Regulate Amusements from a General Committee

Regulate Amusements from a General Committee*

By Joseph S. Peery

Chesterfield said, "The boy falls in pursuit of pleasure when not properly directed." It is my duty and your duty to look after the play of our children. However, what is everybody's business is nobody's business. An urgent need is uniformity in the regulation of our Church amusements. The leaders of the people have been wise in build- ing amusement halls, the young people will have amusements, and if they are not provided with one kind of amusement they will take another. What is now needed, in my opinion, is a General Church Board of Amusements, consisting of experts who will meet weekly and discuss these vital problems affecting the young people. Then they should organize Stake and Ward Amusement Committees, and all work together on the same general plan. Uniformity is badly needed. One ward may regulate its dances properly, but the next ward may have slack, or no, supervision. The problem is most difficult, but must be met. Delays are dangerous. The more we postpone it, the more difficult it will become. It is the biggest question confronting us. The young people are creatures of circumstances. They do what they see others do. If carelessly I sit by and go to sleep while my neighbor's grown children are falling into the pit, what assurance have I that my children, when grown, will not fall into this same pit? We organize in other things and work together to carry out instructions emanating from a head. Why not in amusements? That is the most vital thing affecting the young people, because it is what they are doing.

Lucifer's brightest forces are organized and arrayed against the youth of Zion, striking them in their amusements. Is it not high time that the Lord's forces awake to the real issues, organize and work under a central head, for the protection and direction of our young people in their pleasures?

*Attention is called to the fact that such a general committee already exists, and that strenuous efforts have been made to organize in each stake and ward like committees to take charge of all amusements and recreations. The general committee is composed of representative men and women from the General Boards of the Auxiliary organizations, and the stake and ward committees are composed of men and women, the most skilful to be found, and appointed by presidents of stakes and bishops of wards to take charge of all public social activities and recreations. How is the plan working in your stake? See Era, Vol. 20, April, 1917, pp. 548-554, for plan of organization. Editors.

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