--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Unknown collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 27 number: 10 published: 1924-08 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Unknown, “A Latter-day Saints Idea of Success,” *Improvement Era 27, no. 10 (August 1924)*: 991–992." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera27010unse 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: improvementera27010unse start_page: 991 end_page: 992 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1924-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera27010unse publication_year: 1924 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 1924, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # A Latter-day Saints Idea of Success A LATTER-DAY SAINTS IDEA OF SUCCESS 99 1 Love is a very high regard and deep, sympathetic appreciation of things or attributes of very fine quality. Joy is a sublime, conscious, realization of spiritual harmony, com- panionship, peace and good will; the vibrant thrill of soul comfort; the divine delight of greater vision, greater power, stronger attraction and wider association. He who catches the real idea and follows the great eternal scheme of things, along any line of activity, and rises above the average, who under- stands how to bestow his favors in such a way that the multitudes are willing and anxious to pay him for them, in the fashion and kind for which a* longs, is, has been, and will be, successful in life. Blackfoot, Idaho, R. D. No. 1 COMMUNISM IN AMERICA By Carl Pingree Tanner In view of the fact that we look forward to the time in our Church when those who have been able to live the so-called lesser law of tithing, will be entitled to graduation, and called to live a higher law or the United Order, it might be interesting to note the temporary success, and later failure of communities that have experimented with the idea of the United Order under the leadership of those who have been inspired with the idea of social reform, but lacked divine re- velation, and the power of the Priesthood to assist them in their efforts. It may be interesting to know that no less than 150 communities or Brotherhoods, having a semblance of the United Order, have ex- isted in America. In some instances they have had their birth-place in Europe, and a number of the founders of these communities were born in the Old World. Most of them sprang into existence be- tween the years 1840, and 1850, about the time of the martydom of the prophets Joseph and Hyrum. Of the thirty different colonies originating at this time as a result of the agitation for social reform by Charles Fourier, who hailed from France, fifteen of them were Itarted in the year 1844, the year of the martyrdom. Most of them were short lived, however. One of the communities which endured the longest was located at Brook Farm. The poet Nathaniel Haw- thorne was for a short time one of its members and in describing the ideals of the community in part, has this to say: "We sought our piofit by mutual aid instead of wrestling it by the strong hand from the enemy, or filtching it craftily from those less shrewd than our- selves, or winning it by selfish-competition with a neighbor. And as a basis of our institution we proposed to offer up the honest toil of our bodies, as a prayer no less than an effort for the advancement of our race." The great writer, Horace Greely saw the advantages of community life, and was an ardent supporter of the colonies founded under Fourier, both with his pen and means, and when one colony was 992 IMPROVEMENT ERA about to break up and disband because of a great loss sustained by fire, he offered them a loan of $12,000 to help re-instate them. Probably of all those who lived in the community life, not for- getting the Shakers and the Icarians, the followers of Jacob Hutter have had the most prolific growth. He was a martyr to his cause being burned at the stake in Innsbruck, Germany, in the year 1836, for heresy, but the ideals he strove for did not perish at his death. His followers lived for many years, in Germany, then southern Russia, from whence they came to South Dakota, in 1874, and from there they have branched out, a number of colonies coming to Alberta to avoid con- scription during the last war in 1918, and located among the "Mor- mon" settlements. They are a good, honest, moral, people, having deep religious convictions, owning nothing individually, but all co-oper- atively. They do not describe their chattels and property as mine and thine, but "ours." The writer visited one of their colonies during the fall of 1922, with the late Nephi Anderson, and others. Brother Anderson was much impressed with their mode of living, etc., and had he not been called to the other side so suddenly afterwards, his impressions con- cerning them would have found expression no doubt in some of the beautiful stories that often came from his gifted pen. As the great "reformers," will be duly rewarded for clearing the pathway for the introduction of the gospel in this the last and greatest gospel dispensation, so will those characters receive their re- ward for fostering ideals which will yet be practiced by those belong- ing to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and being accompanied by Divine authority, and power of the Priesthood, will further perpetuate the brotherhood of man, and fatherhood of God, and bring about that state of peace and blessedness, that ancient seers have looked forward to, and poets, have written about. "They had all things in common among them; therefore they were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift." (IV Nephi 1-3.) Magrath, Canada Japan Mission Closed The Japan mission was closed temporarily, according to an announce- ment published June 12, by order of the First Presidency. Elder Hilton A. Robertson was authorized to release the elders in the mission. The mission was opened in 1901, when President Heber J. Grant, then a member of the council of apostles, and Elders Louis A. Kelsh, Horace S. Ensign and Alma O. Taylor arrived in the country. President Grant returned on September 27, 1903 having been honorably released. He was succeeded by Horace S. Ensign. The following elders have presided there: Alma O. Taylor, July 8, 1905 to Jan. 1, 1910; Elbert D. Thomas, 1910 to Oct. 25, 1912; Heber Grant Ivins, 1912 to Feb., 1915; Joseph Henry Stimpson, 1915 to March 1921; Lloyd O. Ivie, 1921 to July 28, 1823, and Hilton A. Robertson since that date to the close of the mission.