--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 25 number: 7 published: 1922-05 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Passing Events," *Improvement Era* 25, no. 7 (May 1922): 662–667.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2507unse 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: improvementera2507unse start_page: 662 end_page: 667 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1922-05) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2507unse publication_year: 1922 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 1922, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Passing Events Ogden's population, according to R. L. Polk & Co., was reported on March 19 to be 39,350. A Live-stock exhibition — the fifth annual inter mountain — opened at North Salt Lake, April 3. The weather was ideal. Lucius P. Judd died suddenly, March 20, of heart-failure. For eighteen years he has been clerk of the Salt Lake City board of education. Tse-ne-Gat, a Piute Indian, who in 1912 precipitated an Indian up- rising was reported dead, April 8, in Allen canyon, near Bluff, of tuber- culosis. Ex-emperor of Austria-Hungary Charles I, died at Funchal, Madeira, April 7, of pneumonia. The widowed queen is said to be about to be- come a mother. The naval agreement of the international arms conference was ratified by the U. S. Senate, March 29, against one vote, that of Senator France, Rep., Maryland. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, famous English author and believer in spirit- ism, arrived in New York, April 9. His intention is to make a "raid** on American skepticism. German ambassador to the United States was appointed March 21. Dr. Otto Ludwig Wiedfeldt will take the place of Count von Bernsdorff, who left Washington in 1917. Valera launched a new Irish organization, March 15, to be called the Cumann Na Poblachta, or Republican Association. He asked for financial support for it, as well as moral. Pioneer Stake celebrated the 18th anniversary of its organization, May 24, with a largely attended social party in Deseret Gymnasium. There were about 3,000 persons present. Copper mining was resumed April 1, in the Utah, Ray, Chino and Nevada Consolidated mines. Production will gradually increase to fifty per cent of capacity, it was stated. A nation-wide strike in the coal industry of the United States began April 1. The strike leaders expect that 500,000 union and 100,000 non- union men will lay down their tools. An anti^Ku-klux Klan organization was formed at Healdton, Okla., March 15, under the name of "Knights of the Visible Empire," John Hyde, one of the organizers, is a local attorney. The bonus bill was passed, March 23, by the U. S. House of Repre- sentatives. It went to the Senate from the House. The bill appropriates four billion dollars for the benefit of the ex-soldiers. The "Siamese Twins?' died in Chicago, March 29. Josefa's death oc- curred first and a few seconds later Rosa passed away. Rosa leaves an eleven-year old son. Her husband, a German, fell in the war, 1917. The Pacific Four-power pact was approved by the Senate, March 24, PASSING EVENTS 663 by a vote of 67 to 27. Twelve Democrats voted for it and four Republicans against. The vote showed just three more than the necessary two-thirds. The death of Howard O. Young, a son of Elder Brigham Young, Jr., at Visalia, Cal., was reported March 20. He moved to the coast about a year ago, owing to poor health. He was 62 years old at the time of his death. Wm. Henry Korns, Salt Lake City, died at his home, March 29. He was a member of the first city commission, when Salt Lake adopted the commission form of government in 1912. He was born in Peoria, 111., April 7, 1862. The Grant family genealogical association was organized April 8, with Jedediah M. Grant as president; B. F. Grant vice-president, and Dr. Joseph F. Grant, Jr., secretary. President Heber J. Grant was one of the speakers at the meeting. Aaron Y. Ross died, April 3, at his residence in Ogden, at the age of 93 years. He was a veteran messenger of the Wells Fargo & Co. Express. At Montello, Nev., Jan 23, 1883, he saved $80,000 in gold bullion in a fight with five bandits. General Erick Von Falkenhayn died April 8, at Wild Park, near Pots- dam. He was war minister in Germany in 1913, and chief of the general staff at the outbreak of the war, in which position he was succeeded by the famous von Hindenburg, in 1916. C. S. Varian died at his home in Salt Lake City, March 25, at the age of 76 years, as a result of an attack of acute bronchitis. He was at one time an active politician and lawyer, and took a prominent part in the anti-"Mormon" crusade thirty or forty years ago. Egypt was declared to be a free state, independent and sovereign, by a government rescript issued March 16, at Cairo. This ends the British pro- tectorate which was established in 1914. The sultan, Ahmed Fuad, becomes king of Egypt, on the throne of the ancient pharaohs. The bodies of 1060 soldiers arrived in New York from France, March 29, in the transport Cambrai. This makes 45,000 bodies in all that have been returned to be laid to rest in the soil of the country for which they died. There are about one hundred more awaiting shipment. Funeral services for John Cooper, Fillmore, were held March 17. He was born in Loughborough, England, May 27, 1834. He came to Salt Lake in 1857, having spent the winter 1856-7 at Devil's Gate, with others, as guard over goods cached there by emigrants. He filled many positions of trust in the Church and filled two missions in his native land. Mrs. Mahala Gam Smoot, died at her home, Salt Lake City, April 3. She was born Feb. 3, 1839, in Sandusky County, Ohio, and came to Utah in Milo Andrus' company Oct. 12, 1855. After the death of her first hus- band, she was married to the late Wm. C. A. Smoot, a pioneer of 1847. The United States' demand for reimbursement for expenses in con- nection with the occupation of the Rhineland was presented to the allied finance ministers, March 10. The sum wanted is $241,000,000. The min- isters decided that the case was one to be settled through diplomatic chan- nels. A tunnel under the Hudson, to connect New York and New Jersey and to cost about $28,000,000 was begun March 31, when Chief Engineer Clif- ford M. Holland drove his pick into the earth at Canal and West streets, New York. The tunnel will be 9,250 feet long and is to be completed in 1925. 664 IMPROVEMENT ERA Mexican river guards killed an American soldier, Corporal Wy W. Whyte, according to a report from El Paso, Tex., April 5. It is said he tried to cross the river on horseback when shot. Corporal Whyte was a Salt Lake boy. He leaves a widow and a six-months old son in this city. He was only 22 years old. Two men were instantly killed March 24 in the school building, corner of Main St., and First East, Mt. Pleasant, San Pete Co., through coming in contact with a heavy voltage current when turning on the lights in the basement. They were, Principal Elmer Johansen, 38 years old, and the janitor, Kruste Torkelsen, 60 years old. David Blackhurst, 81 years of age, a Utah pioneer of 1847, died at his home in Salt Lake City, April 1. When 7 years of age, he left his home in Preston, England, and came to Utah. The trip across the plains was made by ox team, in the company of John Taylor. Mr. Blackhurst was a high priest in the Granite stake of the Church. He is survived by four sons, fifteen grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Miss Alice L. Reynolds was honored on her birthday, April 1, when more than 600 women assembled in College Hall, Provo, to congratulate her. Mrs. J. William Knight, in behalf of the women of Utah, presented her with a gold wrist watch, and Miss Helen Candland a basket of roses from the university girls. Women's clubs throughout the state donated more than 500 volumes of books to the Alice Reynolds library. Miss Reynolds is professor of English in the B. Y. University. A new town. — The board of commissioners of Boxelder county at its regular meeting, March 20, granted a petition for the incorporation of Portage as a town. The petition was presented by C. W. Hall and Arthur Gibbs, and was signed by a majority of the resident tax payers of the community. The board appointed the following officers to serve until the next election: William H. Gibbs, president; C. W. Hall, Thomas P. John, R. C. Harris and John F. Conley, Jr., trustees. Bishop Thomas H. Blackburn of the Second ward of Brigham city died March 18, at his home, from a paralytic stroke which he suf- fered early in the morning. He was born in Branstone, Staffordshire, England, June 8, 1856, and came to America as a boy 12 years of age and located in Nephi. In 1874 he moved to Brigham City. He has been one of the leading citizens of that city during all the years of his residence there. Funeral services were held in the Tabernacle, Brigham City, March 22. Mexican bandits blind a colonist, Lucian Mecham, at Conlonia Juarez, Mexico, according to a report published March 29. Mrs. Mecham and her sister, Miss Mary Hardy, were at home with Mr. Mecham, who is an invalid, when two bandits entered and demanded money. He tried to draw a revolver. A fight ensued during which he was beaten almost to death and blinded. The bandits were, later, arrested but the judge set them free for lack of sufficient evidence of their guilt. Senator Reed Smoot was confirmed, by the Senate, April 11, as a member of the allied debt refunding commission, created by congress for the purpose of converting into longrtime securities the debts of the allies to the United States. The indebtedness amounts to eleven billion dollars. At a recent conference of allied finance ministers at Paris, a plan was sug- gested to cancel all the inter-allied war indebtedness and credit the money so canceled to the German reparation account. That plan has found but little support in the United States. Austricts chief is for prohibition. In a message to the American people he declares that the Eighteenth Amendment to the American con- PASSING EVENTS 665 stitution is one of "the greatest and most far-reaching pieces of legisla- tion ever enacted by any nation of the civilized world." The author of the message is Dr. D. M. Hainish, president of the Austrian republic, and the message was addressed to Dr. Clarence T. Wilson, secretary of the board of temperance, prohibition, and public morals, of the Methodist church, and was presented to the board April 2. Mrs. Johanna M. Nixon, for fifty years prominent in Church work in St. George, passed away at Provo, March 13. She was born in Denmark, April 1, 1844, and joined the Church in 1855. The same year she started for America with her parents and her brother and three sisters. The father died and was buried at sea. The mother, brother and one sister died in Iowa, of cholera. Johanna and her sister joined an ox team company and crossed the plains. After she was married, she settled in St. George, with her husband, and remained there till Aug., 1921. Eating microbes instead of taking them into the body by means of inoculation, secures immunity from disease, according to a statement made March 14 by Prof. Roux, director of the Pasteur Institute, Paris. Subjects, after remaining for eighteen hours without food, are given a "breakfast" of six billion dead microbes of the particular disease from which immunity is desired. Two further microbe meals, the first six hours and the second two days later, complete the immunity treatment. Ac- cording to Professor Roux, experiments showed that two of three men thus treated proved immune when inoculated with fever germs. Funeral services over the remains of Joseph A. Rees were held at Spanish Fork, Utah Co., March 24. Mr. Rees was one of the pioneer teachers of that city, and one of the schools is named in his honor. Edu- cators from all over Utah paid tribute at the funeral, which was held in the city pavilion. Bishop George W. LeBaron of Santaquin conducted the services. The speakers were, Dr. George H. Brimhall of Provo, Heber C. Jex, former Senator William N. Williams and J. Lewis of Salt Lake, Supervisor L. John Nuttall of the Nebo school district, Dr. Joseph Hughes and Mrs. Edna Brockbank, the latter representing the women pupils who were trained by Mr. Rees. Thomas Robinson Cutler died suddenly at a hospital in Long Beach, Cal., April 3, of heart failure. He was born in Sheffield, England, June 2, 1844. He was the son of John and Elizabeth Robinson Cutler. He came to Salt Lake in October, 1864, and has made his residence here since that time. Mr. Cutler's activities were centered almost entirely upon com- mercial and financial enterprises, but his success in the sugar industry made him for many years its leader in the west. During his lifetime Mr. Cutler was a director of the Utah State National bank, the Bank of Garland, the Bank of Monroe, the Consolidated Wagon and Machine company, the Continental Life Insurance company, vice-president of the Intermountain Life Insurance company and a director of McCornick & Co., Bankers. Mrs. Mary Evelyn Tuddenham Needham, 48 years of age, wife of A. B. Needham, assistant manager of Z. C. M. I. dry goods department, and daughter of Bishop and Mrs. William J. Tuddenham of the Twenty-first ward, died at a hospital in Salt Lake March 18. Mrs. Needham has been a worker in the Church practically all her life. For years she was president of the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement association of the Twenty-first ward. She was released from that position to fill a mission to the central states from 1906 to 1908. She became the wife of A. B. Needham Septem- ber 14, 1910, and later became president of the Y. L. M. I. A. of Ensign ward, which she held for a number of years. Divorce proceedings are made harder by a decision of the appellate 666 IMPROVEMENT ERA division of the supreme court which, it is said, will prevent New Yorkers, wishing to rid themselves of matrimonial ties, going to Reno, Nev., and other places to obtain legal relief. The decision makes permanent an in- junction granted by Supreme Justice Donnelley last July restraining Archi- bald B. Gwathmey, a New York broker, from prosecuting an action started in Florida to obtain a divorce from Isabella C. Gwathmey. The appellate decision, rendered by unanimous vote, holds the Gwathmey's change of residence was a fraud upon his wife's matrimonial rights, as they were married in New York and had their legal residence there. Farming land north of the lake. A field investigation of survey con- ditions at the northern extremity of the Great Salt Lake has been in prog- ress, according to the land service bulletin, issued by the United States general land office, copies of which were received in Salt Lake March 28. The preliminary examination shows that there are approximately 20,000 acres of unsurveyed land between the old meander line of the Great Salt Lake and the present shore line in fractional township 8 north, ranges 2, 3 and 4 west. The examination further shows that since the construc- tion of the Ogden-Lucin cutoff across the lake the waters to the north of there, into which the Bear river flows, have become fresh. These un- surveyed lands can be made suitable for agricultural purposes. Dr. George Thomas was formally inaugurated as president of the University of Utah, April 5. His inaugural address which will appear in the Era later, traced the influences and forces that led to the development of the past and present systems of education, and problems that naturally arose. He then sought to apply the lessons to be drawn to the solution of present day problems. About 700 guests were seated at the luncheon after the ceremonies. Among the speakers were three former presidents of the university, Dr. James E. Talmage, Dr. Joseph T. Kingsbury and Dr. John A. Widtsoe. President Franklin S. Harris of the Brigham Young univer- sity, President Walter Ernest Clark of the University of Nevada, President Charles A. Lory of Colorado Agricultural college and President R. M. Kelley of Regis college, Denver, also gave brief and interesting talks. Thomas Nixon Carver, of Harvard, gave the leading address. The international economic conference at Genoa, Italy, opened April 10, with 34 countries represented by 706 delegates. This is the largest international congress of nations ever held, and it is the first occasion after the world war on which representatives of nations, so recently enemies, meet in friendly debate. Among the countries represented outside of Europe were South Africa, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. China, Turkey, and the United States were absent, but Russia, Austria, and Bul- garia were represented. The recently created governments of Esthonia, Letvia, Lithuania, and Ireland wer well represented. The smallest country in the conference is San Marino, a republic in the Italian mountains, about six miles by four in size, and with about 11,000 inhabitants. It had 16 delegates at the conference. Great Britain and her colonies had 308 dele- gates out of a total of 706. Transmutation of metals has been accomplished, according to an an- nouncement in a paper read March 11, at a meeting of the middle western sections of the American Chemical society at Northwestern university. Tungsten, has been definitely and permanently changed into another ele- ment, helium, through treatment in temperatures of below 50,000 and 60,000 degrees, it was declared in a report on experiments conducted by Dr. Gerald L. Wendt and C. E. Irion, working at the University of Chicago. "It means that the alchemists, who tried to turn the baser metals into gold were right on one point — that the nature of metals could be changed," said Dr. Paul N. Leech of the Chicago section of the chemical society, in commenting upon the paper. PASSING EVENTS 667 Secretary of Commerce Herbert C. Hoover arrived in Salt Lake March 26. As chairman of the Colorado River Interstate Compact commission he attended the meetings of that body in which Utah's interests in the river problem were set forth. Utah's position on the question before the Com- mission was stated by Dr. John A. Widtsoe, March 28, thus: "The proposed treaty should recognize as fundamental considerations: "1. That for the purpose of best development the Colorado basin is an economic unit. "2. That no other use should precede the use of water for irrigation, including flood control and domestic needs. "3. That there is ample water in the Colorado river for all econom- ically irrigable lands. "4. That beneficial use, merging into economical use, alone should constitute water rights on the river. jLiHimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiMiiiiiiim in iiiiiiiimiiiiihiiiiiiiiiiiiiii i iiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiMtiiiiimimiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiitmiiiiiuiiiir; Brigham Young University Provo, Utah The Aim of all Education, is the production of men and women of finer quality. Make Your Summer Count for Growth. Summer Session, June 5th to July 14th; and July 17th to August 25th. Send for circular. 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