--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Cope, F. W. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 19 number: 1 published: 1915-11 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Cope, F. W., "Incompetence," *Improvement Era* 19, no. 1 (November 1915): 45–46.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1901unse 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: improvementera1901unse start_page: 45 end_page: 46 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1915-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1901unse 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. --- # Incompetence Incompetence BY F. W. COPE Sitting- on a pleasant hillside, one day, enjoying the sunshine of an autumn morning, with thoughts barely employed, my atten- tion was attracted to a monster steam shovel digging its iron jaws, armored with mighty teeth of steel, into the face of the bank of earth and rock. Each bite of this monstrous jaw left its imprint on the perpendicular wall which, at every few strokes, fell in ava- lanches of dust and earth. This mighty engine, creeping slowly on and on, soon had leveled the hill, and the work of ages performed by the forces of nature, with the aid of wind, water and the vast upheavals of internal exertion, disappeared. In its place was a level expanse I ground upon which will soon appear lawns, trees, and flowers, to delight the eyes of thousands of God's children. Standing near the steam shovel, diligently employed, was a mere man, attacking with his whole might, with the aid of a hand shovel, this same bank. His movements were more rapid, his shovel was loaded and emptied more frequently, but the results were so pitiful in comparison that I was struck with his extreme impotence. Where each bite of the machine tore great holes in the bank, and each load was sufficient to fill a car, the load taken up by the human machine, after leaving his shovel, was often dis- sipated by the breeze and hardly reached the bottom of the hill. A lifetime of physical effort could scarcely accomplish the results of a few days' labor by the mighty monster using the latent forces of steam. So it is in all the activities of man, when physical strength is matched against the properly controlled forces of nature. So it is in comparison of the bow and arrow, used in the hunt and in war- fare by primitive man and the savage ; and the Herculean engines of modern warfare employed in the present European war, the greatest in all the world's history. This applies also in the human effort resulting in the early Egyptian development : and the modern methods of transportation and propulsion. Viewing physical man. how puny, how impotent he is. When God set our Father Adam in the Garden of Eden he gave him dominion over all the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, the fishes of the sea, and bade him name them and prevail over them. Was this right given through his physical power over them? Relieve a man of all intelligence, except sufficient to search 46 I M I'KOVEMENT ERA out an existence, or such power as is given to the lower order of animals, and a very few decades would see his extinction. Before man was given dominion over the life-forms of this earth, he was endowed with powers of majesty — his mind. Through the development of the mind, man has been able to put to use the forces of nature and make them subject to his will. Watt's curiosity over the actions of the steam in the kettle, and subsequent research, resulted in a multitude of steam-propelled mechanisms. Franklin's experiment with the key, the kite, and the light- ning, added upon by the achievements of Edison and many others, gave us the myriad electrical devices now known to man, and con- trolled by him. Westinghouse's application of the principle of compressed air is another great power. So we could continue through the innumerable inventions of man, and find convincing proof that man is endowed with the majesty and right to exercise dominion not only over the animals, fowls, and fishes, but over every force of nature. Were we to make comparison between the steam shovel ana the tool used by hand, and man's physical endowments, with his mental possibilities, even the comparison of the shovel would be idle. Man, in his physical self alone, is impotent even to gain that which will sustain life ; endowed with the kingship of the mind he is able to subdue all things, and rise to the highest pinnacle of achievement, approaching the accomplishments of the Creator. It is for us individually to choose our stations in life, and to determine our standing here and in the life to come, whether they shall be impotent or competent, whether we shall do our work by physical force, or by the unconquerable power of mind. FOREST DALE, UTAH ^99^^ 1* » : ,i WW~M,1F THE M. I. A. SPECIAL NORMAL CLASS Fielding Academy, Paris, Idaho, 1914-15