Passing Events

PASSING EVENTS 565

Edward Payson Ferry, father of Mayor W. Mont Ferry, of Salt Lake Los Angeles, Sunday, March 11, from a paralytic stroke. He City, died in was born April 16, 1837, at Grand Haven, Michigan. He located in Park City, in 1878,and was largely interested in mines in Utah. He was one of the first members of the Liberal party, who sat in the state legislature. In 1891 he was made president of the Trans-Mississippi Congress.

Rulon S. Wells has been appointed, by Governor Simon Bamberger, state insurance commissioner for Utah. Mr. Wells is thoroughly competent for the work to which he has been appointed having had extensive experience in this line of work. He was formerly the state manager of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York and for many years interested in that line of labor. In his hands, the insurance business of the state of Utah will be under splendid management. A great railroad strike involving 400,000 members of the brotherhoods was ordered in the United States by the union leaders, to begin Saturday, March 17, 6 p. m., on the eastern railroads. They demanded an eight-hour day. On the 19th the Supreme Court decided by a vote of 5 to 4 that the Adamson eight-hour law is constitutional and valid in all respects. It legalizes also the wage increases that went into tentative effect at its passage. The strike was thus averted. General Venustiano Carranza was elected president of Mexico on March 11, by a vote of approximately one million people. The campaign was quite heated. Mexico will now have a constitutional president for the first time since 1911, when Francisco I. Madero received more than 300,000 votes. General Huerta was elected in 1914, but later nullified the election on the ground that an insufficient number of votes had been cast. General Carranza took the field against Huerta in February, 1913, and after these four years of war has succeeded in being elected.

Dr. Henry C. Johnson, of Aberdeen, South Dakota, was appointed on February 20, by the board of education of Ogden city, as superintendent of Ogden city schools. Dr. Johnson has been superintendent of the Aberdeen schools for the past eight years, and has taught ever since he was seventeen years of age. He was superintendent of the schools at Decorah, Iowa, for five years, and is a graduate of the University of Iowa, 1902. He took his master's degree in 1907, and studied for two years for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago, and at Columbia university.

Judge Joshua Greenwood, of Nephi, and Warren Stoutnour, construction engineer of Salt Lake, were appointed members of the new Utah Utilities Commission on March 9, by Governor Simon Bamberger. Mr. Greenwood has been judge of the Fifth district court for several terms and is a well-known jurist of the state, and a Democrat. Mr. Stoutnour is a Reoublicin and has for some time past been construction engineer for the Salt Lake and Ogden railway, and other railroads in the western country. He is a leading authority on construction engineering in the west. One other appointment on the commission remains yet to be made.

The Laconia.— Among the many ships destroyed during February was the Cunard liner Laconia, 18,000 tons, one of the largest ocean-going steamers, sunk by a German submarine 150 miles from the Irish coast, on the night of February 26, enroute from New York to Great Britain. Thirteen lives were lost among them being ten Americans, two of whom were women passengers. The accident hastened the request of President Wilson

566 IMPROVEMENT ERA

the same day that Congress give him power to protect the lives of Americans on the high seas. This was later denied by Congress and the President, having consulted legal advice, decided on his own account to arm American vessels for protection.

Laura Hyde Merrill, an active member of the Granite stake Relief Society,daughter of the late Alonzo E. and Annie Taylor Hyde, and wife of Dr. Joseph F. Merrill, director of the School of Mines of the University of Ltah, and son of the late Apostle Mariner W. Merrill, died in Forest Dale, and was buried from the Forest Dale meetinghouse on Thursday, March 1. Mrs. Merrill was a woman of rare intellectual gifts and an active worker in the various organizations of the Church as well as in the society of the Daughters of the Pioneers. She was also interested in various civic clubs, and other organizations, having for their object the uplift and betterment of the community.

George E. Stoddard, president of the Union stake of Zion, a resident at La Grande, Oregon, a brother of Mrs. Ellen S. Eccles of Logan, and a brother-in-law of Mr. and Mrs. "W. C. Sears of Salt Lake City, died at Santa Ciuz, California, February 27. President Stoddard was born at Wellsville, Utah, in 1864. He is survived by Mrs. Stoddard and nine children, one of whom, Lester, is filling a mission in South Africa. President Stoddard had presided in the Union stake for eight years and was regarded as one of the foremost and most faithful Church workers in Oregon. In business he had been very prominent, in banks and lumber concerns, and was identified with the La Grande sugar factory prior to its removal to Utah. He was a business partner of Bishop Charles W. Nibley who was at his bedside at the time of his death.

Charles M. J. Holm, an early settler and highly respected citizen of Murtay, died, February 28. He was born at Bornholm, Denmark, May 27, 1841, and joined the Church at an early age, coming to Utah in 1866. He brought one hundred converts with him who traveled from what was then the western terminal of the railroad to Utah by ox team. He settled in Murray where, for fifteen years, he later served as justice of the peace, also as member of the school board for ten years, and for twelve years in addition to other Church work was a member of the High Council of the Granite stake of Zion. In 1873, he married Miss Olivia E. Iverson with whom he had eleven children, eight of whom survive. Funeral services were held in Murray on the 4th of March. President Anthon H. Lund, and Presidents Uriah G. Miller, of the Cottonwood stake, Frank Y. Taylor of the Granite ttake, and Andrew Jenson, of the Historian's office, spoke of his integrity, his loyalty and his devotion to the work of God.

Woman suffrage in a number of states has received a great impetus by action of the legislatures. On February 20 Governor Cox of Ohio signed the Reynolds' bill giving to the women of the state the right to vote for presidential electors. On the same day a bill to grant full suffrage to women by constitutional amendment was passed by the house of representatives of Minnesota. A favorable committee report on woman suffrage was also presented on the same day in the-lower house of the New Hampshire legislature. On February 22 the woman suffrage bill passed the lower branch of the Indiana legislature and went to Governor Goodrich for his signature. This grants the women the right to vote for president and practically all state officers, except the governor and secretary of state. A forty-year fight to have the question of woman suffrage submitted to a popular vote in Maine was won on the 22nd. It was agreed by the house and senate to call a special election on Semptember 10 to vote on the measure in that state.

PASSING EVENTS 567

The Twelfth session of the Utah Legislature adjorned sine die about midnight Saturday, March 10. There were 174 House bills and 222 Senate bills introduced, of which 66 House bills and 76 Senate bills passed, making a total of new laws, 142, out of the 396 introduced. Among the important measures are the following originating in the House: Statewide prohibition, anti-injunction law, child labor bill, to prevent unfair competition in dairy and creamery industry, providing for creation of irrigation districts, creating sanitary livestock board, creating water rights commission, amending and codifying fish and game laws, changing personnel of 6tate road commission, empowering state board of corrections to remove warden of state prison at its pleasure. In the Senate: Torrens land law, corrupt practices act, abolishing voting machines, codification of Utah laws, creating public utilities commission, workmen's compensation act, uniform sales law, initiative and referendum, authorizing compulsory military training in certain cases, creating position of state geologist, increasing supreme court to five members, abolishing state horticultural commission, and creating state crop pest-commission in its place, occupation tax on mines.

Count Ferdinand Zeppelin, whom Emperor William recently proclaimed "the greatest German of the twentieth century," died at Charlottenburg, near Berlin, March 8, 1917. He was born in Constance, Baden, in 1838. Count Zeppelin became famous at the age of seventy as the builder of the world's first practical dirigible balloon. On his seventy-fifth birthday, he navigated his twentieth airship to celebrate the occasion. Before he achieved fame be devoted half a century of his life, exhausted his personal fortune of $750,000, and sacrificed a brilliant career as a German cavalry leader in his determination to conquer the air. He made his first balloon ascension in the United States while he was following General Carl Schurz in the Civil war as a military observer for the Germany army, in 1863. He fought through the Austro-Prussian, and the Franco-Prussian wars. He rose to the rank of General, in 1880, retired in 1890, and devoted all his time thereafter to the problem of aeronautics. He became comparatively poor, and lived and worked in a humble cottage on the allowance of his friends, met much ridicule, many narrow escapes from death and many failures. In 1907 he stayed in the air 37 hours in his fifth airship, and sailed 900 miles in a straight course. He was hailed in a day as "the conqueror of the air," and at the close of his remarkable career, he had retrieved a large part of his fortune spent in its conquest.

Bagdad, the chief Turkish city in Mesopotamia, and formerly the capital of the empire of the Caliphs, was captured by the British forces according to a dispatch from London on March 11. The capture of Bagdad marks the climax of some of the most dramatic and picturesque episodes of the great war. The known history of Bagdad reaches back for more than four thousand years to the shadowy times of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. It is said that a quay built by the scriptural monarch, still existing, is submerged in the Tigris. In this city there still stands the tomb to the Jewish prophets Joshua, Ezra and Ezekiel, and the well of Daniel. Bagdad rose to eminence long after the Babylonian dynasty had ceased to be more than a memory. It was the heart of the great Islamic empire of the Caliphs for hundreds of years, and was known throughout the world as a glorious city. It was the scene of the fantastic exploits of Haroun-Al-Raschid. It has a

present population of about 100,000 people, among them Turks, Arabs, Persians, Armenians, Jews, and a small number of Europeans. The Turks compose three-fourths of the whole population. The city was founded in 762 and in the ninth century was raised to great splendor and had a population of over two million. It is the scene of a number of the tales of the Arabian Nights. The houses of the modern city are mostly built of brick

568 IMPROVEMENT ERA with streets unpaved and very narrow. The British conqueror of Bagdad was Major-General Frederick Stanley Maude. He is 53 years of age, and has had a distinguished military career.

The second squadron of the Utah Cavalry returned from the Mexican border on the 3rd of March. The boys had been absent from Utah for more than seven months. Gen. Ned E. H. Plummer, Brigadier-General U. S. A., commander of the Nogales district, in a letter dated February 27, to Major W. B. Wallace, commanding the returning squardon, in regretting their departure, gives the boys the following compliment: "I have been delighted with the character of service your squadron has performed in the district, with the appearance of your men, policing of camps, care of animals and public property, and with the efficiency your squadron has attained. I consider your record for discipline, orderly behavior, and excellent health, most remarkable. The record indicates conscientious work on the part of the officers of the squadron, and eagerness on the part of the men to conform to the regulations and orders issued with respect to their physical welfare, development, and training." An appropriate reception was given the boys on their return to Salt Lake City, the city being decorated with flags, the commissioners having appropriated $100 for the purpose. Major W. B. Wallace was highly commended by Gen. Plummer. He tendered his resignation to Gov. Bamberger soon after his return to Utah, to take up his work as captain of infantry in the regular army, from which he had been excused to accept a commission as major of cavalry while the troops were on the border.

Major-General Frederick Funston, commander of the southern department of the United States Army, since February, 1915, died suddenly at San Antonio, Texas, February 19, age 51 years. Since March, 1916, he has been in command of all the United States forces on the Mexican border. He was known generally throughout the United States as a first-class fighting man. His first experience on the battle line came in Cuba where he commanded General Gomez artillery with remarkable results. He engaged in twenty-two battles and was wounded three times. He then resigned his command because fifty guerillas who had aided the Spaniards were executed against his wishes. On being captured by Spaniards on his way to Havana, he escaped death by swallowing a note to the president of Cuba which would have proved his identity. He was a colonel of the famous Twentieth Kansas volunteer infantry in the Philippine war. Here he performed feats of bravery that brought him the title of brigadier-general. His capture of Aguinaldo, and his fording of the Rio Grande river at Columpit under fire featured his work. He was absolutely fearless, always ready to plunge into danger. He cared little whether his force equaled that of his opponents. A story is told that one day when it appeared certain that the Filipinos would destroy three companies under Funston's command, General Harrison Gray Otis inquired of the colonel how long he could hold his — position. His reply was characteristic "Until I am mustered out." He made good by repulsing the Filipinos. While in command of the troops at Vera Cruz, in 1914, he was raised to the rank of major-general. He was then 49 years old. His ambition in youth was to go to West Point but he failed in an entrance examination. However,'he repeatedly outranked West Pointers who were in school when he failed of admission. Physically he was one of the smallest men in the United States Army, barely five feet five inches tall, and usually weighed less than 120 pounds. He was modest and retiring in civil life. His sudden death came as a great shock to high officials. On February 24 General Funston's body was buried with military honors in the National Cemetery, in the Presidio, overlooking the Golden Gate. All the city offices and courts of San Francisco were closed.

General Efficiency Report of Y. M. M. I. A. for February, 1917

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A stake report should be sent to the Secretary of the General Board. 21 Bishop's Building, Salt Lake City, Utah, by the 10th of each month, to be published monthly in the Era. When the report shows that the requirements in General Efficiency have been reached, it is indicated by placing 10 in the proper space. When stakes are below in General Efficiency requirements, it is indicated by a blank. (See Improvement Era, August, 1916, for regulations.