What the M. I. A. Means

WHAT THE M. I. A. MEANS Its Early and Present-day Programs Contain Permanent and Practical Value for the Youth of the Revolutionized World* By President Nephi L. Morris, of the Salt Lake Stake In 1875, President Brigham Young, with the foresight and vision of a great prophet and leader, directed several brethren, who are still well known to us, to organize the young men of the Church into one general organization, with separate societies for each local division. He gave as the keynote for the organizations: "The mutual improvement of the youth; establishment of individual testimonies of the truth and magnitude of the great latter-day work; the development of the gifts within them; cultivating a knowledge and an application of the eternal principles of the great Science of Life." And a little later the president added this advice: "Let the consideration of these truths and principles (the foregoing) be the ground work and leading idea of every such association; and, on this foundation of faith in God's great latter-day work, let their members build all true knowledge by which they may be useful in the establishment of his kingdom." After the lapse of a little more than half a century, it is interesting to survey the world of today and see if the program projected by President Young has any value in it for our times. Surely this is a very different world from that in which the M. I. A. had its beginning. In the last fifty years the world has been revolutionized, socially, politically, economically and religiously. The test of the prophet's inspiration may be found in our conclusions. Should the M. I. A. be buried with the old world in which it had its inception, or shall it be retained as a thing of permanent vitality and of practical value in this new and very greatly changed world in which we are living? I have selected half a dozen or more modern problems which are peculiar to our times. The first of these I shall designate as unhallowed marriages, or marriages of expediency. The New York League of Women Voters recently reported 345,000 girls who were married and mothers at the tender age of fifteen. Their husbands range from sixteen to fifty-two. The caus<>c of these untimely mariages were to evade education and to earn a living. It is the purpose of the league to raise the lawful age of marriage from fourteen to sixteen in New York state. My second problem is that of divorce. The press dispatches of the 23rd of March advised that there had been such a stampede for *This practical speech was given at a special meeting in the Bishops Building. Salt Lake City, on the early morning of April 3. 192 7. The hall was filled with enthusiastic leaders of the Y. M. M. I. A., from all parts of the Church.

WHAT THE M. I. A. MEANS 615 divorces in the court at Reno, Nevada, in order to take advantage of the three months' residence requirement of the new law, that forty-eight suits for divorce had been instituted within 48 hours. The third problem is that one which comes in the form of a serious recommendation from Judge Ben Lindsay, who proposes that a system of "companionable or trial marriages" be legalized. And promptly following the flippant proposal, we witnessed the intoduction of a bill before the California Legislature proposing its introduction into modern society. Since this idea strikes at the fundamentals of our social, moral and domestic life, I cannot resist asking the pro- ponent of the measure a few simple questions. How soon after the first marriage may one try again? How many times may it be tried by one person? How many members of a family, i. e., how many children are necessary to serve as a deterant to the recurrent under- taking? How many fathers may a family have? How many mothers? Isn't this going rather farther than the courageous Roosevelt even dreamed, when he used the phrase, "polyglot boarding house," as descriptive of American social conditions? Ben Lindsay would carry his polyglotism over into the sacred precincts of the American home. And, finally, we might ask whose children will they be here in this world, say nothing of the resurrection? The fourth problem is that which grows out of the too general use of the automobile. On March 11, Judge William S. Kenyon, of Des Moines, Iowa, U. S. Court of Appeals, speaking before the "American Homes National Congress" on the subject of parents s-ending their boys to college with automobiles, said: "Rather than do that I would buy thirty cents worth of powder and blow him up. It would be fairer to the boy." And then making mention of Judge Lindsay's new marriage ideas, the judge pleaded for the old-fashioned mother and the old-fashioned home. Can any amount of pleading bring either or both of them back? They are gone, and, I fear, never to return. The fifth problem, one that has attracted much painful attention, is the seeming increase of suicides, especially among the students of colleges and the young people of our country. Louis Untermeyer, the New York poet and critic, whose son Richard, a Yale student, recently took his own life, was led to make these sorrowful comments on the subject: "Nothing can be done about the older folks. We are too fixed. We cannot be helped. But youth, there is some chance there. And I am arranging my will so as to leave, eventually, what- ever I have for an endowment which will carry on that work of education, and strive to establish that point of view." The point of view the poet sought was "faith without religion." And continuing, he said: "We today are almost unfitted for religion in the old sense of the word. We are scientific. The scientific interpretation of the world comes to us with our mother's milk. It cannot be avoided. What we want now in place of religious faith is faith in life itself."

616 IMPROVEMENT ERA Can it be, I ask? Is not Egypt, Babylon, Greece and Rome the answer? Where are they? The wind has blown them all away. There are many tendencies in modern life which are suitable subjects for thoughtful concern. Late hours is one of them. We older fellows used to take the tip at about ten p. m., and begin to go home. But now-a-days the tip is not even given, or any kind of a suggestion made, until the young people actually go to sleep from sheer exhaustion, in some cases-, and the boys are seen going home around two or three o'clock in the morning. What good is such a youth as he faces a hard day's work the next morning? The Coon Chicken Inn, in the "wee sma' hours," after having had a full evening's round of pleasure at the dance or the theatre, is altogether a too frequent occurrence if the health and efficiency, say nothing of the morals, of the youth, 'are to be regarded. Auto petting parties have their perils to virtue which Judge Kenyon regards as an unfair exposure to which parents put their children by freely supplying the auto. Then we have jazz with all its unspiritual effects; surely it responds to a human element and probably serves an allowable diversion, but it is poor stuff on which to feed the soul. The movies are another tre- mendous factor in modern life. They are censored only sufficiently to pull in the money just over the border line of impropriety. Some are praiseworthy but many of them are positively lewd, sensuous, extremely passionate and highly immoral. Kisses have been limited, it is true, to thirty reel feet in duration. They take all classes and all ages into the gambling den, the robbers' roost, the hold-ups' rende- vous, the drinking saloon of the outlaw camp, or actually into the debasement of the brothel. They popularize the cigarette and place it in the mouth of both sexes. Smoking has, alas, become almost universal among average Americans, young and old. Hip flasks and the romance of ball room or parlor drinking has almost baffled the advocates of prohibition. Immodesty on the part of women and girls, along with extremes in styles', have made such pictures of our fair daughters and wives that if their grandmothers were to arise from their quiet graves to take one look at their modern daughters, they would fall back into their graves aghast to have their further rest disturbed by the apparent mark of sin upon their descendants. The home has lost much of its hold upon the family. An ever-enlarging community is taking the place of the quiet little home that John Howard Payne made immortal and through which the composer attained immortal fame. Disregard for law has developed an appalling tendency toward crime in the youth of the land. As a matter of fact, 75 per cent of the criminals of America are under twenty-five years of age, and with striking coincidence, we must observe that more than thirty per cent of the youth of America are entirely without religious training or affiliation. Immorality is certainly on the increase. There is slight

WHAT THE M. I. A. MEANS 617 comfort to be found in the candor, freedom, grace, honesty and beauty of the youth of today if we pay the price in virtue: "Virtue, thou loveliest of all lovely things, From modesty apart, no more is fair; And when her graceful veil she flings, (Like ether opened to the intrusive air,) Loses her sweetest charms, and stands a cipher there." I here quote another poet: "Pygmies are pygmies still, though perched on Alps; And pyramids are pyramids in vales. Each man makes his own stature, builds himself; Virtue alone outbuilds the Pyramids; Her monuments shall last when Egypt's fall." — Young. Youthful precocity, money getting, with little regard as to how, and still less regard for the responsibility of its possession and the good ithat can come from its proper use; unparalleled distribution of wealth with its baleful effects almost off-setting its blessings; ex- travagance has sacrificed such substantial things as character and home and family for the mere bauble of superficial show; "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God," a condition long since foretold in scripture at last fully arrived, as may be seen on nearly any Sabbath day in Summer by the empty churches and the full bleachers at the ball park, or the crowded movie matinee and evening show; or Sunday schools somewhat deserted for hiking and joy-riding on the highways; old and young hastening to the modern "Vanities" or "Follies," where the chief feature of the show is an unequalled feminine nudity; a class of so-called literature, known as modern fiction, which deals with sex in every conceivable form so that youthful minds are soiled, and strange and unhallowed emotions are prematurely projected into the life to such an extent that the sweet period of innocence is stifled at its most beautiful moment — these are the problems of modern life; these are the perils that beset the youth and threaten the home, the Church, the Government and all society. A new freedom in some lands has re-crucified the Savior and would destroy the foundations of all that is sacred. Nearer than that the agencies of evil are striving to dethrone God and ridicule those who believe. Agnosticism and infidelity are systematically carrying on a persistent propaganda, striving to reach every American school. Do we realize the war that is now waged between good and evil, between light and darkness? What does M. I. A. mean to us? I will tell you what it means. It serves as the Iron Rod of the Book of Mormon, of which young men and young women may take firm hold and thereby pass these snares and pitfalls and land safely into the life of noble, virtuous, , home-loving, family-rearing, God-fearing, frugal, industrious man- hood and womanhood. M. I. A. provides a chaste field for the social, spiritual, intellectual and physical activities of the youth. It gives an opportunity for young men to discover their abilities and to display

618 IMPROVEMENT ERA or exercise them successfully. Self-discovery is a great thing to a young man. I have been told an interesting story by some of my friends, which comes from no less a person than William McAdoo, a member of the cabinet in the Wilson administration. It appears that when the young McAdoo was at college, in Louisville, Ky., he found himself on the debating team and confronted with the question, "Resolve that the 'Mormons' should be denied the franchise." For in- formation on the negative side of the question he was referred to the late President George Q. Cannon, then serving as Congressman. With that fine consideration of youth which is only to be found in a gentleman, President Cannon gave these two students every attention. He supplied the young debators with an ample fund of reliable in- formation and inspired them with the rightfulness of their side of the question. The result was that McAdoo was triumphant in the debate. The success inspired him with an ambition along the lines of his dis- covered talent and it was the thing that lead him to the study of the law and finally landed him in the Cabinet of the President of the United States during one of the most eventful administrations in our history. Mr. McAdoo attributes his start in life to the kindly assistance rendered him by George Q. Cannon, and the inspiration to achieve- ment which came therefrom. What really happened was that young McAdoo was assisted in discovering himself and inspiration was im- parted to develop his talents, which in his case led to success and unusual distinction. i That is exactly what M. I. A. is doing to thousands of our finest young men, as it has done to thousands during the past half- century or more. The other evening I sat down at a scout banquet and listened to the program, as carried out by a group of young fellows whom I recognized as the boys whom I had seen ten years before brought into the scout troop, just as they were, rough, wild, not even halter- broke, charged with the dynamic forces of will and body character- istic of adolescence. They were haughty, daring, even challenging, and in some there was an element of possible disrespect and disobe- dience. After Scouting had taken them through the critical period of their lives and led them to M. I. A. and also to the spiritual influence that comes with respectfully holding of Priesthood, they stood erect, polished, strong, possessed of faith in God and in life as God's greatest gift, ready for missions, marriage, and perhaps already under personal consecration to God. . M. I. A. not only gives us such young men but gives them in turn a field for their activities and splendid service. There are thousands of them in this Church. They are the Church's greatest asset and they are the gift of M. I. A. When I think of our superin- tendent and his associates and those of other stakes, I am impressed to say that ;no former civilization; yes, no other gospel dispensation ever produced the equal of these M. I. A. men of today. In the way of

WHAT THE M. I. A. MEANS 619 broad culture, open-mindedness, honesty, spirituality, ability and dependability; intelligence, courage, religion and a clean and whole- some young manhood, I doubt that their equal has ever before been seen on the earth. Brigham Young has been proved a prophet, an inspired leader, in the establishment of the Mutual Improvement Associations of this Church. The organization was launched along purposeful lines1, with definite objectives, which have been reached by the youth of the Church, and this great movement is still vital and purposeful, possessed of permanent value. It is as great an asset to the Church today as when it was organized in 1875. And, if in 1927 it is of value, why may it not continue to be until 1975, and longer? Thus will its inspiration be vindicated and God be glorified. That is what M. I. A. means to our stake, as I see it. Thank God for it. And may the blessings of God attend those who have its direction and guidance in their hands. Look Upward ♦ Out of the darkness and into the light, Out of life's black pits, and out of the night, — "Out," says my spirit, "get out in the sun, Show the drear world that a battle you've won." Broaden your shoulders and then grit your teeth, Give a strong pull, — get out from underneath; Get out and stay out, and then don't look back, Or sure as you do, you'll miss the right track. Keep looking upward, take note of the pine, See all his branches so sturdy and fine; King of the forest he rightly is named, This title earned, because upward he aimed. Our dear, loving Savior gave us the key That unlocked the door to Eternity; It's onward and upward, keep to the right, Live in the warmth of God's glorious light. Salem, Utah EMILY BORGESON BROWN