Passing Events

The Japanese in Siberia are extending their military occupation, accord- ing to a report from Moscow, June 2. Wilson G. Nowers, of Beaver, Utah, died, May 19, at the age of 94. He was the oldest resident of that city. He has lived there since 1856. V. Rolandi Ricci visited Salt Lake City, May 17, and was tendered a banquet by Italians of the City. He is the Italian ambassador to the United States. The Passion Play was presented, May 14, at Oberammargau, Bavaria, for the first time since 1910. Half of the audience is said to have been made up of Americans. An earthquake shock, characterized as severe, was felt at Richfield, Sevier Co., Utah, May 16, at 5:30 a. m. There was considerable excitement, but no damage was reported. A new German ambassador to the United States arrived in Washington, May 16. He is Dr. Otto Wiedfeldt, and he succeeds Count Von Bernstorff, who left in February, 1917. The New Superintendent of the Industrial School, Ogden, is John M. Mills, former superintendent of Ogden City schools. He was appointed May 17, to succeed E. S. Hinckley, resigned. The Nibley Park was formally presented to the City, may 20, by Bishop C. W. Nibley and accepted by Mayor C. Clarence Neslen. Presi- dent Heber J. Grant offered the dedicatory prayer. Mrs. Lillian Russell Moore died June 6, at Pittsburg, after several days' illness, at the age of 60 years. For 30 years she was before the American public as an opera singer and a famous stage beauty. The Bonus bill was presented to the Senate, June 8, by Chairman McCumber of the finance committee. It provides for an expenditure of $3 845,659,481, spread over a period of forty-three years. A Communistic revolution in Sofia was reported from Vienna, May 20. It was said that the king, Boris, and his cabinet had fled from the Bulgarian capital to Varna and that red flags were flying over the abandoned city. Heavy fighting in Ireland was reported from Belfast, June 1. Sir James Craig, the Ulster premier, was said to have asked the British government to open an offensive against the Irish republican troops on the Ulster fron- tier. Clement A. Oborn, of Ogden, died in Tonga, May 11, according to a radio message received, May 16, by President Heber J. Grant. Elder Oborn left for the Tonga Island Nov. 17, 1920. The cause of death was typhoid fever. Ten Grant awards were presented June 1, by President Heber J. Grant to students of the L. D. S. U., at the commencement exercises in the Assembly Hall, Salt Lake City. President Grant also presented diplomas and addressed the graduates. The restoration of an ancient pueblo in Colorado will be attempted this summer under the direction of Dr. J. Walter Fewkes of the Bureau

PASSING EVENTS 855 of Ethnology of the Smithsonian institution, according to a Washington dispatch, May 30. A farewell party at Washington for J. Bryan Barton and family was held May 30 by members of the Washington branch of the Church over which Mr. Barton has presided for the last three years. Senator Reed Smoot was among the speakers. Patriarch John M. Young, died in a hospital in Salt Lake City, May 27, at the age of 65 years. He filled two missions, one to Australia, and one to England. At the time of his death he was a member of the Liberty Stake High Council. A statue of Dr. John R. Park was unveiled, June 5, at the University of Utah, with appropriate ceremonies. The statue is of bronze, designed by Mahonri M. Young, a former student of the University. Prof. Levi Edgar Young presided at the exercises. Fraudulent wartime contracts, if found, will be looked into by a federal grand jury that began investigation at Washington, D. C, May 31, of allegations made, that billions of dollars had been lost by the govern- ment on account of such contracts. The Amundsen expedition for the North Pole left Seattle, Wash., June 3, on the schooner Maud, escorted up Puget Sound by a flotilla of cruisers from the fleets of the Seattle and Queen City yacht clubs. Captain Amund- sen expects to be gone five years. Elder B. S. Young left Salt Lake City, May 23, for the mission head- quarters at Portland, Or., having been appointed to preside over the Northwestern States mission, to succeed Elder Heber C. Iverson, who has been honorably released after faithful and efficient service. Thomas Judd, an early settler of St. George, Utah, passed away there, June 7. He was born in Birkenhead, England, Sept. 1„ 1845. He emigrated in 1863 and located in "Dixie" on his arrival in Utah. He has taken a leading part in the development of that section of the country. Around the world in airplanes is the aim of Major W. T. Blake, and two companions, Captain Norman MacMillan and Lieutenant Colonel L. E. Brome, who started on their flight from Croydon, England, May 24. They hope to complete the journey in three months, spending 300 hours in the air. The Majestic arrived in New York, May 16, on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic. She belongs to the White Star Line and is the largest liner afloat. Her length is 956 feet and she has a displacement of 56,000 tons. She has accomodations for 4100 passengers, and a speed of from 25 to 28 knots. Local Norwegians protest against a ruling of the Norwegian foreign office in Christiania to the effect that "Mormons" are not Christians. The protest was adopted by a meeting, May 17, in the Granite tabernacle on the motion of Consul John M. Hanson, who is not a member of the Church. Cut in wages, amounting to an aggregate of $60,000,000 a year, was ordered by the U. S. Railroad Labor Board, June 6, affecting freight car men, to the extent of 9 cents an hour and railway shop mechanics, 7 cents an hour. The three labor representatives on the board protested against the reduction. The Rapallo treaty contains secret military claims, according to which Russia and Germany agree virtually to support each other, the Russians to furnish soldiers and the Germans to furnish arms and officers. That is

856 IMPROVEMENT ERA the charge made in the British House of Commons May 20, by Mr. Clements Edwards, a member of the parliament. The headquarters of the National Woman's party was dedicated, May 21, with the laying of the cornerstone of its new building, which is to be constructed opposite the capitol of the United States. A crowd of several thousand people, including a number of notable men and women of this and ether nations, took part in the ceremony. A tunnel through the Continental divide will be constructed in the near future. Governor O. H. Shoup, of Colorado, May 12, signed the bill passed by a recent session of the legislature providing for the issue of $6,000,000 bonds, with which to construct a tunnel near the foot of James Peak, eight miles in length. Work will begin next August. Chile and Peru have again joined in an effort to reach an agreement on the Tacna-Arica dispute. Their representatives met in the Pan-American building, Washington, May 15, having accepted the invitation of Secretary Hughes to friendly conference in the American capital. The secretary opened the proceedings with an address of welcome. (See article: "Who shall have the desert?" in June Era, pp. 677-80.) The Silesian dispute was settled, May 15, by a treaty between Poland and Germany, signed at Geneva in the presence of the council of the League of Nations. The agreement, containing 601 articles, was negotiated under the auspices of the league and covers detailed arrangements for disposal of all problems connected with the railways, water, electrical and coal supplies and postal and legal questions, for the next fifteen years. Santo Spfcrito was destroyed by fire, May 18. Santo Spirito was the most ancient and picturesque hospital in Rome, situated on the Tiber river near the Vatican. It was founded by Pope Innocent III in the twelfth century, enlarged by Innocent IV in the thirteenth and rebuilt under Sixtus VI in the fifteenth. Twenty bodies were removed from the ruins. The Irish conference between representatives of the Irish Free State and the British government, to discuss the agreement reached between the political factions in southern Ireland May 20, began in Londan, May 27. While the conference was still deliberating, actual hostilities broke out on the borderline of Ulster between English and Irish republican troops. The English captured the towns of Pettigoe and Bellack. A statue of Pocahontas was unveiled, June 3, at Jamestown, Va., in honor of the famous Indian maiden who saved the first white colony from de- struction by famine. The picturesque feature of the program was the group of little girls, all tracing descent from Pocahontas, who unveiled the monu- ment representing the girlish figure of the protector of Jamestown colony, standing with arms outstretched in welcome to the white settlers. The Egypt was sunk off the coast of Finisterre, May 20, by being rammed by a French cargo steamer, the Seine, in a thick fog. Nearly a hundred passengers perished. The Seine reached Brest the following morn- ing with about thirty survivors from among the passengers of the Egypt and 200 of the crew. According to the captain's statement, fifteen passengers, mostly of British nationality, were missing and about eighty of the crew. Samuel Parkinson died at his residence in Salt Lake City, May 20. Funeral services were held at Franklin, Idaho, May 24. He was born in St. Louis, Mo., Feb. 23, 1853. He removed to Kaysville, Utah, with his parents in 1854 and in 1860 the family settled in Franklin, Idaho. They were among the half-dozen families which comprised the first settlers of th><*

PASSING EVENTS 857 community, which is recognized as the oldest white settlement of the state. The Child Labor Law was declared unconstitutional, May 15, by the supreme court on the ground that it attempts to regulate a state function. The law, enacted in 1919, was intended to regulate the employment of children in any mill, cannery, workshop, factory or manufacturing establish- ment, under the age of 14, or in any mine or quarry under 16 years, by imposing an excise tax of ten per cent upon the net annual profits of those employing such labor. Money for roads in Utah, amounting to $371,776 has been apportioned out of the federal highway fund of $9,500,000, according to advices received by Senator Reed Smoot. The projects approved by the secretary of agri- culture include the Heber-Fruitland project, $50,000; the Sevier* Cove Fort project, $48,000; the Panguitch-Tropic project, $43,000; the Bryce canyon project, $22,200; the Circleville canyon project, $51,000 and the Cedar-Long Valley project, $59,000. The old republicaan parliament of China convened June 2 at Tientsin, for the first time since 1917, and adopted a program for the unification of the country. The presidency will be offered to Li Yuan Hung, the former president, who was deposed July 1, 1917, by the militant party. General ¥u Pie Fu, who recently defeated Chang Tso Lin, is behind the movement. On June 11, it was announced that Li Yuan Hung had accepted the presi- dency and appointed Dr. Vu Fing Tang, former embassador in Washington, prime minister. The economic conference at Genoa adjourned* May 19, after a session lasting since April 10. Its labors will be taken up again at the Hague, June 15. Very little was accomplished at this conference, with the exception of an agreement to abstain from any act of aggression for a period of four months from the conclusion of the work at the Hague. But the magnitude and nature of the obstacles to a return to normal conditions were clearly re- vealed at Genoa, and the delegates to the Hague gathering will have the advantage of the lessons learned during the deliberations in Italy. Victor E. Madsen died, June 3, at Brigham City, after an operation for appendicitis. He was born in Brigham City, March 17, 1879, and has for years been prominent in business and Church activities. At the time of his death he was the editor and manager of the Boxelder News and first counse- lor to President Norman Lee of the Boxelder stake. A tribute to him from Mamie Peters Call, in behalf of the Commercial Club, declares that "Charity and good will was of his life a part. He fought for honor and truth and resisted evil, with a smile on his lips and a song in his soul, and closed in honor a life full of service." Mt. Timpanogos cave was opened to sightseers, May 21. The newly found grotto is under the supervision of the supervisor of the Wasatch national forest, who has made it accessible to the public. From November to early February a crew of workers toiled at the construction of a path that ascends from 1500 to 2000 feet in three miles. Mt. Timpanogos cave is a unique and colorful gem of its kind. The air within remains at the same temperature the year around, of from 50 to 55 degrees. Stalactites and stalagmites of rare and original coloring festoon the interior with such profusion that were it not for the guiding lights and a deep path cut across the floor, all sense of direction would be lost in the bewildering labyrinth. Memorial Day was observed all over the country with appropriate ceremonies. In Salt Lake City a parade more than a mile in length was witnessed by thousands. Among the marchers were Red Cross nurses, soldiers, mothers who had lost sons in the war and many organizations with

858 IMPROVEMENT ERA gaudy uniforms. The weather was ideal, with clear, sunny sky. At Washington the Lincoln memorial by the Potomac was dedicated. Ex- President, now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, William H. Taft, made the presentation of the monument and President Harding accepted it in behalf of the nation. The day was also observed in France where so many Americans were buried during the World War and are now resting until the "resurrection day." An international conference of bankers, representing the United States, England, France, Italy, Belgium and Germany, met at Paris, May 25, to discuss the financial situation in Europe and to agree on the remedies needed. On June 10 they reported to the reparations committee that complete agreement among the allies on reparations, a solvent Germany and settlement once for all of the full reparations debt are essential to the success of such a loan. In view of the fact that these conditions are lacking and because of the objections of France to a revision of the total repara- tions due from Germany, the committee decided to suspend their study of the question, though confident that a substantial loan could be floated if these conditions were fulfilled, and they agreed to hold themselves ready to resume consideration of the question on the unanimous invitation of the reparations commission. The oldest man in the world, if reports are true, is John Krasinski, a Pole, now farming a piece of land in the province of Posen. He is said to he the last survivor of the Napoleonic armies that fought 110 years ago in the battle of Borodina. Aged 22 then, he therefore today counts the venerable number of 132 years. Taken prisoner by the Russians during Napoleon's Moscow retreat — Krasinski settled down in Russia and fought in Crimea. Last year his "young wife" died at the age of 98. Having then learned that the Polish government was making grants of land to veterans, Krasinski bethought himself of his original nationality, and his claim of being a veter- an could not be denied. Another "oldest inhabitant" has been mentioned in the press dispatches recently. Mrs. Ignacia Vasquez, said to be 120 years old, died at Globe, Arizona, May 26. She was born near Hermosillo, Sonora, the capital of the state. She is survived by three sons, the oldest 87 years old. C. M. Christensen, of Salt Lake City, one of the vice-presidents of the No-Tobacco League of Utah, came into prominence in the early part of the present year, when as an officer in the No-Tobacco League of Utah, he swore to sev- eral complaints against local tobac- conists, charging violation of the Anti-Cigarette law. Mr. Christen- sen is not a charter member of the League but he became interested in it a few months after its organ- ization and for a long time has been one of its most active and most fearless workers. He is an able and entertaining speaker and at one time was a bishop of one of the Salt Lake City wards. His home is now in the First ward of this city. — Fred W . Bennett, former president of the League.