Passing Events

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PASSING EVENTS

Germany declared war on Portugal March 8, handing the Portu- guese minister his passports on that day. William Probert, an Indian war veteran, seventy years of age, died at Provo, March 14. He was born in England and came to Utah when fifteen years of age.

Near Agua Calientes there was an engagement, April 3, between Villistas andUnited States soldiers in which forty Mexicans were left dead and others were sent flying in disorder. Spotted typhus, small pox, and cholera are ravishing Russian Po- land and Galicia. The rescue work is inadequate and several deaths a day even in the smallest villages are the rule. The German admiralty, under date of April 13, reported that dur- ing March eighty trading vessels belonging to hostile countries, with an aggregate tonnage of 207,000, were sunk by German submarines or mines. General Ynez Salazar crossed the border from the United States on April 9, and announced his intention of taking up arms against the United States. He is credited with having considerable following in southern Chihuahua. To engage in the manufacture of gasoline and other petroleum products, officers of the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce announced, on March 31, the formation of a corporation with a capital- ization of from five to ten million dollars. The Republican party of the Third judicial district met on April 14 and nominated candidates for the Third judicial district as follows: Judges C. W. Morse, M. L. Ritchie and T. D. Lewis, to succeed them- selves; W. H. Folland, E. A. Rogers; and E. O. Leatherwood district attorney. Alma Kimball, age thirty-five, a teamster, was caught in a snow slide atPark City, on the road to the King Consolidated mine, March 6,and died that evening at the Miners' hospital. He was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Kimball of Salt Lake City. He leaves a wife and seven children. The British chancellcr of the exchequer, in early April, estimated the daily cost of the war to England at twenty-five million dollars. England's war debt at the end of March 31 equaled ten billion seven hundred million dollars, and the estimates of the cost of war to Eng- land for another year is nine billions, one hundred twenty-five millions. The University cf Utah basket ball team won the national basket- ball championship from the Illinois Athletic Club, at Chicago, on March 17, score 28 to 27, after a whirlwind finish of ten minutes which kept three thousand fans on their feet. Great speed and fine team work characterized Coach Nelson Nordgren's University of Utah boys and won them the championship. Jesse E. Murphy died in Mill Creek, March 25. He was born Jan- uary 27, 1832, in South Carolina, came to Salt Lake in 1857, and has

666 IMPROVEMENT ERA been engaged in farming in Mill Creek continually ever since. He brought emigrants over the plains in 1861 and was a live worker in the Church, and for the development of the state. The Whitecotton library, amounting to over twelve hundred vol- umes was formally turned over to the Brigham Young University on March 23. President George H. Brimhall accepted the library in be- half of the school. The books are valued at $4,500, but the school re- ceived them for $1,500, the money being collected by contributions from the students, teachers, and friends, of the institution. A general snow fall was experienced in Utah on the evening of March 23. Two feet of snow fell in Provo, and in and about Salt Lake from fourteen to eighteen inches. Considerable damage was done by the rise of the Ogden River, in the latter part of March, the bottoms being flooded and much property destroyed. The streams in the various parts of the state also swelled, many of them over- flowing their banks. The shipping destroyed by submarines since the 1st of March, when Germany's new submarine campaign went into effect, has been very large. It was reported that from March 15, 1916, when the resig- nation of Admiral von Tirpitz, the German minister of the navy, took effect, up to the 28th of March, seventy thousand tons of the entente nlHed shipping had been sunk. However, it is reported from London that one-third of this amount belonged to neutrals. The Battle of Verdun at this writing still continues. Every device known to modern battlefields, including liquid fire preparation, gases, and heavy gun bombardment, is employed in the great conflict which hasnow continued for over nine weeks. Paris claims that the Ger- man attack is definitely repulsed, but the Germans continue, from time to time and in. various places, their bombardment, thousands and thousands of men being sacrificed almost every day on both sides in the greatest battle in the history of the world. The Utah products show opened on the 1st of April and lasted eight days. The variety of products that was displayed was a splen- did surprise to the many thousands who attended, and the public en- thusiasm over the display was more pronounced than ever. The Man- ufacturers' Association of Utah, and particularly the secretary, Roscoe W. Eardley, are entitled to congratulations upon the success of the exhibit. It is estimated that over sixty thousand people were made familiar with the displays of Utah products in the exhibition. Sugar beet lands in Emery county are likely to be developed by a syndicate represented by D. M. Delmas, attorney of Los Angeles. It is said that two million dollars will be expnded in the development of sugar beet lands and fruit-tree growing. Austrians in the mines of Emery and Carbon counties will be colonized on the lands, as they have had experience in the beet fields of Austria. It is said that an electric road between Price and Castle Dale is a part of the plans of the development. Salt Lake and Los Angeles capital will be invested. The Deseret Sunday School Union meeting at the late conference on Sunday evening, April 9, was declared by President Joseph F. Smith to be the largest Sunday School meeting in the history of the Church. President Smith gave a stirring sermon on proper dress. All the meet- ings during conference were very largely attended. On Thursday, the ooening day, when the authorities were presented for approval, and other business of the conference accomplished, the house and galleries were full of people. The conference in all respects was one of the most successful ever held.

PASSING EVENTS 667

Dr. Daniel H. Calder, who for eleven years has been superintend- ent of the state mental hospital at Provo, presented his resignation April 13, to take effect May 20. Dr. Calder, a native of Salt Lake City, studied medicine in New York, where he obtained his training in mental diseases. The board of directors and the citizens of Utah in general feel a distinct loss in the resignation oi Dr. Calder, whose ser- vices have been especially satisfactory. During his incumbency he has made many improvements in the care and treatment of patients, and in the institution itself.

— The Great War. Five air raids in the first five days of April were made over the British Isles. There was a checK to the Russian pursuit of the Turks in the Caucasus, and on the eastern front it was declared by Berlin that the Russian offensive against Von Hindenberg, which lasted from March 18 to March 30, resulted in a loss to the Russians of one hundred and forty thousand out of a half million men engaged. Spain protested to Germany against the torpedoing of the "Sussex" which caused the death of several Spanish subjects on board, including Senor Granados, the celebrated composer, and his wife. Charles Crismon died in Salt Lake City, March 26. He was born in Hancock county, Illinois, January 8, 1844, and came to Salt Lake in October, 1847. He» was a cattle owner and miner, and a man of courage and determination in many business enterprises. He engaged in early days in freighting, in which he had many difficult experiences. He enlisted with the volunteers to protect the United States mails west of the Missouri River, in 1862, under call of President Lincoln. As contractor on the Union Pacific railway, with Crismon & Company, he put through a number of contracts. He later entered into the min- ing business, developing the Eureka Hill and Swansea.

Great fires destroyed about twenty-five million dollars' worth of property on March 22, in the United States. In the outskirts of Nash- ville, a boy set fire to some grass, and a high wind carried the blaze to a lumber yard. Six hundred homes and buildings amounting to $1,500,000 were burned before the fire was gotten under control. On the same day, ten business blocks and fifteen resident blocks in Augusta, Georgia, were wiped out by fire, and three thousand people were left homeless. On the same fateful day, Paris, Texas, was com- pletely wiped off the map by fire. Thirty blocks, including nearly every business building and eighteen hundred homes, were destroyed with a property loss estimated at over fifteen million dollars.

China is said to have been turned into a republic again on March 22, when Yuan Shih-Kai issued a mandate in which he laid aside im- perialism and declared that China should remain a republic. When, last December, Yuan Shih-Kai committed the gigantic crime of sign- ing away the liberty of four hundred millions of people, and betrayed all parties which had trusted him, he roused the indignation of revolu- tionists and liberty-loving people in China, and this step, on March 22, was frankly taken to appease the revolutionists who were becoming in- creasingly active in southern China. Whether his action will end the revolution is doubtful, for it is learned that the revolutionist army in Yunnan has refused to lay down arms, demanding, in addition, that Yuan surrender the presidency as well as the stolen imperial throne. The annual meeting of the Utah Federation of Prohibition and Betterment Leagues was held on Saturday, April 8, at Barratt Hall, Salt Lake City. President John M. Whitaker gave his report, and new officers were selected for the coming season. Heber J. Grant

668 IMPROVEMENT ERA was chosen president, and Dr. George E. Davies of Salt Lake City; George A. Startup, Provo; George A. Smith, Salt Lake; W. W. Seeg- lr.iller, Kanab ; David O. McKay, Ogden, and W. O. Funk, of Richmond, vice presidents; John Henrv Evans of Salt Lake, secretary; correspond- ing secretary, James H. Woolfe of Provo; treasurer, Jesse Knight of Provo. Among the resolutions adopted was one urging Senator George Sutherland to use his endeavors to have the joint congressional resolu- tion, proposing a constitutional amendment for the suppression of the liquor traffic, reported out of committee of the senate at Washington as soon as possible; and that he lend his valuable assistance on the floor of the senate in championing its passage. There are more promising indications than ever before that Utah will receive prohibition at the next session of the Legislature. The local Democratic party, which met in April, declared for nation-wide prohibition.

The "Sussex," a channel steamer, was torpedoed on March 24, and about the same time the Dominion line steamship "Englishman" was also sunk. Since that time, during the early part of April many ships were torpedoed. The two first named, it is said, were sunk without warning, and American citizens were known to be on both. On the "Sussex" were twenty-five Americans, but as it happened not any one was lost. The "Sussex" did not sink, but got safely into Boulogne. Some passengers jumped overboard and wer© drowned, and others were killed by the explosion. In the "Englishman" one American was lost. On March 28, the "Manchester Engineer" was torpedoed. It had two Americans on board. The United States government im- mediately began investigation into the circumstances of each case, and on March 29 Secretary Lansing asked the German government whether any of its submarines were responsible for the attacks. On April 12 Berlin denied the Germans had torpedoed the "Sussex." On the 20th the United States practically sent an ultimatum to Berlin, and it was feared diplomatic relations would cease.

General Pershing, at the head of our government's punitive expe- dition in Mexico, continued the pursuit of the bandit Villa. The com- pany divided into several columns, on March 27, one being com- manded by Colonel Dodd. Up to April 17, there had been only little indication of hostility or bad faith on the part of the Mexican gov- ernment troops, though at Parral, on Wednesday, the 12th, there was a set-to in which Mexican soldiers were said to have shot at the United States soldiers. In return the United States soldiers, in a skirmish that followed, are said to have killed forty or more Mexicans who attacked them. Two of our men were reported killed. The United States troops were granted the privilege of using the Mexican railways to transport supplies to General Pershing in charge of the forces. The question of supplies and communication were the most serious, and the United States soldiers were reported as having suffered consider- ably from both heat and cold. At this writing (17th) Villa for the second time perhaps as a ruse for hiding further, was reported dead. His body was being brought to the border, which if true, the United States troops will be withdrawn. On March 29, Felix Diaz landed in southern Mexico, and it was reported he was to head a rev- olutionary movement against Carranza. Carranza, on two occasions, in early April, notified the United States government to withdraw her troops, as it would be unnecessary and undesirable to go further into the country. The government at Washington replied that the Amer- ican troops will be withdrawn "within a reasonable time," and will confine the scope of the chase to a point a little further south than no\r.