--- 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: 20 number: 8 published: 1917-06 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Desolation of War," *Improvement Era* 20, no. 8 (June 1917): 680.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2008unse 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: improvementera2008unse start_page: 680 end_page: 680 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1917-06) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2008unse publication_year: 1917 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 1917, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Desolation of War 680 IMPROVEMENT ERA W. S. Hansen, Collinston; S. O. White, Beaver; Lars P. Oveson, Castle- dale; L. N. Marsden, Parowan; John Reeve, Hinckley; John Halls, Hunts- \ille; E. W. Southwick, Lehi. It is thought that Utah, through its Church organization, can more effectively meet the present apparent emergency than any other state in the Union. Let us prove ourselves worthy to be called sons and daughters of the Pioneers. Logan, Utah Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. DESOLATIONS OF WAR This is one of the first photographs connected with the German retreat in France to reach this country. As fast as the Germans retreated, in their recent wholesale evacuation in France, the French engineers rushed in and started to repair the horrors inflicted upon the towns for "military purposes." The photograph shows an army of engineers at work in the streets of Noyon, one of the French towns vacated by the Germans. The photograph gives an idea of the apparently unneeded havoc and ruin wreaked on the town. The picture is the signal of the new era that is sweeping over Europe. Let us pray that the desolation and ruin may soon stop, and labor to the end that the might of the world will be turned to the, greater and nobler work of reconstruction.