--- 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: 19 number: 12 published: 1916-10 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* 19, no. 12 (October 1916): 1122–1124." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1912unse 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: improvementera1912unse start_page: 1122 end_page: 1124 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1916-10) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1912unse publication_year: 1916 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 1916, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Passing Events linn limn i mm bi^^iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirTTrn PASSING EVENTS THE PANAMA CANAL re-opened on September 7, with a clear channel to all classes of vessels. THE MINERAL PRODUCTION IN UTAH for 1915 amounted in all to $55,- 105,070, exclusive of coal. It is estimated that the production for this y«ar will reach $75,000,000, not including output of coal. JOHN FELT, age ninety-seven, the oldest Swede in Utah, and a pioneer of the State, died at his home in Huntsville, September 3. He was born in Sweden and came to the United States in 1850, and to Utah in 1857, living in Salt Lake, then Grantsville, and in Ogden Valley since 1871. PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON opened his campaign for re-election on Saturday, August 27, when he officially accepted the Democratic nomination for president, at Long Branch, New Jersey, his summer residence. A crowd of more than eight thousand people gathered to hear his address HAROLD SMITH, twenty-four years of age, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph S. Smith of Provo, died in Honolulu on Sunday, September 10, following an operation for appendicitis.He left Provo as a missionary to the Hawaiian Islands, from the Sixth ward, two years ago, according to the Provo Post. THE "DEUTSCHLAND," the German under-sea boat which arrived in Baltimore from Germany July 19, and saned from Baltimore on her return journey to Germany, August 1, arrived at Bremen August 17. The submarine was laden with a valuable cargo both ways, and the trans-Atlantic voyage as a merchantman attracted world-wide attention. JOHN WOODHOUSE, pioneer of Utah, born in England, July 21, 1830, was instantly killed in Lehi by being run over by a Denver & Rio Grande railway train, as he was walking on the tracks. He joined the Church in 1851 and came to Utah in 1852. He was a well-known and influential citizen, having occupied many civil and Church offices. A NEW MILLION-DOLLAR SUGAR FACTORY built by the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company was dedicated at Spanish Fork on the 4th and 5th of September, by a two days' celebration. Among the festivities were a parade by five hundred children in costume, an address by J. Preston Creer, and a response by T. R. Cutler, also an address by Governor Spry. CHARLES E. HUGHES, Republican candidate for president, reached Utah August 24 and delivered a political address in Ogden. At four o'clock the same day he came to Salt Lake, where he was received with enthusiasm as in Ogden, and addressed a mass meeting at the Tabernacle at eierht o'clock that evening, leaving the same night over the Union Pacific for Cheyenne. NOMINEES FOR THE LEGISLATURE of both political parties throughout the state of Utah were generally pledged to enact a prohibition law in conformity with the declaration of both political parties. Efforts were also successfully put forth by the voters in the primaries to nominate such county officers for sheriff, police judges, and other officers of the law as would put into force any prohibition law that might be enacted by the coming legislature. TWO ZEPPELINS to carry freight and mail to the United States, with a carrying capacity of sixty tons have been built in Germany, according to press telegrams, September 5. They have been christened "Amerika" and "Deutchland " It was stated that they were intended to make the aerial voyage between Berlin and New York in seventy-two hours. They can rise higher than any aeroplane, in order to escape hostile aviators; and can also descend to the water and travel there under their own power. THE END OF THEGREAT WAR was predicted on September 11 by General Brussiloff at the Russian front, who said it would end by August next. "The intervention of Roumania is an event of the first order," he said. "I am no prophet; the future is in God's hands, but if I had to make a prediction I should be inclined to think that the month of August, 1917, might see the end of our memorable work. In the present war it is impossible for the Allies to lose, although a great deal remains to be accomplished, but a successful result is already in our hands. The game is already won." ROUMANIA DECLARED WAR on Austria-Hungary on Sunday evening, August 27, and the following day fighting began between Roumania and Teutonic troops on the Transylvanic frontier. Germany followed with a declaration of war on Roumania. There are now fourteen nations at war in Europe. Italy has declare- war on PASSING EVENTS 1123 Germany from August 28, which completes the rupture of the Triple Alliance which was based on separate treaties between the three states of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. A COMMISSION to consider border difficulties between the United States and Mexico was named by President Wilson August 22, as follows: Secretary Lane, Judge George Gray, Delaware; Rev. John R. Mott, New York. On the same day the war department countermanded its order of the 12th for the transfer of 25,000 more state troops from the mobilization camps to the Mexican border. Up to September 18, no agreements had been announced. On the 15th, a thousand followers of Villa attacked Chihuahua, but were repulsed by General Trivino, with six hundred killed Villistas and many captured. THE CENTRAL SPAN OF THE QUEBEC BRIDGE, the longest cantilever bridge in the world, collapsed and fell into the St. Lawrence river while being hoisted into place on September 11 The dead number twenty-five. The bridge cost seventeen million dollars, and was built to shorten the railway journey from Halifax to the Canadian northwest by two hundred miles. A bridge built on the same site collapsed August 29, 1907, with a loss of seventy lives. The central span which fell weighed more than five hundred tons, and was six hundred and forty feet long. PROFESSOR EVAN STEPHENS' FRIENDS to the number of five to six hundred singers, assembled on August 25, at his home in Salt Lake City, to partake of his hospitality. The retiring conductor of the Tabernacle choir was called upon by his guests to speak, and he thanked the choir for their labors in the past and for this opportunity of having a family reunion, for the choir, he said, had been a family to him, as he had none of his own. He announced that he would hereafter devote his time to writing music to give to the world; and while he expressed sorrow in parting with the choir, he wished all success to the new orgainzation. President Charles W. Penrose spoke briefly in behalf of the First Presidency, expressing the high regard in which Brother Stephens was held. THE GREAT RAILWAY STRIKE which was threatened and set for September 4, Labor Day, was averted by the passage in Congress of an eight-hour law. This action was resorted to after every effort had been made by President Wilson to avert the strike by agreement. The railroads prepared to meet the strike by the placing of an embargo on the receipt of all freights several days prior to the 4th of September. The big railway presidents, one hundred in number, were summoned to Washington to meet the president, but they stoutly supported the position against the eight-hour law taken by the managers. The president expressed himself on the 20th of August as in favor of a compulsory arbitration law. The new plan takes effect January 1, 1917, and allows an eight-hour day to the four brotherhoods of trainmen involved in the recent threatened strike. ISAAC BARTON, a pioneer merchant and prominent Church worker, died in Salt Lake City, August 29 He was born at St. i-elen's, Lancashire, England, December 11, 1842. He joined the Church when eight years of age and came to Utah in 18M. He joined the army in Nevada whither he went the following year and remained in the service, fighting Indians for two years, being discharged in 1866. He came to Kaysville that year, and did military service in southern Utah in the Black Hawk war. In 1871 he moved to Salt Lake and engaged in manufacture and mercantile business being at his death the head of the firm of Barton & Company. In 1890 he became bishop of the Nineteenth ward, and served for twenty-three years. He was a man of integrity, and highly esteemed in religious and financial circles. WILLIAM KESLER, a notice of whose death appeared with some inaccuracies in the September Era, was born of German parents, July 25, 1887, in southern Germany He joined the Church there, in 1907, and came to Utah the following year. In the fall of 1912, he was called to perform a mission in Switzerland and Germany, and appointed to assist in editing The Star, the mission paper. When the war broke out, according to his own statements in a letter addressed to Arnold H. Schulthess, he felt impressed to volunteer his services, being a German subject and not yet an American citizen He was not pressed into service. The reason he gave for volunteering was that, being a "Mormon" missionary, his government would look upon such service with more favor than if he held back until officially called. During his services in the war, he was wounded and sent to the hospital twice. On July 1, 1916, a bullet took his life. According to correspondence received from him while a soldier, it was his full intention to return to the mission field and complete his mission after the close of the war. He has no relatives in Utah, and consequently was not related to Bishop Kesler, of Salt Lake City. THE SIXTY-FOURTH CONGRESS adjourned September 8. This session was concerned chiefly with national defense, and directed a re-organization and re-equipment of the army and navy for the country at the unprecedented cost of $655,000,000, and authorized other expenditures that will increase the total in three years to nearly $800,000,000. Other appropriations brought the grand total to $1,637,583,682, the greatest total in the country's history, and exceeding the last fiscal year by more than half a billion dollars. In response to legislation to meet the Mexican emergency and expenditures for preparedness, this congress doubled the normal tax on incomes, by creating an inheritance tax, munitions tax, miscellaneous excise tax, to raise $205,- 1124 IMPROVEMENT I R a 000,000. It also directed tin- sale of $i.ii>,