--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - West, Joseph A. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 26 number: 11 published: 1923-09 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Joseph A. West, "Knowledge Is Power Either for Good or Evil", *Improvement Era* 26, no. 11 (September 1923): 1030–1031.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera26011unse 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: improvementera26011unse start_page: 1030 end_page: 1031 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1923-09) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera26011unse publication_year: 1923 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 1923, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Knowledge Is Power Either for Good or Evil Knowledge is Power Either for Good or Evil By Hon. Joseph A. West Education, and determination to use it rightly, ultimately becomes wonderful power for good, but when the opposite is the case, evil and harm result, commensurate with the effort put forth. I well remember when the subject of free schools was first being agitated in Utah, that Brigham Young vigorously opposed it, much to the surprise of many of his friends and to the joy of his enemies, for they thought it was an evidence of his decadence, and why? Because with that wonderful foresight that God had given him he saw the results that would follow from a nation wide secular education, separated from all re- ligious or spiritual influences. Also his co-religionists, and all other Christian sects would have to pay a double tax for educa- tional purposes, one for the maintenance of the common schools of the country, and another for religious education, if they would prevent the destruction of all spiritual influences upon the lives of the coming generation, during the formative, and far more important period of their lives. After many years of such education we find that instead of it being a panacea for every ill, either of ignorance or evil, it has produced, in many respects, the very opposite result, for a lack of religious teaching has produced some of the worst class of criminals that the world has ever known. Criminals that would wipe out the achievements of the centuries in commercial and industrial life, in civil government and in religion. Modern education, too, separated as it is from all religious influence has turned out an overwhelming number of atheists who publicly declare that there is no life after death, and, therefore, that men are justified in adopting the old corrupting philosophy that brought about destruction of two of the greatest civilizations of the past, those of Greece and Rome, whose motto was, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die." In other words, get the greatest pleasure out of life before the never ending night of death overtakes vou, vividly fulfilling the prediction of the ancient apostle who said that, "In the latter-days men should be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God." They seek to counteract the influence of Christianity KNOWLEDGE IS POWER 1031 and to destroy every evidence of God in the universe, and in the affairs of men. It is difficult to do it, however, for there is something in the human soul, try as one will, that cries out against it, and, at sometime in life, impresses men with the thought that perhaps, after all, there is a God. Where proper religious influences have been brought to bear in the Christian home, and through the churches, countless thousands of the youth of America have been preserved from the dreadful evils above referred to, and many more might have been so preserved if the Bible and its ethical teachings had not been excluded from the public schools, and so many teachings, destructive of the Christian faith, been taught therein. Those who remain true to the Christian ideals will have a tremendous task to counteract the evils already implanted in the hearts of men through the infidel teachings and tendencies of the age, but may we not hope for ultimate triumph? But leading educators and the thinking public are be- ginning to advocate the placing of emphasis on belief in God and the religious training of children: Professor James Bassett Pratt, of the Chair of Philosophy of Williams College, in a recent number of The Yale Review concludes his article with the following words: "I do not feel that our generation — I speak as one of the older ones — have done our full duty to the young people. * * * Let them remember that religion is a pearl of great price; that the spiritual life, though it can never be killed out of the human race, is a tender plant which gives its fairest flowers only after careful culture; that liberty is not the only thing whose price is eternal vigilance" The late session of the South Dakota Legislature "Resolved: That the people of South Dakota be enjoined at once to address themselves to renewed effort to restore the balance between the spiritual and material, that our children be reared up in the principles of fundamental righteousness. That the churches and Sabbath schools be constrained to intensify their work and to extend it to every child within their respective spheres of influence." Former President Woodrow Wilson says in the August number of the Atlantic Monthly: "The sum of the whole matter is this: That our civilization cannot survive materially unless it is redeemed spiritually." In the auxiliary associations of our Church, as well as in the Church schools and seminaries, the youth of our people have unusual opportunities for religious instruction, but parents should not forget that the home is the fundamental place to teach and practice religion — the saving doctrines of our Lord Jesus Christ. Logan, Utah