--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Baggarley, Maud 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: 'Baggarley, Maud, "The Gold Star in the Service Flag," *Improvement Era* 21, no. 9 (July 1918): 837.' 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: 837 end_page: 837 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. --- # The Gold Star in the Service Flag PASSING EVENTS 839 It is said to belong to the Milky Way stars, which on earth are about 4,000 light years distant. Charles R. Wilson, Co. B, 2nd Bn. U. S. G. N. A., Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas, writes: "I love the gospel of Jesus Christ because it is practical, vital, true, a light in darkness, an oasis in the desert. *i love it for its spirituality, simplicity and its blessed plan for the salvation of the divine spirit. It is a faith that has cemented closer the relationship of my wife and children and myself. I love the people because of their noble sacrifices for their religion." Lloyd Burt Haight, Trenton, Cache county, Utah, was on the transport President Lincoln when it was torpedoed, on the 31st of May, and twentythree men were lost. Mr. Haight gave his life for his country. He enlisted, June 23, 1917, at the Salt Lake recruiting office as a landsman, and was sent to the Pacific coast to train, was then transferred to duty across the ocean. Mr. Haight was born at Hiawatha, Utah, and leaves a widow at Trenton. He was a painter and photographer and was twenty-six years old. The Latter-day Saints school convention was held in Salt Lake City in the early part of June. Among resolutions passed was one pledging the teachers of the Church school system to be in favor of such legislation as will provide adequate free medical attention for all children of school age so far as such medical attention is necessary for educational growth. At a later meeting a resolution was passed unanimously by the teachers favoring legislation against the use of tobacco in the States and prohibiting its sale. David D. Rust, representing the 85th quorum of Seventies, Kanab ward, Kanab stake, has been awarded the Church prize of $1,000 for the greatest yield of potatoes on one acre of ground, offered by the Church in 1917. It has been verified by the officials of the Church in charge of the contest that Mr. Rust raised 49,531 pounds of potatoes, or 825 bushels of marketable potatoes to the acre. Prizes of $500 and $250 had been awarded some time ago. This places Utah in the lead of the world's record for potato growing. Horace R. Tanner, son of Mr. and Mrs. Horace Greeley Tanner, South Cottonwood, was drowned in an accident on the coast of Florida in early June. He was born July 22, 1896, and was an apprentice attached to the United States steamer Mercy. No details of the accident are given, so far. He was a high school student, and on May 5, 1917, enlisted in the Navy, being first sent to San Francisco and then transferred to an Isolation Hospital at Las Animas, Colorado, and later to a medical college at Minneapolis, from there being transferred to the Mercy, a hospital ship. He had made several trips to Europe. The American Army at the front, in the latter part of May, penetrated into Cantigny, west of Montdidier, and successfully repulsed all attempts of the Germans to recapture the town, taking altogether 242 German prisoners. The Americans occupied a front of a mile and a half. Thirty-eight officers and men of the American Forces were cited on June 1 for gallantry in action. On the 4th the Americans broke up an attempt of the enemy to advance through Neuilly Woods, near Chateau Thierry. These actions are regarded as the beginning of American co-operation with the Allies on a major scale. For military purposes, Utah was called .upon to furnish 953 men in