed a keen sense of dry humor which, added to his general affability enabled him to make friends of nearly all with whom he came in contact. His hopes desires, plans, and ambitions were to come home to continue the efficient service which his high scholastic attainments had fully equipped him to render to the people in the valleys and mountains of his beloved Utah. The characteristics of his nature were hard work, perseverance, clean morals, cheerfulness and efficiency. His was in- deed a beautiful life. Angus M. Cannon, many years president of the Sait Lake for Stake of Zion, before was divided, died in Forest Dale, Utah, at it 6-40 on the most beautiful morning of June 7, 1915. He passed almost peacefully as the morning itself. For some time he had felt pre- as pared for death. On February 28, 1906, in company ^ylth his sister Lambert, he started for England with intention of visiting Mary Alice His the Cannon family the Isle of Man, the ancestral home of member o George M. Cannon, Jr, was a eighteen-year-old grandson, names South Africa, on a mission. The of the partyf and en route to by subsequent gene- many ancestors were gathered on this trip, andPresident Cannon up- dead Sogfcal researches and for these kindred This the Salt Lake temple on his return, immediately began work in one month before his death °abo hee diligently continued up to May 7. and.his sons and grands on. hgj fo°tVo usands, President Cannon 1 years should be that of S^onTTthYchief labor* of hls^ecEg those ancestors who had died redeeming in the House of the Lord without hearing the restored Gospel of Jf. ^"% us „ „ . cabrne, maker) un about father J,fthe "V.oyn-t afforded the , ! then sen to MS r three years of age. when he was rnet t0 Isle of Man.. He hved withthe, -for ««*»»^m when the gospel , his parents in Liverpool. He was t'le'e *vit" i John Tay- was brought to their door by Elder iayioi <**>%*%*£&£ >„ Canada. lor, in January, 184U. tlder <<* Cannon. Leonora Cannon, and therefore sought and his family, and taught them the her b gospe hrot ier A len ^£ £ i George e iDer^ o£ r" f the fami y , . ^P*^'?^^^^ SrSt^t:!'^ who were old enough were tl^e'father/George six children. George Q., Mary Alice, Ann, Angus M., David H., and Leonora, set sail with a large company of Saints for Nauvoo, via New Orleans. This at the earnest insistence of the mother, and in spite of warning dreams that she would not arrive safely in America. To all remon- strances she turned a deaf ear, and said: "I desire to take our chil- dren to the body of the Church, where they can enjoy the blessings of liberty, in the land of America." Three days after sailing, this de- voted mother took sick. Forty days out on this journey, growing weaker, day by day, she died; and her sorrowing husband and her little children watched her dear but lifeless form dropped into the sea. After eight weeks, the father and children landed in New Or- leans. Thence to Nauvoo, up the Mississippi River, where they met and listened to the Prophet Joseph Smith, and lived there at the time of his martyrdom. Later the father went to St. Louis to get employ- ment at his trade, and there he died, August 17, 1844. Angus M. Can- non was thus left motherless at eight, and fatherless when ten years of age. Not being old enough to be baptized when his parents and his older brother and sisters were baptized, and seeing Elder L. O. Littlefield baptizing in the River at Nauvoo, he requested baptism; was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church on the river bank. With his guardian, Charles Lambert ''who had married his older sister Mary Alice, at Nauvoo) he came to Utah in 1849, walking almost the entiie distance. He acted as hunter, and was charged with the duty of providing the game eaten by his relatives on the journey. In Utah he met every call of the authorities with willing alacrity. With George A. Smith's company he went to locate Parowan, Iron county, in 1850, returning in 1851. He farmed, cut and hauled timber, joined the Nauvoo Legion, and was apprenticed to the "Deseret News," where he learned the printing business under Willard Richards. On September 4, 1854, he went on a mission to the East, under Elder John Taylor, laboring in Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsyl vania. In the latter state he baptized twenty-one persons in one month. Returning to Salt Lake City, June 21, 1858, he established the pottery business with Eardley Brothers. He was called on a mission to "Utah's Dixie," in 1861, and helped locate St. George, of which town for two years he served as Mayor. Being honorably released from this mission seven years later, on account of ill-health, he re- turned to Salt Lake, in 1868. He was in charge of lumber mills owned by Daniel H. Wells in Big Cottonwood Canvon, and also conducted a mule freight train of merchandise for Wm. S. Godbe, Salt Lake to Montana; was business manager of the "Deseret News," of which his brother, George Q., was editor; went on another two-year mission to Pennsylvania, and returning, engaged in the wagon and implement and coal business. He served eight years as county recorder of Salt Lake County. In Church work, Elder Cannon had served in the vari- ous orders of the priesthood, and was a Seventy when ordained a High Priest, and chosen a member of the High Council of the Salt Lake Stake, and counselor to Bishop Taylor of the Fourteenth Ward. In April, 1876, he was selected by President Brigham Young as President of the Salt Lake Stake of Zion, and was sustained by the people in that position for over twenty-eight years. His counselors were David O. Calder and Joseph E. Taylor. Upon the death of the former, Charles W. Penrose became second counselor. The stake has since been divided into eleven stakes. The decisions rendered by President Angus M. Cannon and his counselors were the most nu- merous and probably the most important delivered by any stake pres- idency in the Church; and, according to remarks of President Pen- rose, at the funeral services, no decision made by them was ever re- versed, on appeal to the First Presidency. To retain membership in the Church, and to have her posterity retain membership therein, Ann Quayle Cannon was willing to die and be buried in the sea. Her son Angus, while not having the largest family of her six children, leaves one hundred thirteen living decend- ants, all members of that Church. While presiding over the Salt Lake stake, President Angus M. Cannon, in an address in the Tabernacle, once said: "When I think how I was left a poor orphan boy; and of how God has cared for me, and raised up friends to me, all through my life; and of how he has set me to preside over this great stake, com- prising as it does more souls than were members of the Church, at the time of the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph, my heart is full of grat- itude to him for his matchless mercy and kindness unto me. My hope is that I may be worthy of his love, and that I may be true to the end, and that my children and my children's children may never forge; God and the glorious gospel that he has restored to the earth." (See portrait, p. 820.) The Great War. Main events of the great war during the month of May 13 to June 12, was the retaking of Przemysl by the Austro- Hungarian army, the entrance of Italy into the war with the Allies, and the apparent success of the allied fleet in bombarding and passing the Dardanelles. May 14— The Austro-Hungarian army is before Przemysl and the Russians retreated from Galacia. — May 15 Four American correspondents and one from Holland and Switzerland on invitation inspect the allied sufferers from asphixiating gases in a French hospital and report that these poison men and give intense suffering to those who survive. May 16—The end of the "first stage" of the struggle for the heights of Atchi-Baba the first of the great barriers, is reported reached by the allied land forces. The Turks lost heavily. The movement of the Allies north of Arras on the 14, 15 and 16, is said to be the greatest gain made in the west since the battle of the Marne. The British House of Commons announced that 460,628 tons of British shipping other than war ships has been sunk or captured by the Ger- mans since the beginning of the war, and that the number of persons of all nationalities lost with these sinkings is approximately 1,5^6. The German tonnage sunk or captured by the British is reported as 314,46o tons, a remarkable thing being that not one German nor neutral subject has been killed in connection with it. May 17—The British financial secretary announces that the war- status of the cost to England equals $150 a second at the present war. At Van, Asiatic Turkey, six thousand Armenians are massacred by Turks and Curds, according to the dispatches. on May 18—The struggle in the Dardanelles is extremely difficult, wall the part of the Allies, in making any impression on the stone defenses of the Turks. . .. May 19— Italy takes military control its entire railway under The Austro-German forces in Galacia force the passage for of system receives an order the San river. The Bethlehem Steel Company office, and a check for eight thousand cannon from the British war $16,500,000 from Lord Kitchener. have submarines May 20— Copenhagen reports that twenty German blockade, February 18 been lost since the beginning of the "war zone" a vote of of deputies by Mav 23— On the 20th the Italian chamber the government in the event six to one voted granting full powers to following day by unani- of war This waf ratified by the senate the on the 22nd a general military and naval mobilization mous vote and was ordered, followed on the 23rd by a declaration of war on Austria on which day the first engagement was reported as taking place in Austrian Tyrol. — May 25 The British battleship "Triumph" is torpedoed and sunk by a submarine off the Gallipoli peninsula. A coalition cabinet was formed in Great Britain to meet the exigencies of the war. Balfour took Churchill's place as first lord of the admirality. Holland sent a note of protest to Germany on the sinking of the "Lusitania" in which several Hollanders lost their lives. The note was closely modeled after that of the United States. — May 26 The American steamship "Nebraska" flying the Amer- ican flag was blown up off the Irish coast. The vessel was able to reach port safely and there is no proof that it was the work of a submarine. The Russians captured Ermnia and thus put a stop to the Turkish massacres. — May 27 The British battleship "Majestic" was torpedoed and sunk in the Dardanelles. It is the fifth British battleship sacrificed in the attempt to force a way through the strait. The British submarine "11" reached the arsenal at Constantinople, so it was reported, and sunk on its way a Turkish ammunition ship. The Canadian-Pacific railway steamer "Princess Irene" was blown up and destroyed at the mouth of the Thames. Over four hundred and twenty-four lives were lost. The cause of the explosion is unknown. — May 28 The German admiralty admits torpedoing the "Gulflight" by submarine, but think it was mistaken for a British steamer. — May 30 Germany makes public a note in answer to President Wilson's note concerning the "Falaba" and "Lusitania" offenses, hold- ing that the "Falaba's" calling aid after the command to halt rendered her liable to instant attack. War policy, and England's violation of inter-nationai procedure, the Germans urge, compelled them to con- sider the "Lusitania" as a hostile craft. With regard to the "Gulflight" and the "Cushing," Germany regrets and promises indemnity. — May 31 Zeppelins raid London, killing four residents and causing some fires. England has lost 139 merchant and fishing vessels by the Germans, mainly through submarine attacks. — June 2 Przemysl is re-taken by the Austro-Germans after an assault regarded to be unparallelled in violence. — June 4 A German submarine sunk the Russian cruiser "Amur" near a Baltic port. German naval dirigibles attack the mouth of the Humber, east coast of England. — June 5 Hostile airships dropped bombs on the east and southeast coast of England with little damage. — June 6 King Constantine's health is failing. His condition is critical. June 7 — ReginaldJ. Warniford, a Canadian sublieutenant in the Royal navy, destroyed a Zeppelin from an aeroplane. With the destruction of the Zeppelin twenty-eight men were killed. Bombs were dropped from the aeroplane on the Zeppelin which fell a mass of burning ruins near Ghent. Five people were killed by Zeppelin bombs in the east coast of England. — June 10 The Austrians and Germans are experiencing uninter- rupted usccesses in Galicia. Five British vessels of which four were trawlers were sunk by German submarines. The total number of of- ficers and men who have perished in the sinking of British naval craft since the outbreak of the war is given out as 6,409. This does not include the men who lost their lives on the mine-layer "Princess Irene" and the British battleship "Bulwark" which were blown up^ in Sheerness harbor. Germany announces that they have one million men operating toward Lemberg towards Russian Galicia.