--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Anderson, Edward H. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 22 number: 8 published: 1919-06 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Anderson, Edward H., "Mission Leaders," *Improvement Era* 22, no. 8 (June 1919): 703–708.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2208unse 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: improvementera2208unse start_page: 703 end_page: 708 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1919-06) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2208unse publication_year: 1919 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 1919, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Mission Leaders MISSION LEADERS 705 missionary in the old Salt Lake stake, from 1883 to 1886, and from 1890 to 1896. For several years he has been a member of the Y. M. M. I. A. General board, the Religion Class board, and the General Priesthood committee. He was associated with the late Elder A. O. Woodruff in establishing the first colony sent to the Big Horn country, and assisted him in the organization of the Big Horn stake, suggesting the name of Byron for one of the two towns that were first laid out in the stake, being in honor of Byron Sessions, first president of the stake. For the past twenty-two years, Elder McMurrin has been active in visiting the stakes of Zion in company with members of the Council of the Twelve apostles, and laboring among the Seventies, Mutual Improvement organizations, Religion classes, and in other directions, as called upon by the authorities. Elder Mc- Murrin is a man of wonderful spirituality, strong in the faith, with an unflinching testimony of the divinity of the work of the Lord established by the Prophet Joseph Smith. His earnest and simple testimonies of the goodness of God to him, and the power accompanying the administration of the servants of the Lord, never fail to touch the hearts of the people who hear. He possesses remarkable discretion and discernment. His studious habits, his wiHingness to obey counsel, and his full and large experience in the practical matters of the Church and of life, specially qualify him for leadership in his new calling, and his thousands of friends wish him the success that is sure to come as a reward of his earnestness and faith in the cause of the Lord. Bishop Heber C. Iverson As previously mentioned in the Era, Elder Melvin J. Bal- mislard, for many years president of the Northwestern States sion, was recently ordained an apostle, and is now a member of the Council of the Twelve, and has therefore been released as president of the Northwestern States mission. Bishop Heber C. Iverson, of the Second ward, Salt Lake fill the vacancy. City, Liberty stake of Zion, was chosen to Bishop Iverson received official notice of his appointment in a letter from the First Presidency, dated March 9, 1919, and left on April having been set apart for for his new field of labor 14, the position on the 6th day of April. Utah, July 1, Bishop Iverson was born in Salt Lake City, resided in Salt Lake City all his life His fathers 1868, and has mother's Caroline Monson. His name of Soren Iverson, and his parents came to Utah in October, 1854. He received his educa- tion in the district schools of Salt Lake City, in the Salt Lake the Latter-day Saints college, of which Stake academy, and in latter he is a graduate. 706 IMPROVEMENT ERA In 1891, Bishop Iverson went on a mission to Arizona and New Mexico for the Y. M. M. I. A. He also filled a mission to the Southern States, leaving home on June 24, 1893. Owing to his father's death, he returned in March, 1895. Prior to his leaving for this mission, on December 28, 1892, he was married to Anna B. Erickson, and the) have six children. Lieut. Heber Frank, who late- ly returned from Camp Taylor, Orabelle, Jo- seph Grant, Owen, Paul and Preston. The whole family is expecting to join him in Oregon, in June. He has filled practically every po- sition in the priest- hood, and in the auxili- ary organizations of the ward, having been sec- retary the deacons, of president of the home missionaries, secretary and counselor and pres- ident of the Y. M. M. I. A.; stake aid to Su- BISHOP HEBER C. IVERSON perintendent Joseph H. Successor to Elder Melvin J. Ballard of the Felt in the Y. M. M. I. Council of the Twelve, as President of A. of the Salt Lake Northivestern States Mission. stake, when the whole county belonged to one stake. He was also counselor to Richard R. Lyman, of the Council of the Twelve, then superintendent of the Y. M. M. I. A. of the Salt Lake stake. He has been also Sunday School teacher and assistant superintendent. On June 24, 1899, the same date that he left for his mission in 1893, he was set apart as bishop of the Second ward, Liberty stake, a position that he held until his call to the new presidency of the Northwestern States mission. Since he was appointed bishop, he has missed being out to speak on Sundays before some gathering or other only three or four Sundays in all those years, being regularly called by various organizations. He is a fluent speaker, and well versed in the scriptures, and in the doctrines of the gospel. Besides his proficiency in ecclesiastical and religious affairs, he is efficient and prominent in business, having labored MI3SI0N LEADERS 707 in the wholesale grocery department of the Z. C. M. I. since 1897, all these years. For years he has heen interested in active work in civic government. Among other duties, he has been a prominent member of the central committee for the old folks entertainment, a movement characteristic of the Latter-day Saints, showing forth their interest in and care for the aged. Buhop Iverson has a wide acquaintance throughout the Church. He is well posted in theological matters, and is an earnest and powerful public speaker. We join his many friends in wishing him success in his new calling. Nephi Jensen . The twenty-second mission district of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is shortly to be opened in Eastern Canada, and is to be presided over by Elder Nephi Jensen, a former missionary in the Southern States, and now a practicing attorney in Salt Lake City. The district or section of country composing this conference was formerly a part of the Eastern States mission. The head- quarters have not yet been selected, but will doubtless be located in some eastern Canadian city. The twenty-one missions heretofore established in different parts of the world are: Australia, Britain, California, Central States, Eastern States, Hawaii, Japan, Mexico, Nether- lands, New Zealand, North- ern States, Northwestern States, Samoa, Scandina- via, Southern States, South NEPHI JENSEN Africa, Swiss and German, Mission. Swedish, Tahitian, Ton- President of the new Canadian ean. and Western gan, Western States; states; , . will shortly be orgamzed, the twenty-second mission, Canada, head recently ap- Elder Jensen, is the eighth new mission Nephi Jensen was born pointed in the different missions. Utah. He attended the February 16, 1876, in Salt Lake City, — 708 IMPROVEMENT ERA public schools in Sugar House. His parents later moved to Montezuma county, Colorado, where he attended the high school one year. His schooling was further continued at the Latter-day Saints college, Salt Lake City, and later at the summer school, at the University of Utah, where he attended in the early part of 1905. In February, 1898, he was sent on his first mission to the Southern States, where he labored with diligence and success until June, 1900, when he returned home. In the spring of 1907, he left to fill a second mission to the Southern States, serving, at that time, as secretary of the mission, until November, 1908. Following and during his mission labors, be passed the studies of the senior year in the law department of the University of Chattanooga, where he received the degree of LL. B., in the class of 1908. He had, however, been admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Utah, February, 1906. He served as a member of the Utah State Legislature, during the term beginning November, 1906. After his return from his first mission to the Southern States, he married Margaret Smith, a daughter of the late Jesse N. Smith, on April 9, 1902. They have one son, Paul, age seven years. Elder Jensen taught school for five years, from 1901 to 1906. In January, 1909, he continued the practice of law in Salt Lake City, which he has been engaged in up to the present time. He acted as Assistant County Attorney of Salt Lake county, from January, 1911, to August, 1913. In recent years, he has been a member of the Council of the 105th quorum of Seventy, and a home missionary in the Granite stake of Zion, where he has made many friends. His ability as a speaker, and his diligence in the service of the Church, is recognized by all who have heard and known him. He has contributed largely to home publications, and readers of the Improvement Era are not unfamiliar with his writings, his recent eulogy of President Joseph F. Smith having especially attracted attention. His many friends feel sure that he will make good in the honor that has come to him to found a new mission of the Church. Tolerance My friend that was, I cast away He'd many faults that gave me pain! But his heart comes singing back today: "God made none without blot or stain, Why, 'tis the sun that casts the shade, The one we love best gives most fears; Of gall and honey life is made, And eyes that smile, also shed tears." G. G. Meldrum. The League of Nations By Hon. Carl A. Badger In an address on "International Peace," before the Nobel Prize committee, delivered at Christiania, Norway, May 5, 1910, Theodore Roosevelt, in outlining the means by which the cause of international peace among nations should be advanced, suggested : First, further treaties of arbitration; second, further development of The Hague tribunal and of the work of the conference and court of The Hague; third, "something should be done as soon as possible to check the growth of armaments, especially naval armaments, by international agreement;" fourth, and "finally, it would be a master stroke if those great powers honestly bent on peace would form a league of peace, not only to keep the peace, among themselves, but to prevent, by force if necessary, its being broken by others." The weakness of the work done by The Hague arose, in his opinion, "from the lack of an executive power, of any police power, to enforce the decrees of the court." We are denied the advice and counsel of this great statesman, as far as the concrete proposal is concerned for the enforcement of peace emanating from the conference now in session at Paris, but we may reasonably believe that had he lived he would have been an earnest advocate of the league, and would have given to the proposal that constructive and friendly criticism necessary for its successful establishment and the accomplishment of its great aims. There are but few dissenting voices in the great chorus of hope and prayers for the success of the present serious and determined effort on the part of civilized nations, to interpose obstacles in the path of those who believe that war is necessary or desirable and to offer an escape to those nations that look upon war as necessary only because no means has yet been provided for peaceful solution of international difficulties consistent with honor and a maintenance of international rights. , , The proposed league will manifest its principal activities through the following agencies: composed of the representatives of nine 1. An executive council, nations. , , , „ composed of representatives from all na- 2. An assembly of delegates tions belonging to the league. 710 IMPROVEMENT ERA 3. A judicial tribunal for the adjudication of legal questions. 4. An expert military and naval commission to advise on a program of limitation of armaments and to watch and secure the observance of such program, when agreed to by the nations, and to advise the military assistance necessary to be contributed by the nations who are members of the league, in case it becomes necessary to vindicate by force the covenants of the league. 5. A permanent secretariat, consisting of a secretary with a force of keep the records of the league and its various adminclerical assistants to and judicial bodies, and with whom all treaties beistrative, consultative, tween the nations who are members of the league must be registered and published before they become binding. 6. A mandate commission which will investigate and inspect and report to the league the conduct of the nations to whom are entrusted the responsibility and obligation of supervising and assisting backward nations, liberated by the great war, principally German colonies and submerged peoples heretofore under Turkish dominion. 7. A labor bureau which shall investigate the conditions of labor throughout the world and shall propose measures for the improvement of the condition of those who toil. The executive council is one of the most important, if not the most important, of all of the agencies of the league. The great nations who have won the war, the United States of America, the British Empire, France, Italy and Japan, will each have permanent representatives on this council, and a minority representation of four will be selected by the assembly of delegates from among the other nations that belong to the league. The executive council must meet at least once a year. The first meeting of the council as well as the first meeting of the assembly, is to be called by the President of the United States. Matters within the jurisdiction of the executive council may be referred to the assembly in case the executive council desires the advice and the benefit of the more general discussion and consideration possible in the larger assembly, and in case of disputes properly coming before the executive council for investigation, parties to the dispute may, within a limited time, elect to transfer the matter to the assembly for its determination. The great benefit that will arise from the League of Nations will flow, it is anticipated, largely out of the fact that it will be possible for the nations to regularly and periodically come together for the discussion of the matters which concern world peace and welfare. One of the difficulties with The Hague has been that while great good has arisen from its conferences, the meetings were not fixed for definite time and our minister to the Netherlands, Dr. Henry Van Dyke, to whom was entrusted the duty of initiating a movement for another meeting at The Hague, found his efforts frustrated and blocked by Germany and the nations who sympathized and worked with her. It is said by experienced statesmen, that if Sir Edward Gray, British secretary of state for foreign affairs, in his efforts to find a peaceful