--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - William Halls collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 24 number: 3 published: 1921-01 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'William Halls, "Wasted Material and Misspent Energy," *Improvement Era* 24, no. 3 (January 1921): 255–256.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2403unse 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: improvementera2403unse start_page: 255 end_page: 256 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1921-01) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2403unse publication_year: 1921 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 1921, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Wasted Material and Misspent Energy Wasted Material and Misspent Energy By William Halls There are two cities a few miles apart and one railroad could handle all the traffic between them. But they use two. If there are fifty passengers, instead of taking them on one train, on one road, they use two trains and two roads. If there are six cars, they use two trains and two roads to haul them. In a small town they have three newspapers where one could meet all essentials. In a rural district where one grist-mill could do all the grinding in eight months and stand still four months, they have two mills, which do the grinding in four months and stand still eight months in the year. In a small farming district where one threshing machine could do all the threshing in two months and stand still ten months, they have two which do the threshing in one month and stand still eleven months in the year. If a farmer, having one chopping machine, run by one engine and one engineer which could chop all the feed for his cattle, should get another chopper, another engine, and another engineer, and keep both outfits running all the time to do what one could do, we would call him crazy. Yet that which applies to an individual is true of a community. All the material used in building and equipping a needless competitive railroad is wasted. And all the labor in its construction and operation is misspent energy. The effect is a decrease in the production of essentials and an increase in the cost of all commodities and labor, making it harder for the individuals of the community to build their homes, improve their environments, and make a living. That which applies to railroads is true of all other activities. "Competition is the life of trade" and the death of common sense. It places an additional burden on those it pretends to relieve. All argument for competition is pure sophistry. In a town they have two hundred church members. One church, one parsonage, and one minister could accommodate these two hundred members; but they have four churches, four parsonages, and four ministers, which means three hundred per cent misspent energy. In our school system we have a university in a city, or a large town, to which students come, to have their mental powers developed. This is the main work of the institution then to con- ; serve their health and develop their physical powers, a gymnasium is built and the students engage in athletics. While these 256 IMPROVEMENT ERA exercises develop the muscular powers, they are non-productive. A university should not be located in a city, but in a rural district where there is plenty of land, where the students could spend part of their time in study and part in productive labor. There they could raise all the grains, fruits, and vegetables they need and some to sell ; keep cows to give all the milk, cream, but- ter and cheese they need and some to sell; keep cattle and hogs, to furnish all their meat and some to sell; some could learn trades and make all they need of some things and some to sell; and those things they could neither raise nor make themselves, they could buy with their surplus products, and, instead of pupils depending on their parents, they could pay their own way. Their labor need not retard their studies. Four hours ef- ficient work each day would sustain a pupil, and four hours hard study each day is enough. Take one and a half hours for meals and the rest of the time for leisure, recreation, and amusement. Then when a young man graduates he could earn a living, build a home, marry, and rear a family, and, instead of being a burden to his parents, he could assist them, if necessary, in their declining years. There is also a great waste of material in building battleships, fortifications, barracks, and munition manufactories, and making implements of war and ammunition, and there is much misspent energy in preparation and in battle. If all the wasted material, misspent energy, and military activities, could be used for constructive and productive purposes, it might be well, but until men repent and turn to the Lord, such cannot be. The Lord told Enoch that his second coming would be in a day of "wickedness and vengeance." When we think of conditions in Russia, Mexico, and other nations, and in the world at large, we are impressed with the conviction that this is really a time of "wickedness and vengeance," and that the coming of the Lord is near. Let the Saints gather from Babylon and stand in holy places, while the wicked slay the wicked till the "sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings," and "the law go forth from Zion," and say to exhausted, starving nations: "Beat your swords into plowshares, your spears into pruning hooks," "and learn war no more;" then shall the hearts of the "widow and fatherless be comforted." "A man shall sit under his vine and fig tree, and eat the fruit of his vineyard, and none make him afraid;" "the heralds of light will go forth under the banner of the King, Immanuel, and the knowledge of God cover the earth as the waters cover the seas." The banner of freedom wide unfurled, shall then wave triumphant o'er the world. Mancos, Colorado