--- 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: 21 number: 4 published: 1918-02 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations, “A Man Who Is Not a Man,” *Improvement Era* 21, no. 4 (February 1918): 336–337." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2104unse 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: improvementera2104unse start_page: 336 end_page: 337 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1918-02) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2104unse publication_year: 1918 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 1918, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # A Man Who Is Not a Man A Man Who is Not a Man By a Soldier in the Army, a Native Son of Utah In the beginning when God created man in His own image and gave to that man the very attributes of a deity, I wonder if he did not expect that man, whom he had clothed with the gift of free agency, to be a man. Since I left my home a few months ago and went into the service of my Country as a soldier, I have come in contact with so many men who are not men that I have been prompted to write this article for the Era. I know a prominent educator who has put forth much effort toward lifting the standards of his school, and aiding and helping every student under him. Yet in spite of all of his efforts, he does not have the love and respect of his students, for they look behind his kindnesses to them and see a man who is not a man. How then could they respect him? He does not work to bring his school into prominence, and to make his students efficient men and women merely because he loves them and desires to have them advance for their own sakes and for the sake of the community in which they live. He does it because he loves himself and wants people to recognize him as a great educator. He works to please people who have influence, and labors to meet with the approval of the men who gave him his position. Their principles are his principles, and their will his will. In his efforts to make himself prominent he has reduced himself to a slave who acts as men with influence direct; having no principles of his own which do not agree with their principles, he is a man who is not a man. No organization in the United States has more power to en- force law than the army. When a person is given a position of authority in that organization, he must be respected, and his orders must be carried out. Make a man an officer in the army, A MAN WHO IS NOT A MAN 337 and in a very short time he will show whether he is a man or not. A private in one of the branches of the army, because of previous military experience, was made a first sergeant and put in charge of one hundred fifty men. When he received his posi- tion, he knew that what he said would hereafter be law to those one hundred fifty men who were under him. That private who was promoted to a position which gave him authority immedi- ately became so important that he ordered his men, once his associates, around like they were cattle. He knew that he was in a position where they could not harm him, and that he had the whole United States government behind him, so he could do al- most as he chose. He made them work hard, he treated them so unfairly that they were almost afraid to speak in his pres- ence, and if they did not act just as he wanted them to act he punished them. Everything he did was within military law, so he had a right to do it. He was so small that he could not respect the feelings of his associates. He is a man who is not a man. I know another person. A man I love. He joined the army when I did. We were assigned to the same post in the same service. He believes in the same religion and came from the same state that I came from. We have been associates. We were both given positions of authority. Just a few days ago I saw him unjustly order his men around, and unjustly exercise his authority over them, in the same tone of voice, in the same manner, and with the same vile language as an associate officer does. Only yesterday he went to town, and because others were having a good time, he had one; because other officers did cer- tain things he did them. He acted as others acted, and did as others did. As I saw him do as he did, I wondered if he, who knew bet- ter, who came from the same state and from among the same people, who belonged to my Church, and held the priesthood of God; I say I wondered if he would so forget himself that he would follow others and act as they act, regardless of what they did! I wondered if he was going to prove that he is a man who is not a man. Oh, Men, Let Us Be Men Who Are Men! San Antonio, Texas