Editor's Table: Greeting to the Officers and Members of the Y. M. M. I. A.

Greeting

To the Officers and Members of the Y. M. M. I. A.: Dear Brethren: It is thought proper that the new super- intendency of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associa- tions should send you a word of salutation, which we wish also may be a word of encouragement to both officers and members. We begin our labors as a superintendency under circum- stances wherein there are some elements, not of discourage- ment, but of irregularity leading to momentary confusion. Like nearly every other organization of our modern, com- plex life, our associations have been affected by the World War, now happily drawing to a close in what will soon be called the Paris Peace Treaty. During the war very many of our officers and members have been enlisted in the service of our country as officers and soldiers, marines and sailors, in the army and the navy, while many others have been engrossed in war activities at home, to an extent that the work of our associations has been greatly impaired. To the hindrances that the war has intruded upon us must also be added those produced by the plague of influenza, which accompanied the last few months of the war, and which still lingers, here and there, in the land. This plague made necessary the discontinuance of our regular asso- ciation meetings, and disconcerted our plans with respect to the regular program of our Mutual Improvement work. With the close of the war, and the abatement of the plague, however, and the return of many of our officers and members from the pursuit of war activities to normal conditions of civil life, we hope for a renewal of intense activity in the work of our Improvement Associations. The regular program work for 1918-1919 has been practically lost to the associations for the reasons above mentioned, but the committee on summer program and outdoor activities has pro- vided a most attractive and excellent course for the summer sea- — — son which appears in this number of the Era and this we hope will be followed with a zest that will give evidence of the hunger that exists for improvement work, after a period of enforced sus- pension of it. In this connection it should be stated that the Man-

EDITORS' TABLE 533

uals for the Senior and Junior class departments will be used as the Manuals for the season of 1919-1920. There will soon issue in pamphlet form and also appear in the Era a restatement of the basic principles and aims of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations of the Church, together with a more thorough analysis and synthesis of the organization and the work we intend shall be accomplished. In connection with this there will be a reorganization of the standing committees of the General Board, with a more specific assignment of department work, the purpose being, of course, the attainment of greater efficiency in all the subdivisions of M. I. A. activities. In all this we invite the active co-operation of all stake and ward organizations, as well as of individual officers and members, and of the stake and ward authorities of the Church. Our message to you, dear brethren, is that a new and more intense interest is to be awakened in Mutual Improvement or- ganization and work. The need of the work grows more mani- fest with the passing years. The objectives of Mutual Improve- ment remain the same that they have ever been, viz., "the estab- lishment of individual testimony of the truth and magnitude of the great latter-day work," in the hearts of our youth; "the de- velopment of the gifts within them, that have been bestowed upon them by the laying on of hands of the servants of God; cultivating a knowledge, and an application of the eternal prin- ciples of the great science of life." Nobler purpose than this

cimnot be formulated; wider scope for intellectual effort is inconceivable; a greater field for helpful service to our fellow- men is not to be found—the work is all-embracing in its very invites your nature; and in this work the new superintendency interest and hearty co-operation with them, with a renewal of an intensified determination to make Mutual Improvement work even more successful than in the past. Anthony W. Ivins, Brigham H. Roberts, Richard R. Lyman, General Superintendency Y. M. M. I. A.