Passing Events

Passing Events Women suffrage in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New Jersey was defeated by overwhelming majorities in the elec- tions on October 19. Elections were held in ten states. Woman suf- frage obtains in twelve states. Interurban day, at Logan, was celebrated Wednesday, October 27, on the occasion of the closing of the gap between Logan and Ogden putting into. effect an interurban railroad system, from Springville to Logan. Appropriate ceremonies were held and leading citizens of Logan, Ogden, Salt Lake, Provo, and other cities of the state, were present, including Governor William Spry. The Liberty Bell was loaded on a special train at the Panama- Pacific Exposition, November 11, and started on its return trip to its home in Philadelphia. It arrived in San Francisco on the 16th of July, and was on exhibition at the Pennsylvania building every day. The last day of the bell at the Exposition was spent in the archway of the Tower of Jewels, and it was banked with masses of flowers which had been showered upon it at the farewell exercises the day previous. The Jewish colony at Clarion, Utah, has disbanded. All of the contracts with the merrrbers were cancelled November 5, by the State Board of Land Commissioners, and the land upon which they were settled will revert to the benefit of the state university and other institutions for which it was originally intended. The land is situated in Sevier and Sanpete counties, and embraces six thousand acres. The colonization project is now in the hands of a receiver, and there is talk of establishing the colony in southern Davis county west of St. Joseph. Thomas Alva Edison, the great inventor, passed through Ogden, October 18, spending an hour there in the business district on his way over the Southern Pacific to San Francisco. He displayed his abiding interest in the west by asking concerning the general business conditions in Utah. Mr. Edison was made chairman of the Naval Board, Sept. 12, which is composed of men selected by the eleven leading engineering scientific societies of the United States. It is composed of twenty-three eminent men of science who will contribute their inventive genius to the upbuilding of the navy. The corner stone of the Cardston, Canada, temple, was laid on the 19th of September, 1915. Nearly two thousand persons were present and Elder David O. McKay of the Council of the Twelve of- ficiated as the representative of the First Presidency. A box of articles of historical interest to future generations^ was placed in the corner stone, and was deposited by the two presidents of stakes in the stone. Elder David O. McKay with a silver trowel, made ex- pressly for the purpose, leveled the mortar, and declared the corner stone of the seventh temple to be built in this dispensation by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the first beyond the boundaries of the United States, duly laid in honor of God our Eternal Father.

188 IMPROVEMENT ERA Tillman D. Johnson, of Ogden, was appointed United States district judge for Utah by President Wilson on November 3, to fill the vacany caused by the resignation of John A. Marshall. The posi- tion draws a salary of six thousand a year, and the appointment is made for life, or during good behavior. Judge Johnson was born January '8, 1858, in Tennessee. He was admitted to the Utah bar in 1890, having come west in 1886, and engaged in the practice of law in Ogden from 1890. In 1911, he formed a partnership with his son Wade M. Johnson. He was a member of the Utah legislature, in 1899, and Democratic candidate for Congress, in 1912. He qualified on November 22. A Utah bed of mineral potash is called attention to in the report of Secretary Lane, of the Department of the Interior, who announces the production in Utah of the first commercial mineral potash in the United States. The potash is found in a vein of a mineral known as alunite. It is said that the vein found is ten feet wide, and has been traced for 3,500 feet. Two hundred tons of alunite have been put through a mill, and two tons of 99% pure potash have been produced with nearly a hundred thousand gallons still in solution, containing large quantities of potash salts' not' yet evaporated. Secre- tary Lane believes that the discovery of alunite, known to exist in large quantities in Utah, Nevada, Colorado, California and Arizona, assures the country of adequate quantities of native potash for agri- cultural purposes and for the manufacture of explosives. It will be interesting to note that our imports of potassium salts from Germany, in 1913, amounted to fifteen million dollars. The bodty of Elder John A. Maynes, president of the London con- ference, who died October 14, at Hull, England, arrived in Salt Lake City on November 5. It was accompanied bv Mrs. Maynes and daughter Dorothy, and Elders Knight and William Bruce. Presi- dent Maynes died while visiting his birthplace, at Hull, and was in the best of health until three days before his death. Funeral services were held on Sunday, November 7, in the Twentieth 'ward chapel and Bishop C. C. Neslen presided. Among the speakers were George Shorten, W. D. Owen, E. J. Watts, William Bruce and others. The principal address was delivered by President Joseph F. Smith who spoke of the missionary work accomplished by Elder Maynes and commented upon the tributes paid him by preceding speakers on his character and efficiency in the cause of Christ. President Anthon H. Lund and Bishop C. C. Neslen also spoke briefly. The service was one of the most numerously attended of any funeral service ever held in the Ensign stake. Booker T. Washington, the foremost teacher and leader of the negro race, and principal of the Tuskegee Industrial and Normal In- stitute, Alabama, died November 14, at his home in Tuskegee. He was born in slavery near Halesford, Virginia, in 1857 or 1858. After the emancipation he moved to West Virginia. He entered Hampton and worked his way through an academic course, graduating in 1876. He later became a teacher in that school, remaining there until 1881, when he organized the industrial school for negroes at Tuskegee, to which he devoted the remainder of his life. His institute started in a rented shanty. Today it owns over 3.500 acres of land, in Alabama, has nearly a hundred buildings, and is valued at half a million dollars. Thousands of negroes have received their start in his institute. Dr. Washington received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Harvard, in 1896, and Doctor of Laws, in 1901, from the Dartmouth

PASSING EVENTS 189 college. For the Senior Y. M. M. I. A. Mammal for 1915-16, he kindly contributed a short article on, "What is Success?" this being among one of the last that he wrote. He visited Utah not long ago and spoke before the L. D. S. U. and other institutions in the state. Mrs. Zina Smith Greenwell, wife of Ambrose Greenwell and daughter of President Joseph F. Smith, and Edna L. Smith, died in Salt Lake City, October 25. Mrs. Greenwell was born in Salt Lake City, October 11, 1890, and was married on the 12th of December, 1910, to Ambrose Greenwell, by whom she had one daugh- ter, Helen, age three years. Mrs. Greenwell received her education in the public schools and in the Latter-day Saints University. After her graduation she was employed in the Presiding Bishop's Of- fice as stenographer and type- writer in which line she was an expert. She resided in the Seventeenth ward up to the time of her marriage, and in all her girlhood and youth was actively engaged in re- ligious work, principally as a teacher in Sunday school. When she located with her husband in the Waterloo ward, she continued this same activity; and while her hus- band was on a mission in the Southern States, from which he recently returned, Mrs. Greenwell spent her time as recording stenographer in the Salt Lake Temple, perform- ing her duties there at the time she was stricken with her fatal illness. She was a woman of deep spirituality, a bright intellect, and a lovable nature, being capable and efficient in all her work. She was an accomplished pianist, fond of music, a re- fined and lovable woman. The Mexican situation continues unsettled, though it was some- what quieter in the middle part of November. On' the 25th of October, it was stated that Private E. Moore was shot by a bandit near Browns- ville, Texas, and that he was the eleventh American soldier killed in skirmishes with Mexican bandits and raiders. The troops of Carranza were permitted passage over the Southern Pacific across American territory from Eagle Pass, Texas, to Douglas, Arizona. Reinforcements of United States troops arrived at Douglas and Naco, Texas, on the 29th. Major General Funston has complete charge of the situation on the border, and is empowered to call more troops as he may need. On the 30th, three thousand United States troops entrenched within a few feet of the Mexican border, prepared to interfere should the attack by Villa on Agua Prieta, Sonora, involve shooting into Amer- ican territory Many of the officers and soldiers of Villa are reported

190 IMPROVEMENT ERA deserting for Carranza's camps. On Nov. 3 Villa's attack on Agua Prieta failed as he lacked supplies, lie withdrew to Naco. Edith Cavell, an English nurse, was shot, October 12, at Brus- sells, by a German firing squad, the military court having sentenced her to death on a charge of aiding British and French soldiers and Belgian young men to escape from Belgium and join the allied armies. She was arrested on August 5. She admitted the charge, and when asked by the president of the court if she wished to petition the Kaiser for pardon, she refused to take advantage of the oppor- tunity, and died stating that she had no hatred or bitterness toward anyone. Her execution aroused outbursts of indignation, not only in England, but in Holland and the United States as well, and recruiting in England jumped to ten thousand because of the news. Arthur T. Wells, son of John and Amelia Wells of Salt Lake City, and a conductor on the Emigration Canyon railroad, was acci- dentally killed at noon, October 15, 1915, at a station near the site of the old Wagner brewery. Arthur T. Wells was born in Salt Lake City, April 6, 1895, and graduated from the public schools, completed a course in the L. D. S. U., and later attended the Utah Agricultural College, at Logan. He had worked for the railroad some time, but intended leaving shortly to manage a ranch in Arizona! His funeral was held in the Ensign ward chapel on Sunday, Oct. 17. Bishop David R. Lyon officiated. The speakers were Arthur Winter, President Charles W. Penrose, Joseph S. Wells, of the (presidency of the Ensign stake, who labored as a missionary in Not- tingham at the time the Wells family embraced the gospel, Le Grande Young, president of the Emigration canyon railroad, Orson F. Whit- ney of the Council of the Twelve, and Bishop Charles W. Nibley. The speakers referred to Brother Wells' splendid physical development, his sterling character, and the respect and af- fection he had always shown towards his par- ents, his brothers and sisters. He was look- ing forward to filling a mission to the native land of his parents. His father, John Wells, has been the chief clerk of the Presiding Bishop's Office for many years, and the speak- ers paid a glowing tribute of esteem and re- spect to Brother Wells and his family. The grave was dedicated by Elder David A. Smith of the Presiding Bishopric of the Church. The great war continued, with Serbia as the principal battlefield since the Austro-German army invaded that country on October 7, in an attempt to open a route to Constantinople to aid the Turks. The German Field Marshall Von Mackensen is in command of about four hundred thousand troops, and succeeded, October 26th, in mak- ing communication with Turkish officers at Constantinople. About the middle of November the Serbian army was reported in serious diffi- culty, and was likely to be completely defeated. It was generally con- ceded that the British and French drive at the Dardanelles was a failure. Lord Winston Spencer Churchill who has received con- siderable criticism, and resigned from the British admiralty, as former first lord, said on the 15th, in defense of the expedition: "If any operation in the history of the world were worth carrying through with sustained fury and utter disregard of life, the operations at the Dardanelles were worth it." 1

PASSING EVENTS 191 October 11. — The Bulgarian armies cross the border into Serbia at several points east of Nish, and Bulgaria entered the war as an ally of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey. October 19. — Italy declared war on Bulgaria. October 20. — Great Britain offered Cyprus to Greece for aid in the war, and on the 22nd Greece refused to join the Allies. Cyprus is about the size of Porto Rico, or nearly one-third as large as Belgium, and was ceded by Turkey to England in 1878, as a reward for defend- ing her against Russia, but was not formally annexed until the present war. October 30. — The British publish the names and tonnage of twenty steamships sunk in the Baltic by'the British, between October 11 and 23. October 31. — It is reported that in the territories swept by the German invasion of Russia, one million five hundred thousand Russian Jews are homeless and starving. November 2. — The Germans take the new Serbian capitol Tchatchak. Premier Asquith explains the war situation to Parliament. November 6. — The Bulgars take the ancient Roman city of Nish, the capitol of Serbia, the birthplace of Constantine the Great. The possession of Nish gives the Bulgarians and the Austro-German troops an open route to Sofia and Constantinople. James Murray Adamson, late superintendent of the Y. M. M. I. A. of Boise stake, Idaho, was killed October 29 in a tragedy at Carey, Idaho. He was shot by his brother-in-law, a Mr. Cameron, who also killed Adamson's father and mother, his sister Isabel Adamson Cameron, and her babe, and then himself. James Murray Adamson was born at Heber City, Utah, June 30, 1887, being the fourth child of a family of six. He was educated in Park City, Utah; Carey, Idaho, and at the Latter-day Saints University in Salt Lake City. Besides his business course he studied music and became a talented musician on the cello, clarinet, cornet and piano. In June, 1913, he left for a mission to Great Britain laboring in the Newcastle conference, being honorably released from his mis- sion and sailing from Liverpool July 9, 1915, on the steamship "Scandinavian." For the last ten months of his mission he acted as clerk of the conference. On August 1, 1915, at a confer- ence held in Boise, Idaho, he was called to be superintendent of the Y. M. M. I. A. and had enterened upon his work with a determination to make a success of it. He was chorister of the 'Carey ward and was hard at work at the time of the tragedy preparing the ward choir for the dedication of the new meeting- liouse.

Benjamin Ward, Norwich, England: "The missionaries are always glad and anxious to receive and read the contents 'of the Era. It tends to develop us along gospel lines and in the way of salvation, and to prepare us to 'meet the great things in life." Elders Merrill and Ricks write from Montreal, P. Q., Canada: "The Era is appreciated very much by us, for through its beautiful stories many are giving an ear to gospel messages who otherwise could not be reached. We wish you continued success." H. Leroy Frisby, Leicester, England, September 21, 1915: "The Im- provement Era is appreciated here. As soon as we have read the magazines we lend them to the Saints, and so they are continually in circulation among the Saints and friends of this branch. All are anxious to get hold of an Era which they have not read." Improvement Era, December, 1915 Two Dollars per Annum with Manual Free Entered at the Post Office, Salt Lake City, Utah, as second class matter. Address, 20 Bishop's Building, Salt Lake City, Utah Joseph F. Smith, \ Editors Heber J. Grant, Business Manager Edward H. Anderson, f Moroni Snow, Assistant Among the Wasatch Summits Frontispiece Lake Lillian, Wasatch Mountains Alfred Lambourne 97 The' Birth of Jesus 99 The Christmas Chimes. A Poem Sarah C. Woolsey 101 The Trapper's Christmas Joseph Hickman 102 Patriotism — Instructive and Intelligent Moses F. Cowley 110 The Beautiful Nephi Jensen 113 A Temple in Hawaii. A Poem Ruth M. Fox 116 The Gift. A Story Elsie Chamberlain Carroll. 117 The Year's Crown. A Poem Florence L. Lancaster 129 Italy and Japan in the War Dr. Joseph M. Tanner 130 God Reigns Above. A Poem Sarah E. Mitton 132 Human Nature Not Explained by Evolution. .Robert C. Webb 133 Satisfy Yourself 144 The Man with a Scar Joseph W. Fox 145 Jed's "Schoolin' " A Story Ida Stewart Peay 148 Outlines for Scout Workers Cora Moreton and D. W. Parratt 159 Pajarito. A Poem Viva Huish Ray 162 Prohibition Dr. Joseph M. Tanner 163 O Make Me Thine Forever, Vocal Quartet H. LeRoy Frisbry 164 Some Suggestions on Success D. C. Stephenson 168 Our Children's Best Inheritance Joseph B. Hawkley 170 Editors' Table — A Lesson to the Prophet Joseph Prest. Joseph F. Smith 172 With Thankful Hearts 173 A Disavowal Prest. Joseph F. Smith 174 Stories Wanted 175 Thoughts in Brief 175 Messages from the Missions 176 Priesthood Quorums' Table 180 Mutual Work 182 Passing Events 187