--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Cornia, E. Virgil collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 24 number: 9 published: 1921-07 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Cornia, E. Virgil, "Culture," *Improvement Era* 24, no. 9 (July 1921): 810.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2409unse 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: improvementera2409unse start_page: 810 end_page: 810 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1921-07) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2409unse 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. --- # Culture 810 IMPROVEMENT ERA Our tobaco bill for tbe year was far in excess of $2,000,000,- 000, according to figures given out at Washington, D. C. With — the accessories of the tobacco business fire losses, salaries of salesmen, pipes, holders, boxes, spittoons, loss of wages for la- — bor due to tobacco illness, etc. the expenditure would easily reach $3,000,000,000. Allowing $3,000 to each home, our tobacco money would build these one million homes, in just one year. It is an outrage upon American common sense that it is not done. Every boy and girl beneath the Stars and Stripes has a right to vigorously protest against such conditions, if not for themselves, then for the sake of the boys and girls who live in crowded and often unsanitary quarters. This latter situation is given by experts as one of the reasons for the deplorable vice conditions prevailing in many of our cities. Common sense should say: "Cut out tobacco and build homes." Again, are we doing the youth of our land an injustice in spending only $1,000,000,000 a year to maintain our free public schools, while three billion goes for the enemy of the body, mind and soul? The mental development of our boys and girls has been halted in many cities because of a lack of funds to pay teachers. When a great nation spends three times as much to tear down its boyhood and girlhood, its manhood and woman- hood, as it does to develop the mind, the body and the soul of its citizens, it is time to call a halt. Greater nations than ours have gone down in ruin. It is time that Americans should see things straight. Oakland, Calif. Culture Oh what a great man is he who is a cultured man. He is one who can adapt himself to, or fit into, the different environments with which he comes in contact. He is one who is constantly making beautiful the simple things of life; that is, he can appreciate the importance of the common and simple things of life, as well as the cultured ones. He seeks the importance of the small and seemingly insignificant things, as they relate to the machinery of life. A cultured man can see high art in a modest portrayal of the common things of life, as well as in the portrayal of the uncommon, or brilliant things. In every-day life he is constantly noticing the importance that one part of the machinery of life has to all other parts. That is, if there were no bees there would be no flowers, if there were no flowers, there would be no air purifiers, and if there were no pure air there would be no life. Hence the unity and importance of all God's creation, whether great or small. r «y> Ida - • E. Virgil Cornia