--- 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: 10 published: 1918-08 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Bishop Orrin Porter Miller," *Improvement Era* 21, no. 10 (August 1918): 910–911.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera21010unse 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: improvementera21010unse start_page: 910 end_page: 911 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1918-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera21010unse 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. --- # Bishop Orrin Porter Miller Service to Country "Over Here' By Elder Richard R. Lyman, of the Council of the Twelve This conference of Mutual Improvement workers should be a memorable one. While Ave have assembled from far and near, — we are a unit in thought and purpose we have but one object at this moment for which we strive and that is "winning the war." Our slogan is, "We stand for Service to God and Country." Those who are familiar with Utah's war record, and with the inspired teachings Latter-day Saints have impressed upon the minds of their children concerning the divinity of the Constitution of our Country, and the importance of the political and religious liberty which we enjoy, will not be surprised to know that we are assembled on this occasion primarily to devise ways and means of giving the greatest possible assistance to our country in this hour of peril —this hour of terrible need. I recommend, in this connection, that you read the pamphlet by Elder Benjamin Goddard, entitled, "Pertinent Facts on Utah's Loyalty and War Record." Copies of this excellent little work can be obtained at the Bureau of Information, Temple Block. The topic upon which I am to speak is "Service to Country 'Over Here'." Preserving our resources and using these resources efficiently are the greatest services to Country that we can render. Since our boys and girls comprise our greatest resource, one of our first duties, "over here," is to see to it that these young people are properly fed, properly clothed, properly trained, and that they are preserved from sickness and from disease. I read from a recent issue of the Outlook: "The churches in the neighborhood of cantonments cannot meet the burden of properly teaching and training and encouraging the soldiers alone. In one neighborhood one of the ministers asserted that he would rather see the soldiers go to h — than that his church should provide amusement for them. And, as a pamphlet of the National Service Commission of one of the great denominations says, "these men actually have gone to h — because, in that neighborhood there is sixty times as much disease among those soldiers as in any other cantonment." Shame on a man, especially a minister of religion, who, in this time of terrible war would thus waste our most precious resource. Be it said to the credit of the Latter-day Saints and to the credit of Utah people Remarks at the M. I. A. Conference, Sunday, June 9, 1918. SERVICE TO COUNTRY "OVER HERE" 913 generally, that when the late Professor Jacob Bolin had completed his physical examination of the men in our State University and found them free from disease — absolutely clean eveiy one—he said, "I am amazed. I doubt if such an excellent condition can be found among as many young men in any other place on earth." Why this excellent condition? It is because of the labor and the teachings of the people in this neighborhood and in this Church of ours. We regard virtue in men as highly as all good people regard virtue in women. Word has come from Camp Kearny also, where so many of our Utah soldier boys are located, that that great army training camp is practically free from the more or less common but nevertheless terrible and loathsome disease of men. Teaching young people everywhere the unspeakable seriousness of these diseases, as medical men are teaching it in the army today, and continuing thus to conserve one of our most precious resources, is a marked patriotic "service to country" which it is our duty to render "over here." What sort of contest have we entered "over there?" An answer to this question will help to determine what and how much we should do "over here." In a personal letter Senator William H. King, writing May 22, 1918, from Washington, D. C, says: "Paul" [Captain Paul Browning King, the senator's son, who is in the flying squadron of the United States] "goes overseas very soon We have a long, hard fight before us, and it may take one, it may take two, it may take three years, and it may cost us millions of men; but whatever the cost, we will win. The people must be taught to be ready to make every possible sacrifice to save our country and to save civilization. There will be many sorrowful hearts before this war is over, but never before has there been a war that involved such tremendous interests. Huxley once said that if certain industrial conditions should continue he "would hail as a consummation devoutly to be wished the advent of some comet that would hurl this little world of ours entirely to destruction." "I sometimes feel," continues the senator, "that I would prefer the destruction of the earth and all its people, by some such catastrophe, rather than to see Prussian militarism triumph." With such a cause, with such serious business before us, we should do everything the Government requires. If you have not planted a kitchen garden and it is possible for you to plant one, you are not doing your duty. If you are not raising more wheat this year than you raised last year, you are not doing your duty. If you are not doing all you can to conserve food, you are not doing your duty. The more we live in accordance with the wishes and desires and requirements of the Government, the