--- 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: 30 number: 1 published: 1926-11 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* 30, no. 1 (November 1926): 87–90." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3001unse 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: improvementera3001unse start_page: 87 end_page: 90 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1926-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3001unse publication_year: 1926 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 1926, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Passing Events The Catholic petition for repeal of the church laws in> Mexico was- re- jected by the Mexican chamber of deputies, Sept. 24, by a vote of 171 to 1. French war veterans informed Poincare, on Oct. 10, that France cannot pay the United States seven billion francs. Poincare replied that France would not undertake to pay beyond her capacity. Enforcement of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, and of the Volstead Law is the program of the Republican party in the state of New York, according to the platform adopted, Sept. 27, 1926. Participation of the "wet and dry" referendum by the voters is also urged. An international disarmament conference, to convene before next Sep- tember, was agreed on, Sept. 24, 1926, by the unanimous vote of the As- sembly of the League of Nations at Geneva. Our government is said to object to the presence at such a conference of representatives of countries that have no navies. The Rt.-Rev. John Joseph Mitty of New York was installed fs bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Salt Lake City, by Patrick Cardinal Hayes, archbishop of New York, at the Madeleine Cathedral, Oct. 7, 1926. Among the distinguished attendants present were the governor of the State, the mayor of the City and representative business men. , Wm. H. fit/water, former fire chief of Salt Lake City, died in a Salt Lake City hospital, Oct. 6, after a long illness. He was born in Shef- field, England, June 27, 185 9, and came to Utah while still a young man. In Jan., 1920, he was appointed chief of the fire department by Mayor Bock and was re-appointed by Mayor Neslen in 1921. He resigned June 30, 1925, and was succeeded by his assistant, Walter S. Knight. A rather heavy fall in the temperature in Utah and all over the North- west was reported on the 24th of Sept., 1926. At the Salt Lake weather station, the thermometer registered 35 above at 8 o'clock, a. m., at Brighton and in the City Creek it was 24 above. Snow and frost were reported from Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, and southern Canada. Spokane, on Sept. 23, had the earliest snow since 1903 and a fall of the mercury to 31 above zero. An unusual display of" Aurora Borealis was witnessed in Salt Lake City, Oct. 15, about 7 p. m. As many as six shafts of light shot up out of the north and illuminated the sky. A violent magnetic storm swept over the northeastern parts of the United States and Canada, and the "northern lights" were so strong that the operation of telegraph and cable wires was interfered with by the earth currents. From San Francisco and Kansas City also came reports of magnetic earth currents strong enough to interfere with the wire service. Italy and Great Britain Were represented in a private conference, Sept. 30, 1926, on board an Italian yacht, near Leghorn, where Austen Cham- berlain, British foreign secretary, was the guest of Mussolini, the Italian dictator. What the subject of the conference was is not known, but it is surmised that the meeting was intended to counterbalance the meeting at Thoiry between Stresemann and Briand, shortly after Germany had been admitted to the League of Nations. But it is not apparent that the latter conference called for a "counterbalance." It was a very natural expression 88 , IMPROVEMENT ERA of good will between two former adversaries, and a beginning of a new, peaceful policy. The Anglo-Italian confab had no such significance. Relics of the ill-fated Sir John Franklin expedition, which perished in the Arctic regions in 1847, were brought to Edmonton, Alta., Oct. 15, 1926, by J. F. Moran, a Canadian government inspector. The articles included a skull and a bit of navy cloth, a piece of oak from 'an ice sled and a bit of shoe leather. The relics were found by Peter Norberg, a trader, at Thunder Cove, Adelaide peninsula, 1,300 miles northeast of Edmonton, and will be taken to Ottawa. Sir* John set out in 1845, in the Erebus and Terror, with 129 officers and men, to explore the Arctic ocean. They all perished on or near King William's land. Many bodies were found by Lieutenant Schwatka in 1879-80. His eminence Patrick Cardinal Hayes dedicated a new church at thej Dolores mission, Oct. 10, 1926, as part of the Catholic celebration of the San Francisco sesqui-centenniai anniversary of the foundation of the city and the 434th anniversary of the discovery of America by Columbus. The prelate, in his sermon said, in part, that Mussolini had "appreciated the value of religion" and that his attitude was "symptomatic of an approachment between the forces that have been hostile since the days of Garibaldi." In other words, in the estimation of Cardinal Hayes, Mussolini, the political despot, appreciates the value of an alliance with the pope, the ecclesiastical autocrat. Richard Franklin Pettigrew, former U. S. senator from South Dakota, died Oct. 5, 1926, at Sioux Falls, S. D., 78 years old. He was born at Ludlow, Vt., July 23, 1848, and came to Sioux Falls, in 1869, when that place still was in the tent and log cabin stage. He soon became one of the political leaders, and, in 1896, he became a figure of national note when he walked out of the Republican national convention upon its adoption of a platform ignoring his belief in the free coinage of silver. He supported Bryan in that election and thereafter joined in the support of independent party movements. He was the first senator from South Dakota on that state's admission to the Union in 1889, having previously served as a delegate to congress from Dakota territory. The giant biplane S-35 was a total loss, Sept. 21, when an attempt was made to hop off for a non-stop flight between New York and Paris. The plane, carrying a record weight of 28,000 pounds, was unable to rise, but instead crashed over an embankment on the Roosevelt field. It caught fire almost instantly. Charles W. Clavier, radio operator, and Jacob Islamoff, mechanic, perished in the flames, but Captain Rene Fonck, com- mander, and Lieutenant Lawrence Wm. Curtin, U. S. N. navigator, suc- ceeded in saving themselves. A crowd of more than 1,000 that had cheered the fliers two minutes before stood helplessly by, awe-struck, unable even to attempt a rescue of the two trapped men, while the 2,300 gallons of gasoline in the plane burned with the intensity of an inferno. Sheep for Russia. No less than 700 sheep were shipped from Mt. Pleas- ant, Sanpete Co., Utah, to Russia, according to a dispatch dated Sept. 16. They were the finest Rambouillet sheep, and will be used to improve the stock. The purchases here included 265 head from John H. Seely & Sons Company, 200 head from W. D. Candland ft Sons and 225 ewes and fifty- four rams from John K. Madsen. The members of the commission, who visited the Mt. Pleasant flock-masters and personally selected their purchases, were Michel S. Pereferkovitch, Jacob W. Slodtervitch, Stephen Obinzow and J. W. Pincus of the Amtorg Trading Company of New York, fiscal agent for the commission. This is the second shipment of Mt. Pleasant's world- PASSING EVENTS 89 famed Rambouillets to be shipped to Russia, the Russian government having made its initial purchase here in 1925. Mrs. Annie Brown Adams, the last surviving member of the family of John Brown, the hero of the tragedy of Harper's Ferry, passed away, Oct. 4, 1926, at Eureka, Cal., at the ranch home of her daughter. She recently had a fall in which she fractured her hip, and this accident, it is thought, hastened her death. However, she was 87 years of age. In 185 9 she wit- nessed the hanging of her father at Harper's Ferry, Va., for his part in a revolutionary movement by abolitionists. She was then 20 years old. Throughout her life Mrs. Adams was reticent regarding her spectacular, tragic girlhood, when talking to immediate members of her family. She talked more freely of the Harper's Ferry raid and her father's execution with intimate friends. The growing weakness which marked her last days clouded her memory and erased from it Harper's Ferry and all that it meant to her. Calvin Willard Richards passed away, Oct. 3, 1926, at a Salt Lake hospital, after several months' illness. He was the son of Dr. Willard Richards and Rhoda Foss Richards, and was born in Salt Lake City, Oct. 7, 1852. His father, :who was the first editor of The Deseret News, died when Calvin was a babe and soon after his mother moved to Farmington, where he grew to manhood, becoming her chief support. He married Emma Irene Walker in December, 1872. He superintended the building of the Davis county courthouse in 1878 and the same year homesteaded land east of Fielding and was a pioneer in bringing Bear river water on the land there. He took con- tracts in 1880 on the Santa Fe railroad construction in Arizona. All this time he retained his home at Farmington, moving to Fielding in 1893. His wife died the same year leaving him with nine children. He married Martha Louise Madsen of Brigham City, in 1900 and in 1902-4 filled a mission to England. Surviving are his widow and 11 children, 39 grandchildren and 1 1 great-grandchildren also a number of brothers and sisters. Joseph Richards, 14 -year-old son of Stephen L. Richards, died, Sep't. 30, 1926, at his home, as a result of injuries sustained when struck by a street car the preceding evening. It seems that the boy was walking down the track with his hat down and his head bent forward, to protect his eyes in the heavy storm, and that the motorman did not see him until it was too late to prevent the collision. The accident happened at 2890 Highland drive. According to the motorman, the car, which was southbound, was stopped in about three car lengths after he had hit the boy. He said that he could not stop sooner because of the slippery condition of the track, due to wet leaves and the rain. The motorman also said that, even though he had a headlight on the street car, the headlights of approaching automobiles limited his vision to only about ten feet in front of him, from which statement it would appear that the glaring headlights, which so many automobiles carry in de- fiance of the regulations, are a menace to the public. The ipolice report stated that a dent was found in the street car fender and the glass 90 IMPROVEMENT ERA berger had devoted his time and energies toward the operation of the Bam- berger Electric railroad, of which he was chairman of the board of directors, and toward the building of a railroad to connect Salt Lake City with the Uintah basin. Until within the past year he occupied the position of president of the Salt Lake & Denver Railroad Company, which proposes to construct the Uintah basin line. The Golden Wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph H. Dean, of Shelley, Idaho, was celebrated in a most fitting style on Monday, Oct. 1 1, 1926, in the Shel- ley First ward chapel. The entire ward was invited, and many guests from the surrounding wards. A splendid program, giving a review of the activities of the couple for the last fifty years, was given. Delicious refreshments were served. Joseph H. Dean was born Oct. 16, 1855, in Tamiton, England, and came to Utah as a child. Sarah Arnold Dean was born at Fort Harriman, Utah, on Dec. 13, 1854. They were married in Salt Lake City, Oct. 11, 1876. Brother Dean and his wife filled a four-years' mission to Hawaii; he also filled two other missions: one to Samoa, in 1887; and another to Hawaii, in 1916. He opened the Samoan mission in 1888; accompanied by his wife, Florence Ridges Dean. He has spent ten years of his life in the missionary field. He has twenty-two children, each of his wives having had eleven. He has forty-seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild. As a musician, he is well known in the Church, being a composer of music as well as a director. Several splendid songs are sung to his credit. He has also given us many beautiful poems, published from time to time in the Church magazines. — Cora Christensen, Shelley, Idaho. When And Where The Gospel Has Been Preached We are indebted to Assistant Church Historian Andrew Jenson for the following dates showing the introduction of the gospel to the nations named: 1830 — United States. 1850 — Denmark. 1853 — South Africa. 1833 — Canada. 1850 — Hawaii. , 1853 — Germany. 183 7 — England. 1851 — Switzerland. 1854 — New Zealand. 1839 — Scotland. 1851 — Norway. 1861 — Holland. 1840 — Wales. 1851 — Iceland. 1864 — Austria. 1840 — Australia. 1851 — India. 18 78 — Mexico. 1841 — Palestine. 1852 — Malta. 1875 — Finland. 1843 — Society Islands 1852 — Siam. 1884— Turkey. 1847 — Jersey Islands. 1852— China. 1888 — Samoa. 1849 — France. 1852 — South America (Chili) 1888 — Balkan States. 1850 — Sweden. 1853 — Gibraltar. 1889 — Belgium. 1850 — Italy. 1853— West Indies. 1891 — Tonga. 1901 — Japan. The Era Over the Top As we go to press with this number, a telegram from Provo states that six of the leading wards of Utah stake have finished canvassing and obtained the full quota of Era subscriptions.