--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Talmage, James Edward collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 21 number: 9 published: 1918-07 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Talmage, James E., "Are Men Born Equal?," *Improvement Era* 21, no. 9 (July 1918): 818–819.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2109unse 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: improvementera2109unse start_page: 818 end_page: 819 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1918-07) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2109unse 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. --- # Are Men Born Equal? July 4, 1918 On January 15, 1215, at Runnymeade, on the Thames, England, was wrested by the Barons from King John, Magna Charta; on July Fourth, 1776, at Faneuil Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, was signed, by the Congress of the United States assembled, the Declaration of Independence; on July 14, 1789, after the burning speech of Camille Desmoulins, fell that hated stronghold of Feudal despotism, the Bastile. Tremendous events! On Nov. 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln, the Martyr President, made an immortal speech on the Field of Gettysburg. England, France, tKe United States of America, each made their struggle for Liberty, the Rights of man. Now, side by side, they battle in the same great cause. That for which Washington fought, for which Lincoln yielded up his life, is being tested upon the blood-stained ground of Europe. It is no longer a question of the liberties of the people of any one nation, but a question of the liberty of the world. Never, then, since that July 4, 1776, has our country, not even during the great Civil War, confronted so momentous, so vast an issue, as on this Fourth of July, 1918. The question of the ages, the Liberty of Man, Democracy versus Autocracy, is placed before us in most frightful manner. Millions of lives have been sacrificed, untold treasure. And yet the end is not in sight. The highest and noblest, the most base and terrible of the passions of men have been aroused. The mind, the very soul of human beings, have been exalted or appalled at deeds of heroism, or of those which seem to place men as lower than the beasts. The ideal has been laughed to scorn, the very frame-work of civilization assailed, justice, truth beaten to the ground. And yet, out of the blackness, the terror of these shadows, has come a light! The mind of man may sink to the depths, but it will rise to the heights. The soul may be devilish with cruelty, but it can be angelic with sympathy, the cowardice of malevolence can be met with the humanity of fortitude. On this anniversary of the founding of the Great Nation of Freedom and of equal rights to all, on this Fourth of July, 1918, let us look forward with hope and determination that right shall win, and that from "these crimson seas of war" shall yet come a glorious Brotherhood of Man, a Federation of the World. Alfred Lambourne. [EDITORS* TABLE In the Foreground of Fundamental Things While the representatives and members of the M. I. A. were disappointed in not having the privilege of listening to a speech from Assistant Superintendent B. H. Roberts, at the annual Conference on June 9, as anticipated, they did hear from him by letter which was read by President Heber J. Grant. His communication, full of sound doctrine, patriotic fervor, comfort and good cheer, follows in full. M. I. A. workers, the Latter-day Saints and the people generally will be glad to read and contemplate his refreshing epistle: Field Camp, June 6, 1918. President Heber J. Grant, My dear Brother Heber: You will perhaps realize in part my very great disappointment conveyed to you in the dispatch 1 have just sent informing you of the fact that my application for furlough to attend the Y. M. and Y. L. M. I. A. conference in Salt Lake City was denied by Divisional Headquarters of this cantonment, to whose decision, we, of course, cheerfully and respectfully submit, no matter what our personal disappointment may be. I had desired almost above all other things the opportunity to have addressed myself to the Latter-day Saints of Utah and the surrounding states through your conference, and, for matter of that, to all our citizens of that region. I should like to have reported myself at the School for Chaplains and Approved Chaplain* Candidates, recently closed at Camp Zachary Taylor, and from which I have just returned to this point —Camp Kearny. I should like very much to have reported the 145th Field Artillery (1st Utah), after having had an opportunity of putting them in contrast with the thirty odd thousand men I had the privilege of observing at Camp Taylor and other camps along the route of my return journey. You may be sure that, in my judgment, our Utah regiment, and all our men of the West, did not suffer by that comparison. I think it must be the larger out-door life of the West that gives the youth of the West a shade the better of it in physical