---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Joseph M. Tanner
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 21
number: 6
published: 1918-04
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: "Joseph M. Tanner, “Problems of the Age: XI–XIV,” *Improvement Era* 21, no. 6 (April 1918): 526–536."
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2106unse
  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: improvementera2106unse
start_page: 526
end_page: 536
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1918-04)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2106unse
  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.
---

# Problems of the Age: XI–XIV

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Problems of the Age

Dealing with Religious, Social and Economic Questions and their

Solution. A Study for the Quorums and Classes

of the Melchizedek Priesthood

By Dr. Joseph M. Tanner

XI — Inequalities a Besetting Sin of Present Day Life

Marvelous and miltiplied opportunities for the acquisition of wealth

give rise to social differences which today threaten the stability of every

so-called civilized nation of the world. Inequalities create envy, envy be-

gets hatred, and hatred entails in its pathway the spirit of destruction. Men

do not always, in the superior advantages which they enjoy, exercise a wise

stewardship. If those who enjoy superior advantages of wealth would so

use their property as to benefit others and give others an opportunity like-

wise to increase their holdings, the difference in wealth would not be so

dangerous, so destructive. But there has always been a strong tendency in

man towards vanity and false pride that seduced men into the belief that

because they were richer they were likewise better than their fellow men.

Such vanity has given rise to exhibitions of frivolity and excesses that were

hard for the poorer classes to witness and endure.

There is now going on within the United States, and indeed through-

out the world, but more particularly in the United States, a propaganda of

pride that may have much to do in this country in creating a revolution,

if not down-right anarchy. Our newspapers, and more particularly the Sun-

day editions, are filled with social notes and advertisements which cater to

the vanity and extravagance of those who enjoy more money than most of

their fellow creatures.

Society Life. — The newspapers are thus giving their powerful support

to an increase of hatred on the part of the poor towards the rich. Much of

this advertising is harmless. It is of an innocent personal character that

touches in a small way the vanity of those who enjoy so-called "newspaper

publicity." Some of this newspaper notoriety is excessively dangerous to

the peace of society and the stability of government institutions. When

people are poor, and perhaps suffering from deprivations and want, they do

not look with much toleration upon the follies of the rich. Some time ago

a lady paraded in the newspapers of New York the fact that she had built

a $25,000 house as a home for her favorite cats. Society women of wealth

had social gatherings in honor of some dog, and thus their vanity in parad-

ing before the public such wanton extravagances is giving rise to criticism,

and to class hatred.

A Dog Cemetery. — The New York Times of August 19th gives a photo-

graphic and written review of a dog cemetery in Westchester county, in

which there are more than two thousand graves. The writer says of this

cemetery that "on a pleasant summer day there were not fewer than 100

visitors, and that as many as fifteen automobiles would be at the entrance

at a time. There has been no saving of expense in the monuments placed

over some of the graves; several have cost $2,500; and including the price

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PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 527

paid for the plot and other expenses, the total individual expense is fre-

quently as much as $3,000 and $4,000. Arrangements were recently made

for a mausoleum ten feet square to be erected, at a cost of $10,000. The

lowest priced dog is $10, the highest $250."

The advertisement of such wasteful extravagances at a time when this

country is at war, and when thousands and thousands of its sons may per-

haps be thrown into great excavations and simply covered with dirt, is likely

to give rise to feelings of bitterness.

Social Functions and Dress. — The modern world is also given to undue

extravagance in the matter of its social life, which means excess in dress, in

flowers, perfumes, and other wasteful manifestations of wealth. We witness

now in Russia the overthrow of a dynasty which has brought upon itself

the hatred of the people because of its wastefulness and consequent weak-

ness. The people of that country have insisted on knowing something of the

daily habits of the Czar and Czarina, and their courtiers. We are informed

that the Czarina spent $25,000 a year in perfumes.

A Poor Defense. — Those who would justify these extravagances contend

that such numerous expenditures give employment to the men who raise

flowers and to those whose labor contributes to the vanity of wealth. There

are things in this world which we call the necessaries of life; there are

others which we call luxuries. People perhaps would not object so much

to the display of luxuries and vanity if they had enough of the necessaries

of life. But when they suffer from an actual want of food; when they are

cold in their homes and poorly clad, the exhibition of luxuries whose ex-

istence has no other excuse than that of vanity, they grow discontented, and

class spirit springs up, and intense hatreds result.

Classification of Society. — The classification of society is contrary to

the spirit of Christ and his teachings. Social classification destroys the

brotherhood of man and when classification is built upon influences in

wealth, it results in social enmities that became very bitter. They destroy

the peace of mind and the peace of the world. There is a spirit in all life;

there is the spirit of the individual ; there is the spirit of the community ;

and there is the spirit of the nation. As a result of these differences we

have individual strife, we have community quarrels, and national wars.

What we are witnessing today is in large meausure the result of an at-

tempted classification by which one nation would make itself superior, and

therefore offensive, to all other nations. Vanity is not merely a harmless

sentiment of the human kind. Vanity carries with it an ambition — not sim-

ply an ambition to be better than others, but an ambition to domineer over

others. It creates an indifference to other people's suffering, and thus en-

mity between man and man grows.

The Corrections.— The abuses of class distinction manifest themselves

in the grossest injustices of man to man. They become oppressive and hu-

man life suffers very greatly from them. As a rule, the process of correction

of these wrongs has been by means of wars, famines, pestilences, and such

calamities as have reduced the world to a common physical equality. There

is, however, a means of correction— a peaceful means. Such peaceful mean?

are found in the teachings of the gospel. The religious institutions of the

Latter-day Saints are all intended to establish a feeling of brotherhood, a

spirit of humility and a condition that makes for brotherly love and uni-

versal good-will. If men and women performed their duties in the Church

as they are prescribed for them, social classes would be quite impossible.

Those who flaunt their social life before the public, who strive for class

distinction, as a rule are not those who are laboring faithfully in some of

the religious organizations of the ward to which they belong. It was no-

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528 IMPROVEMENT ERA

toriously the work of the ministry of Christ and his disciples to establish

social equality; for social inequality, if it is not always a cause of certain

immoralities, is certainly in danger of creating them. Whatever poisons the

human mind in its relationship to the children of God begets conditions that

in time become highly immoral.

Revelation.— "Nevertheless, in your temporal things you shall be equal,

and this not grudgingly, otherwise the abundance of the manifestations of

the Spirit shall be withheld" (Doc. and Cov. 70:14).

XII.— The Future of the Holy Land

Conquest of the Holy Land. — One of the great changes which present

conditions are likely to bring about is the restoration of the Holy Land.

The British army is on its border to the South and fighting near Gaza. It

has been there for some months without making any headway. It may per-

haps be postponing a further drive in order to build a railway to bring up

supplies from Port Said in Egypt, and it may be that the abandonment of a

further drive in Macedonia is the result of a plan to shift the troops to the

Palestine front. The collapse of Russia suspended all movements in Asia,

but there seems to be a set determination not to abandon the advance on

Palestine. The whole Christian world is looking with joyful anticipation

to the day when the soil of that country shall be free from the blight of

Turkish rule. To the Latter-day Saints the day of its restoration is a divine

promise. An invading army would not need to fight its way up through the

mountains of Judea. It could pursue its course along the Mediterranean

litoral through the valley of the Sharon to Mt. Carmel, and then around the

Bay of Acre, thus following the route taken by the Crusaders. From the

Bay of Acre it could cross the valley of the Esdraelon, down into the val-

ley of the Jordan, and make a retreat of the Turks across the Jordan east-

ward necessary. What would happen to Palestine, once it was wrested from

the Mohammedans? To whom would it belong? Russian ambitions to take

it have not disappeared. No other country has any ambition for its pos-

session. Great Britain would prefer to see it a buffer state to Egypt. The

efforts already made by the Jews to reclaim it would make them the logical

candidates for its possession. It is said that there are already about 100,000

Jews in this country. They have about 15,000 engaged in agricultural pur-

suits. The Zionist movement has been accumulating strength for a number

of years. No extensive efforts have been made because of the opposition of

the Turkish government to the settlement of that people in the land. The

great uncertainty of what the Turks would do has made a pronounced move-

ment unpopular among leading Jews of wealth.

A Waste Country. — The country lies in a state of waste, and its recla-

mation would be the work of pioneers. It is a desert. The great inflow of

wealth which would be possible would lead to its rapid recovery. It is pri-

marily a problem of irrigation which would make the land blossom as the

rose. Today the colonists there are raising green grapes, almonds, and

oranges. Grapes are grown in the valley of the Sharon without irrigation.

They are of superior quality and have a good market. A grape grower once

told me that if he could get half a cent a pound for his crop in the field

he would do well. The Sharon valley is cultivated only in spots. Irrigation

can be carried on only on a very limited scale. The mountains of Judea

have been denuded of their forests, and the streams as a consequence have

dried up. Reforestation would be one of the first things undertaken in the

reclamation of the land. That would require years in the mountains, but

the valleys under irrigation would respond rapidly to all vegetable growth.

Water systems could be quickly established, and the valleys made

habitable. There are two great valleys in Palestine, the Jordan and the

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PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 529

Sharon. The former could be redeemed by an irrigation system from the

sea of Galilee. If the waters of that sea should be found too brackish, water

might be brought from the Mountains of Moab, east of the river. Small

streams run from them into the Jordan. There are numerous reservoir

sites where water might be impounded and brought by pipe line across the

Jordan on to the highest points of the valley. It is an excessively hot dis-

trict, the hottest of the whole land ; but not worse than Egypt. Near by are

the mountains of Judea, to which the people might go after the harvest

season. Semi-tropical fruits would grow there in abundance. It might also

be made one of the finest winter resorts in the world.

Opportunities. — It would no doubt be the ambition of the Jews to se-

cure the great table lands of the Moab where there are fine pastures and

abundant opportunities for growing grain. The Dead sea would doubtless

become a favorable bathing resort. Its water are about the same density

as those of the Great Salt Lake. The Jordan Valley might be made, without

very great expense, a paradise, and no doubt there would be opened from

New York a direct steamship line for Jafa, the seaport leading up to Je-

rusalem. Jerusalem, as it exists today, would have to be completely razed

to the ground, except, of course, the most sacred places. Reservoirs and

pumping systems could be installed to supply the city with water. The val-

ley of the Sharon is much larger than the Jordan. In the south it is fully

forty or fifty miles wide. The first work in redeeming its waste land would

be a system of reservoirs. There are some artesian wells. The underground

water is near the surface, and now pumped by means of cattle for the orange

groves. An excellent place for electric plants would be the Jordan valley.

Electricity might easily be carried over the low mountains of Judea to the

Sharon valley, and water pumping systems established there much as they

are in parts of Arizona.

The Present Worth. — Palestine is, if we except Arabia, the most worth-

less part of the Turkish empire, from an economic point of view. Few peo-

ple could exist there were it not for a place of pilgrimage. In the past, men

undertaking to exploit foreign countries, have had their attention called to

the wonderful possibilities of the Holy Land. Some have invested there

without accomplishing their objects. Its inducements are many, but the

Turks have discouraged all enterprises in the country. If the wealth of the

Jews were poured into it, it would undoubtedly become one of the most

beautiful and attractive spots of earth. They have a race pride that would

induce them to make the land of their forefathers as near a paradise as pos-

sible. Already about $25,000,000 has been expended by the agricultural pop-

ulation.

Present Conditions. — The commercial prospects of the country will be

greatly enhanced by the construction of railroads connecting Europe, Asia,

and Africa. Already there has been constructed a railroad most of the way

between Constantinople and Bagdad by the Germans. It runs much to the

north of the Holy Land. Out from it branch lines have been constructed.

The one running to Damascus is connected by the Haifa road in the nor-

thern part of Palestine on the Mediterranean. It opens the rich valley of

the Easdraelon, and connects it with the uplands of Moab. A railway runs

up from Jafa to Jerusalem for the accommodation of the pilgrims. Just

before the outbreak of the war another road was begun, going down from

Jerusalem to Port Said, where it would connect with the line running to

Cairo. The English were carrying out the plan of Rhodes to construct a

line from Cairo to Capetown; but the Germans objected to a right-of-way

over their territory in East Africa. They saw its strategic value to the

English, and planning a war of conquest many years ago, they determined

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530 IMPROVEMENT ERA _

to balk the plans of Great Britain in the construction of this through road

which would have connected also Jerusalem with Capetown.

The commerce of Palestine on the Mediterranean has been greatly

handicapped from lack of suitable harbors. There are really only two, one

at Jafa, the other in the Bay of Acre at Haifa. At both, the ships must

anchor a considerable distance from the shore and send their merchandise

and passengers by small boats. Large and expensive piers would be

necessary to overcome this difficulty. Such improvements the Turks have

been unable to make, and then the inland traffic did not justify it.

Jews Now in Palestine. — The Jews are really adepts in the use of me-

chanical tools, and have a monopoly of the carpentry and cabinet work of

the country.

More than four fifths of the Jews now in Palestine practically live from

the alms sent them by their richer brethren in foreign lands. They are

there from religious motives. Some have taken money with them sufficient

to eke out an existence. They were always in a poverty-striken condition.

Their condition now must be pitiful. They are greatly given to lamenta-

tions, and seem to have an idea that Jehovah will aid them through the ex-

ercise of their prayers and suffering. In the future they would really be a

bar to the material development of the country. Those who first began

agricultural life in Palestine were at a disadvantage because of the habits

of life in the countries from which they came. They greatly exaggerated

their ability to make money out of the Fellaheen or native laborers. The

aspect of the early Jewish colonies was not a very thrifty one. So far as

known, there is no coal or iron in the country to justify the hope of manu-

facture there. Fruits, grain, and live stock would provide the chief employ-

ments.

Jewish children learn easily and readily to adapt themselves to new

environments and a variety of work and study. One has been led to won-

der what the language of the country would be. Fully twenty languages

are spoken in Jerusalem. But what language will the Jews adopt? They

come from different nations of the earth. Most of them speak Yiddish, "a

spoiled German." Here is what Mossinsohn has to say on the subject of

schools in the Holy Land:

"With the growth of the population and its approximation to hu-

man life, the need for public education began to make itself felt, and

the Zionist organization undertook the establishment and support of

a complete system of public and high schools, in which the language

of the instruction is Hebrew. Every Jewish settlement was

provided with a kindergarten and elementary schools, and high

schools were established. Hebrew thus became a living tongue

once more. Even in America, Yiddish-speaking parents have

found it necessary to master Hebrew in order that t hey may

be able to keep in spiritual touch with their children. Only in

Palestine *he parents, loving the new old-tongue, are mastering

it as completely as the children for whom it is the only language —

the language of play, of study, of romance, of ambition, of life itself.

Before the war there were plans for a Jewish university. We now have

the curious innovation of the Hebrew language printed above shops

and business places of Arabs and other nationalities. The Arab is

the principal language of Palestine today. There are very few Turks

in the country. They are the government officials. How much of the

modern Hebrew the ancient Jews would understand is questionable.

It is certain that modern Hebrew will have to incorporate a large

number of words from foreign languages to meet the progress of life

in art and science. The Jews learn foreign languages rapidly. In

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PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 531

their scattered condition they have been compelled to speak a variety

of tongues so that their children have inherited a linguistic genius."

A general Jewish movement to the Holy Land would have a marked

social and business effect on many leading nations of the world. It is not

easy to compute the enormous control exercised by this race in the United

States. Clothing, railroads, and manufactures are rapidly falling into their

control. Their genius for trade is known the world over. They are with-

out doubt the most tenacious race in the world today. What other people

could have withstood the shifting conditions of life as they have withstood

them? They are truly a "peculiar people."

Since the above was written Jerusalem has fallen into the hands of the

British (See Improvement Era, January, 1918, pp. 254, 259).

Revelation. — "And this I have told you concerning Jerusalem, and when

the day shall come, shall a remnant be scattered among all nations;

"But they shall be gathered again, but they shall remain until the times

of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

"And in that day shall be heard of wars and rumors of wars, and the

whole earth shall be in commotion, and men's hearts shall fail them, and

they shall say that Christ delayeth his coming until the end of the earth.

"And the love of men shall wax cold, and iniquity shall abound" (Doc.

and Cov. 45:24-27).

Key to John's Revelation. — What is to be understood by the two wit-

nesses, in the eleventh chapter of Revelation? A. They are two prophets

that are to be raised up to the Jewish nation in the last days, at the time

of the restoration, and to prophesy to the Jews, after they are gathered, and

build the city of Jerusalem, in the land of their fathers (Doc. and Cov.

77:15).

X///. — The Reaction of War Weapons on Civil Life

History. — It has sometimes been estimated that the destruction to human

life through the invention of gunpowder has been greater in peace than in

war. Certain it is that the implements and forces of human destruction

which war invents and perfects have always been a striking menace to so-

cial life in times of peace.

War engenders a spirit of reckless hatred which manifests its'elf long

after the battle-fields are silent. Men, during wars of long duration, become

accustomed to its horrors. They look upon death with a spirit of indiffer-

ence. Battle-fields become the source of desperation and a reckless despair.

The wrongs, the sufferings of war make men often willing to continue its

horrors when the struggle has ceased. Often, too, the contest of wars brings

about such conditions of unhappiness, of want and misery that men become

free-booters and plunderers because, they argue, society is dealing unjustly

with them. The present war has developed, to a marvelous state of effici-

ency, two engines of human destruction with which the world may here-

after be compelled to combat. They are the airplane and the submarine.

Possibilities. — It does not require a very vivid imagination to picture

what the airplane might do in its lawless course of plundering and human

destruction. If the hatred of the battlefield is supplanted by social hatreds,

it is not difficult to imagine that an unlawful career by aviators may be de-

veloped in such a way as to threaten social destruction. It is already dif-

ficult to police the land in the cities and counties of our country. Murders,

thefts, and wholesale robberies have been altogether too common in times

of peace. Our industrial machinery is a most complicated affair, and it is

so highly wrought that any destruction of it or any disturbance even in its

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532 IMPROVEMENT ERA

workings may cause vast losses to property and great human destruction.

Let us take, for example, from among the vast number of aviators whom

we shall train, the few that may become desperate and unscrupulous in the

exercise of the powers at their command. It will be conceded that the op-

portunities of escape from criminal action will find in the airplane the

greatest possible aid. Its mechanism has become so perfected that the air

craft may be able to carry a considerable load of plunder. In comparison

with it, the automobile, which has been used for all sorts of depredations,

is insignificant. The great future danger, however, of the aircrafts, will

be more in the direction of social warfare. The relations of capital and

labor are growing daily more alarming. When it reaches a certain point,

it becomes an explosive, and manifests itself in all sorts of violence. Great

manufacturing plants and property of all kinds might be suddenly destroyed

by dropping bombs from the aerial regions. We are compelled, therefore,

to ask ourselves some very serious questions. Shall we be able efficiently

to police the upper regions? If not, what protection shall be enjoyed

against the dangers that the airplanes have the power to bring about in

times of peace?

Coming Events. — It may be said that the suggestions here condemned

are mere possibilities. But possibilities usually shape themselves on to a

working basis. First men conceive the possibility of some scheme, even

though it be malevolent; then conditions arise to make the possible the

probable; — the next step is the reality. The old Scotch Bard very truth-

fully and historically says that "Coming events cast their shadows before."

In past ages the world in times of peace has been made to suffer from

free-booters whose piracy on the oceans has made man and money their

prey in the illegal warfare which they have waged upon the oceans. History

records the reign of terror instituted upon the oceans by such characters as

Edward England, Fortunatus Wright, and Captain Kidd. These buccaneers

were the terror of the Middle Ages. Civilization was advanced, and they

were driven from their criminal life, and the seas made safe from their

depredations. They ceased only when civilized powers were able, by united

effort, to drive them away from their unlawful careers.

The civilized nations have invented a new danger. It will have to be

fought in the future as the old dangers were fought and destroyed in the

past. We know something, if only a little, of the wonderful advancement

of the under-sea boats, and the havoc they have wrought in times of war.

They are now so constructed that they are like a modern ship, and have

from 800 to 1,000 tons displacement; the largest measure from 213 to 230

feet in length; they are driven by enormous engines of 7,000 and 8,000

horse-power, and carry great 19%-inch torpedoes. If they are made to

withstand the attacks made upon them in the war, what a wonderful power

they will have for destruction in times of peace!

Illustration. — That one may know that the contemplation of dangers

here enumerated is giving rise to serious speculations, I quote somewhat at

length from the Calgary Herald, November 10, 1917:

"While German submarine commanders are testing and discover-

ing the virtually unlimited possibilities of the U-boat, there are indi-

cations that the groundwork is being laid for a period of piracy after

the war. Surely, these commanders are glimpsing the ease with which

they could prey upon the world's shipping and make rich hauls in

gold and merchandise.

"I maintain that it would be very simple for a German submarine

commander privately to carry on piracy for a considerable period

without knowledge of his government. It must be remembered that

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PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 533

the crew on a submarine craft is necessarily very small. That makes

but few to share a secret. By appealing to their cupidity and their

already well-developed spirit of lawlessness, a submarine commander

would have little difficulty in winning over his crew to a scheme to

enrich themselves at the expense of the world's shipping.

"Let us say, for example, that a submarine commander learns of

the sailing of an American steamship to England with a cargo of gold.

How simple it would be for the submarine to attack that ship at some

favorable point on the ocean and make a getaway with a large portion

of the specie. How could it be possible to trace the pirates? I think

you will agree it would be difficult.

"Then, again, there are the submarine commanders who will likely

break away from their government and boldly enter the game of

piracy. For instance, when a U-boat does not return to its govern-

ment base, officials of the government will likely conjecture that the

craft has been lost at sea. The missing U-boat can select a base on

some isolated island or coast and operate for a considerable period

without discovery. After two or three good hauls the commander

and crew could well afford to sink the craft to the bed of the ocean,

divide the booty and scatter to far lands and live forever in plenty.

"Although these are only conjectures, they are likely to be real-

ized in the near future in a manner that is calculated to jolt civiliza-

tion. It will be a great boon to the civilized world if American genius

in the near future discovers an antidote for the U-boat."

Deadly Gases. — -Among other dangerous inventions of the present war,

the production of deadly gases for military purposes may be made in times

of peace a source of human destruction which the hatreds of the present

war are likely to encourage. Where secrecy in crime is required, the

poisonous gases may have the most baneful effects. It is easy to imagine

that in times of strikes, manufacturing plants may be made wholly useless

from the dangers which these gases would create when secretly circulated

throughout the buildings. It is the testimony of history that crime has

been fostered by means of those devices which war has created. What gases

may do is perhaps best explained by Howard J. Allen. Writing for the

New York Tribune from Paris, he says, in the issue of that paper of

October 7, 1917:

"Of all the unspeakable cruelties of this war the gas is probably

the most inhuman manifestation. Both sides are using it with growing

efficiency. You never know when you are to encounter it in some

terrible and heretofore unknown form.

"One new wrinkle invented by the Germans is called 'mustard gas'

by our soldiers. While it cannot get behind the mask, it is so strong

that it permeates the clothing. Whenever a man's body becomes

moist from perspiration or rain the gas attacks him and burns off

his skin.

"The British have made a gas the purpose of which is to compel

the enemy to remove his mask. It is a powerful emetic gas. It afflicts

the Germans with nausea, so that they cannot keep their mouths

covered. If they uncover their faces for six seconds the amount of

inhalation is fatal. They die at once, or, as is sometimes the case,

twenty-four hours later from heart disease. We are told that the

Germans declare the use of this gas unfair on the part of the British.

Men laugh when they tell it."

Revelation. — "Mine indignation is soon to be poured out without meas-

ure upon all nations, and this I will do when the cup of their iniquity is

full" (Doc. and Cov. 101:11).

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534 IMPROVEMENT ERA

XIV — Intemperance

Prohibition. — Temperance is more than a code of laws which we call

prohibition. It is a duty we owe to our God, our families; a duty to be-

come our brothers' keepers. The world has become greatly alarmed over

the degeneracy of manhood and over the increased allurements to woman-

hood through drink. The banker found it an insidious enemy. The manu-

facturer bewailed the inefficiency of those who through drink obstructed

his progress. It became more and more a great economic question.

Through it the stability of business life was broken. As long as it had

apparently no other evil than the destruction of the home, the hunger of

children, the broken hearts of wives and mothers, the world tolerated it

beyond belief. It was a sordid world and material gains outweighed

spiritual values.

Once it touched business and laid its hands violently upon commercial

life men of affairs rose up in antagonism to it, and yet all the arguments

of dollars and cents were weak compared with the destruction it wrought

in the moral and spiritual life of the world. The argument of business

was that drink cost the United States six billion dollars every year. Men

of science declared that two drinks a day would slow down the energy of

the brain from eight to twenty per cent.

Increase of Vice. — We have introduced prohibition in many of the

states of the Union. Will that produce temperance? It will help, but it

will take time. There will be arguments against it, and statistics brought

to prove the arguments and to prove the prosperity of the nation by what

people can afford for drink. The following comes from the New York Sun

of September 5, 1917:

"Despite the high cost of living the people of the United States

consumed 26,000,000 gallons more of distilled spirits in the fiscal year

ending June 30th last than in the year before.

"They needed for their comfort 879,180,583 more cigars and 9,440,-

000,000 more cigarettes — the latter increase being ascribed by the un-

gallant internal revenue bureau to the increase of cigarette smoking

among women. We refuse to accept the explanation.

"Chewing and smoking consumption increased by 28,500,000

pounds. Snuff, — where it is used, — went up 2,200,000 pounds.

"Washington officials point to this record of increasing expendi-

tures for luxuries as an evidence of great prosperity. Perhaps it is.

But it is a poor promise for future prosperity. The spectacle of a

nation clamorous against the increased price of food and of every

necessary of life increasing its annual expenditures for liquor and

tobacco by millions is not very inspiriting."

Downward Movement. — Nothing proves more strikingly the rapid slide

downward which the social life of our nation is taking. Can it be stopped?

What can stop it? Such a showing illustrates the fallacy of merely apply-

ing a legal remedy, and then awaiting complacently the coming millennium.

Law is not the great remedy for vice. Law hits more forcefully at crimes

— -the grosser crimes along whose mountain sides lie the rolling hills of

vice. But law can help. And it must be helped, or it will fail. It is

perhaps one of the greatest objections to law that it lures men into the

belief that nothing more is needed of them. Let the law take its course,

i? the fallacy of self-contented failure. Law requires, when it deals with

vice, the aid of public opinion and individual effort. It is sustained effort

that carries great reforms on to victory. It is to him who endures to the

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PROBLEMS OF THE AGE S33

end. One of the greatest dangers in the prohibition movement of the world

today is the false argument of a victory won. Victory is not won, it is

merely a promise. To make laws successful in questions of vice (I make a

clear distinction between vice and crime), there must not only be a strong,

but a lasting public will. Any reaction invites defeat. Why does law

against vice often fail so lamentably? The masses are prone to one vice or

another. Men will excuse their own and tolerate kindred vices. Crimes

are more loathsome, and are the practices of the comparatively few. In

matters of vice it will not do to watch and wait.

Kindred Vices. — It may be well to note that vices are multiplying. Our

forefathers would be appalled today at the sight of the great brood of

vices which were wholly unknown in their day. They had evils to be sure,

plenty of them, all they could endure. Vice has its fashions and many of

them change annually; it is the fashion of fashions to change. It is not

primarily a question of art with fashion. When it wins a certain following,

it marches on to universality. Vice is in a high degree a fashion, not in its

dress, but in its kinship to dress. Dress and vice in all ages have had

striking resemblances. It was so in ancient times. Fashion, drink, and

sexual sin have always been the three graces of the underworld.

It is difficult to single out one vice and push it away from all its rela-

tions of cousins, aunts, and nieces. Sooner or later they will meet. Liquor

is simply one of many vices. It is hard to banish when its pals are allowed

to stay. To make prohibition fulfil its mission there must come into action

a concerted movement against the kindred evils of the one it seeks to

abolish. Temperance is what the world needs to correct the monstrous

evil of drink. It is temperance in thought and action; temperance in high

and low places; temperance in language and motives; temperance in fashion

and pleasure; temperance in all the walks of daily life. It is reported of

President Smith that when he was once asked his attitude on prohibition

that he declared himself for temperance, that which corrects a multitude of

evils, and prevents drink. Without temperance, prohibition must fight

single handed. Drink is the companion of hilarity, frivolity, lacivious dress

and immorality. The battle to victory must be along the whole line. If

one only is attacked and driven back the others begin a flanking movement

that lead sooner or later to the defeat of those who rush on to the attack

of the enemy in one place. We hope and pray that prohibition may be a

complete antidote for the evil of drink; but it must be supported by the

spirit of temperance. The card table, the pool room, and excessive pleasures

are all companions of drink. When drink is ordered out, her devoted

friends will by sinister ways invite her return. We warn, we admonish and

expound the doctrine of temperance. The tide of a dissipated age is rolling

up against us. Shall we brace and hold ourselves against it; or shall we

yield and falsely comfort ourselves that it is moving shoreward; that we

must go with the tide; that it is folly to move against it; that in Rome we

must do as Rome does? There was in that ancient capital a body of de-

voted and despised people, the early Christians, that did not do as Rome

did. But they paid the penalty, the cynic says. Suffering was not a penalty;

it developed in them the power of redemption. Their good works survived,

and out of them a new world sprang up, a new civilization was born, a new

promise fulfilled. But other tides of life came in the recurring events of

the nations. The old dies and the new is born. There is always a struggle

between life and death. Intemperance has always been a potent sign of

decay. It stalks in the world today; it is everywhere; it knocks at the door

of the Saints, and would delight them with the sweet intonations of its

voice. Temperance, that is the key-note of safety.

Dangers of Excesses. — Rivalry is the spirit of the age. Rivalry means

excess; excess, intemperance. Who can have the best time is the ambition

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536 IMPROVEMENT ERA

of youth. Seekers after a good time vie with one another in dress, in social

pastimes, and in all kinds of physical excesses. We are reminded that we

eat too much, as well as drink too much, that we eat the wrong kind of

food, that we are extravagant beyond all reason. Men build big houses

which they do not need; they waste time and money in joy rides; and they

seek opportunity to display wealth that does not really belong to them.

Debt is the fashion of the age. It is overwhelming the permanency of com-

mercial life. Everywhere in life the laws of temperance are violated, if not

positively outraged. He who stands for temperance is a benefactor to his

people and his race.

As Rome Does. — And what is the argument in favor of all this life of

intemperance? It is the old fallacy of "living in Rome." Tides are always

shattered at the shore; the break waters of life do not fall down from

heaven to stop the rolling tide. They are made foot by foot, inch by inch.

Little by little the forces of resistance are built up. We may not destroy

the tide, but we may break, if we will, much of the power of its destruction.

Here a man and there a woman braced in force against the evils of the day

may dissipate many of them. As resistance grows, evils scatter. They may

go on, but every fracture in them lessens the power of their destruction.

The priesthood, for whom these words are written, stand to the front as a

resisting force to the evils of the age.

Remedy. — An eminent U. S. Senator was asked if the treatment he

received at the Battle Creek Sanitarium had helped him. He replied that

it had; but that a "Mormon" might have told him all that he got there in

three words — "Word of Wisdom" (Read Sec. 89, Doc. and Cov.).