wh&m, JtluJjdkJ'

SEE PAGE 130

MARCH, 1939

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'The Glory of God is Intelligence'

MARCH. 1939

VOLUME 42

NUMBER 3

"THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH"

OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE PRIESTHOOD QUORUMS, MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATIONS. DEPART- MENT OF EDUCATION, MUSIC COMMITTEE, WARD TEACHERS, AND OTHER AGENCIES OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS.

Heber J.	Grant,
John A.	Widtsoe, Editors
Richard L. Evans,
	Managing	Editor
Marba C	. Josephson,
	Associate Editor
George Q.	Morris, General Mgr.
Lucy G. C<	mnon, Associate Mgr.
J. K. Orton, Business Mgr.

J Jul £dik?iL (Poxjsl

To Those Who Teach Our Children Heber J* Grant 135

Evidences and Reconciliations — IX, What is the Origin of

Life on Earth? John A. Widtsoe 136

"America Learns of a New Religion" G. Homer Durham 153

The Relief Society Singing Mothers Annie Wells Cannon 154

Youth Program of the Church.... 133

Church Moves On 159

Priesthood:

Melchizedek ..164

Aaronic 169

Ward Teaching 171

Genealogical 172

Mutual Messages:

Executives 173

Effective Librarianship, Au-

relia Bennion 174

Adults and Seniors 175

M Men 175

Gleaners 175

M Men-Gleaners 177

Explorers 177

Juniors 177

Scouts 178

Bee-Hive Girls 178

Field Photos 175, 176

The Vitamins Joseph R. Morrell 138

From "Chicken Coops" to "Poultry Co-ops?"

David W. Evans 140

Genesis and Geology Sterling B. Talmage 143

Utah's Pioneer Women Doctors — Martha H. P. Cannon

Claire W, Noall 144

The Protestors of Christendom — XIL Martin Luther

James L. Barker 148

Exploring the Universe, Frank- On the Book Rack 158

lin S. Harris, Jr 131 Here's How 163

Homing: Why Johnny Doesn't Index to Advertisers 185

Talk, Hattie Bell Ross 156 Your Page and Ours 192

£jditoUcd&.

President Clawson Nears 82 ..Richard L* Evans 160

Men As They Are Richard L, Evans 160

J>judtwn, (posdJiy, QjwAAwtfuL (Pu$$Isl

"Prayer Perfect" W. W* Christensen 152

The Distorted Face ...Claude T. Barnes 146

The Native Blood — Chapter V Albert R, Lyman 150

Frontispiece: Complemental,

Laressa C. McBurney 134

Poetry Page 157

I Wonder, Zara Sabin 158

Scriptural Crossword Puzzle 190

JhjL fovstii.

THE winds of March are nature's reminder of many things: spring cleaning, winter's departure, fickle weather, and things unpredictable in general. This seasonal study by Jeano Orlando reminds us of the New Testament phrase — "The wind bloweth where it listeth," which is the title the cover bears.

130

(Do yjQiL Jtnow-

What the responsibilities are of those who teach our children? — Page 135

Why the north and south poles get more hours of sunlight than the equator? Page 132

What the conclusion of psychologists is concerning the relationship of race to intelligence? Page 131

What theories are extant concerning the origin of life on earth and what is actually known about the manner in which life came to ; earth? Page 136

What is now known about the Vita- mins and their use and misuse? Page 138

What Utah's rating nationally is in the poultry industry and what co- operative enterprise is responsible for it? Page 140

What one geologist's view is concern- ing the moot questions of Genesis and geology? Page 143

How Dr. Martha Hughes Paul Can- non became one of Utah's pioneer women doctors? Page 144

When and how the American press first commented on Mormonism on a national scale? Page 153

How the Relief Society Singing Mothers began? Page 154

What relationship exists between speech deficiencies and diet defi- ciencies in children? Page 156

Who the new Brigham Young Uni- versity Board of Trustees are?

Page 159

What U. S. Congressman has re- cently praised the Church Wel- fare Plan on the floor of the House? Page 159

Which of the General Authorities becomes 82 this month? .Page 161

When and where M. I. A.-Era cook- ing schools are being held?

Page 1 63

What instructions the Council of the Twelve has recently issued for Melchizedek Priesthood quorums? Page 164

What the new Seventies' course of study is and how it may be ob- tained? Page 165

What the ward budget system is and what budget plan is now being recommended by the Presiding Bishopric? Page 169

EXECUTIVE AND EDITORIAL

OFFICES:

50 North Main Street, Salt Lake City, Utah

Copyright 1939, by the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. All rights reserved. Subscription price, $2.00 a year, in advance; 20c Single Copy.

Entered at the Post Office, Salt Lake City, Utah, as second-class matter. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October, 1917, authorized July 2, 1918.

The Improvement Era ie not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, but welcomes con- tributions. All manuscripts must be accompanied by sufficient postage for delivery and return.

NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES Francis M. Mayo, Salt Lake City Edward S. Townsend, San Francisco George T. Hopewell & Co., New York E. J. Powers & Co., Chicago Hil. F. Best, Detroit

MEMBER OF THE AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS

A MAGAZINE FOR EVERY MEMBER OF THE FAMILY

By FRANKLIN S. HARRIS, JR.

(~\n the sea floor at Tongareva, in the ^ South Seas, crawls a spiny sea star, two inches in diameter, with sixteen arms that radiate in all directions, searching out mollusks and crabs. When the star is stepped on, the spines break off in the foot and exude poison. When stung, the natives quickly turn the star over on its back with a stick and place the wound against the sea star's mouth. The spines and poison are sucked out and the wound soon heals.

THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MARCH, 1939

A group of outstanding American ** psychologists recently issued a statement that no conclusive evidence has been found for racial or national differences in either intelligence or per- sonality, and further that there is no indication that the members of any group are rendered incapable by their biological heredity of completely ac- quiring the culture of the community in which they live.

A method has been developed for "^ softening the curd of milk by using sound of a frequency 360 vibrations per second, or just above F above middle C. This method, by passing the milk between two disks vibrated elec- tromagnetically, increases the digesti- bility without affecting the ordinary constituents of the milk.

"\7itamin E, which was recently iden- " tified chemically, has also been made synthetically. The use of syn- thetic vitamin enabled sterile female white rats to have normal babies as though they had never been deprived of natural vitamin E. This vitamin seems to be a factor in allowing some women to bear children who otherwise cannot become mothers. Clinical use of wheat germ oil has prevented habit- ual abortion in many cases.

Tt is only in the last few centuries that A we have required certain contracts to be in writing to prevent fraud, but Babylonian law in 2,000 B. C. required every business deal put in writing, signed and witnessed.

(Concluded on page 132)

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"Oh, I adore bunnies!" Miss Pettibone butts in

Honest, I never did a better sellin' talk!

Tippin' my cap, I says, "Miss Pettibone, good mornin' —

"Miss Pettibone, you've been a good customer, and I want to let you in on a bargain."

"A bargain?" Her eyes got bright and snappy, so I saw I had the right approach.

"Now this Golden Shell Oil of ours is only twenty-five cents a quart — "

"Two quarts for 49f£?" she cuts in.

This slowed me up, but I gulped a couple of times and said, "No, two quarts for 50^ — and you can't buy a finer oil at any price! It's made for stop-and-go driving. You see, when you stop a while, your oil drains down into the crankcase. Then you come back and step on the starter."

"Shouldn't I?" she asks.

"Yeah," I says, gulping once or twice more. "Oh, sure — but if your oil is sluggish, a lot of wear happens before the oil starts flowing. But Golden Shell begins flowing instantly. It gets going like a scared rabbit!"

"Oh, I do adore bunnies!" says Miss Petti- bone, claspin' her hands.

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131

THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MARCH, 1939

EXPLORING THE UNIVERSE

{Concluded from page 131)

•"Through chemical treating of hay in the silo, farmers are saving losses that had been running from 20 to 100 per cent. Grasses and legumes can be chopped up and treated chemically by phosphoric acid, molasses, or a mix- ture of hydrochloric and sulphuric acids, for preserving, then pumped into silos, with only one-tenth the space necessary for untreated hay. The dread of fire is eliminated and hay can be made when it rains.

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With its beautiful tone and flexible vol- ume, the Hammond provides the ideal accompaniment both for solo compositions and for congregational singing. It can fill a huge cathedral with majestic music, or be softened almost to a whisper with- out loss of clarity.

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If achish, important city and fortress in Old Testament history, has been excavated in work carried on since 1932 at the site now called Tel-ed- Duweir in Palestine. The Biblical Archaelogist says that Israel took Lachish "not far from the year 1230 B. C." Eighteen letters written in He- brew of the time of Jeremiah have been uncovered which reflect the disturbed and exciting times just before the final destruction of Lachish at the end of Zedekiah's reign.

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HPhe North and South poles get about 65 hours more sunlight a year than the equator, according to illumination engineers. This is due to the greater refraction or bending of the sun s rays by the atmosphere at the poles, so that the sun appears to shine after it has set. Also, it has been found in New York City that the south side of a building receives four and a half times the sunlight that the north side receives during the year.

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THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MARCH, 1939

"Youth Program of the Mormon Church"

Quoting From "Rural America"

*P\r. Franklin S. Harris has sent us a transcript of an article which ap- peared under this title in the January, 1939, issue of Rural America, official publication of the American Country Life Association, an organization of thirty years' existence, of which Dr. Harris is a charter member. We quote from the article:

The program for older youth in the Mormon Church is an integrated part or connecting link in the whole social and educational chain for complete develop- ment of the individual in relation to his locality and the larger community. Special emphasis is given in the comprehensive church program to educational, civic, and social activities for people of all ages.

For example, boys at 12 years are di- rected into the regular Scout program until the age of 16 and this calls for emphasis on the training of leaders during the next age period. At 17 they go into the men's unit of the Mutual Improvement Association, with adequate outlets for creative expression until the age of 21 when they pass into the senior group. . . .

Girls pass at 11 years from the primary department to the Bee Hives and remain there until 14 when they may ... go di- rectly to the women's unit of M. I. A. Age delineations are not always drawn abso- lutely, for the idea back of the program is group education, sociability, and personal development.

Content of Program. The continuing program which is perpetuated consists pri- marily of activities. . . . The program pro- vides opportunities and training for and encourages expression through dancing, music, drama, athletics, story telling, hobby shows, and public speaking, including in- formal discussion. . . . Recreational activ- ities are stimulated and vitalized by district and interdistrict tournaments. Likewise discussion emphasis and citizenship train- ing are realized through ward, stake, dis- trict, and finally interdistrict contests, all of which contribute to friendly, wholesome relations.

Back of all this program is the emphasis of enlivened teaching. Everything is car- ried on a voluntary basis. Leaders are not paid for their services, but all contribute freely if and as they have something to offer. And "they take the matter seriously." Meeting together by wards and stakes, they discuss the extent to which local programs have gone or not gone across, analyze what's wrong, if anything, and go back to get things in line. Leaders of district boards representing stakes and wards meet at Salt Lake City annually for instruction and training.

Locally, a committee composed of six, three men and three women . . . supervises the program. . . . they are aided and en- couraged through having access to a pub- lished guide as well as by correspondence from the stake or district, or even the head office. But many of the ideas for new program helps are originated by them, sent to the main office and in turn distributed more widely for practical uses.

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133

fojmpbwumtaL

'""This," he said, "is the farm we want,

It lies just right, and the sandy loam Will pay for itself with a crop or two, And leave us enough to buy a home."

T-Ter eyes were fixed on the distant hills

Where a tranquil early springtime haze Caressed alike the woods and plain, And her face reflected the old amaze.

Photo by Silvia Saunders, from Monkemeyer*

By LARESSA COX McBURNEY

"HPhe orchard will thrive on this rocky ledge,"

She heard him go on as one in a dream. "The pasture will be on that sheltered slope, Leading down to the edge of the stream."

"Deneath white clouds in a sapphire sky

Were waving rows of poplar trees, And her ear, attuned to celestial strains, Heard harp-like melodies on the breeze.

TThere's utmost wisdom in Nature's design,

Though far afield she must often roam, When the man who can merely build a house Weds a woman who makes it a home.

134

HhE EDITORS PAGE

JcJJwAsl Whajsucudk.

=©

QjuJl ghildjuztL

There is no labor in which any of us can be engaged that is more acceptable in the sight of our Heav- enly Father than laboring for the children in the Church of Jesus Christ. There is no question but that impressions made upon the minds of little innocent children and young boys and girls have a more lasting effect upon their future lives than impressions made at any other time. It is like writing, figuratively speak- ing, upon a white piece of paper with nothing on it to obscure or confuse what you may write.

There are many who have made a wonderful record in the battle of life even after they have done things in their youth that were not pleasing in the sight of our Heavenly Father or for their own good; but it is far better if it is possible for us to start the children out in the battle of life with nothing recorded on the pages of their years, except good deeds and faith-pro- moting thoughts. There is a saying that "As the twig is bent the tree is inclined." You who teach our chil- dren are engaged in the labor of bending the twig.

We find recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants that if we as parents do not teach our children faith in the Lord Jesus Christ — teach them to pray and to walk uprightly before the Lord- — before they are eight years of age, the sin shall be upon the heads of the parents. The teachers of our children are assisting parents in shaping the lives of their children. Great is their re- sponsibility, also, and their accountability, for all that they teach.

It is of very great importance from the time children come to us in the Sunday Schools, in the Primary Asso- ciation, in the Mutual Improvement Associations and in the Church seminaries that impressions for good shall be made upon their minds. The feeling of grati- tude and thanksgiving that I have in my heart to the teachers that I had as a child in the Thirteenth Ward Sunday School will last, I am sure, through time and all eternity.

There is no dividend that any human being can draw from bonds or stocks, or anything in the wealth of the world, that compares with the knowledge in one's heart that he or she has been an instrument in the hands of God of shaping some life for good; and I can prom- ise the righteous teachers of our youth that as the years come and go they will gather dividends of thanks and gratitude from the children whose lives they have been the instruments in the hands of God of shaping for good.

I know that many times I have poured out the grati- tude of my heart to Hamilton G. Park, who was the teacher of my Sunday School class in my boyhood and young manhood days. I shall never get over thanking this man for the wonderful impression for good that he made upon me and for the remarkable testimonies he bore in our classes, telling his experiences as a mis- sionary, and the blessings and power of God that attended him while proclaiming the Gospel on two missions to his native country, Scotland.

I look forward with the keenest pleasure to meeting in the hereafter Hamilton G. Park, George Goddard, Bishop Nelson Empey, Bishop Edwin D. Woolley,

By PRESIDENT HEBER J. GRANT

Bishop Millen Atwood, and others who made an im- pression for good upon my mind and heart as a boy. I could mention scores of others to whom I am indebted. I shall be grateful throughout all the ages of eternity to those men for the impression that they made upon me.

We may think that the impressions we make may not be lasting, but I can assure you they are. I am sure that a testimony borne by a teacher to little chil- dren, under the inspiration of the living God, is a diffi- cult thing for them to forget.

I shall be grateful always to Eliza R. Snow, second only to my mother, for the many wonderful things that she told me as a little boy when I used to run errands, or come up to the Lion House to deliver a message to "Aunt Eliza," as I always called her from my earliest recollection. She was sure to ask me to sit down a few minutes and then she would talk to me. She told me scores and scores of faith-promoting incidents in her life in Nauvoo when she was there as a girl with my mother, and incidents in the life of the Prophet Joseph Smith, that have been of value to me. She inspired me with a determination to live a life that would be worthy of my mother and my father.

I remember vividly also the wonderful teachings to me of the late Erastus Snow. Although he lived three hundred and fifty miles from Salt Lake City, seldom if ever did he come to a conference in April or October, or come here on some special mission, that he did not visit my mother's home and inquire how we were getting along, inquire of me whether I was attending to my duties, what I was doing, and the kind of com- pany I was keeping. I shall never, while I live, and when I go beyond the grave, get over being grateful for the wonderful testimonies and the wonderful fa- therly advice of that man to me.

Each and every one of our teachers has the oppor- tunity and the power under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, to make an impression upon the hearts and souls of little innocent children and young boys and girls who are starting out in the battle of life. I pray with all the fervor of my soul that God will help you in your labors; and I can promise you that He will help you. The important thing for you is to have a love of your work and to do your work under the inspiration of the Spirit of the living God. That is the whole difference between the Church of Jesus Christ and the people of the world. They have the letter of the Gospel; they are teaching the Bible just as diligently and many of them believe in it as strongly and try to live up to its precepts just as well as we do; but the Spirit of the living God they do not have. Why? Because they haven't the power of the Priest- hood, and because they have not accepted the Gospel as we have.

May God bless every teacher; that he may grow in the light and knowledge of the Gospel and in the power and spirit of it, and have the capacity and ability to communicate it to those whom he teaches.

135

Evidences and reconciliations

XX.

(Mat iiu JthsL QjtiqijfL xfi Zfifya. on* £wdlv?

HThis question has occupied the best minds since the beginning of human history. The answer has not yet been found in the halls of science.

From the earliest time, many men of sound thought have believed in the spontaneous genera- tion of life. Aristotle ( 384-322 B, C. ) , for exam- ple, taught that decaying matter, under the influ- ence of moisture and the sun's heat, will produce living things. He even went so far as to teach that the higher forms of life were spontaneously generated. St. Augustine ( 354-430 A. D. ) , made the doctrine one of the church. His reasoning was simple: As the Lord could make wine from water, so life could be made from the soil and water and air of earth. In his opinion, spontaneous genera- tion was but a manifestation of the will of God. Even such minds as that of Newton ( 1643-1727) could see no inconsistency in the doctrine. Up to the middle of the last century, the doctrine was very generally accepted.

However, as the more exact methods of science were developed, doubt was cast upon the theory. For example, van Helmont, great scientist as he was, had explained that dirty linen, mixed with grain, would, in 21 days, produce mice. Subjected to scientific scrutiny, the folly of this formula was revealed.

Finally came Louis Pasteur, who in the middle of the last century by a series of brilliant experi- ments laid low the doctrine of spontaneous gener- ation. It was, however, only after a terrific battle with his contemporaries that he set up the law that only life can beget life. For a number of decades now, the world has rested secure in the correctness of his conclusion.

Recently, however, it has been suggested that while, under the conditions now prevailing on earth, spontaneous generation of life is impossible, there may have been times, under different conditions, when living organisms might have been produced from lifeless matter. The reasoning is somewhat as follows: As the molten earth cooled, conditions were such as to form large quantities of the sub- stance cyanogen, composed of carbon and nitro- gen, essential constituents of living tissue. As the new-born atmosphere gradually changed to its present conditions, complex chemical compounds were formed from the cyanogen, which, as the earth cooled, increased in complexity, approached the nature of living tissue, and at last acquired the properties that characterize life. From these simple

units of life, the theory holds, have developed the forms of life now known to man. It is added that life can not be so formed today, for conditions are so different. It requires an abnormal faith in science to accept this theory. (See Oparin, The Origin of Life, 1938.)

The question has been raised with respect to the viruses, which are so small as to pass through filters: Do they perpetuate life? Existing evidence favors the belief that they also obey the law that life begets life.

If life was not spontaneously generated on earth, if life is necessary to beget life, the first life on earth must have come from some point outside of the earth. So reasoned many men of unimpeach- able standing in the world of sound thinking. That raised two questions at once: Does life exist be- yond the earth? And if life exists beyond the earth, how can it reach the earth?

Men of the highest standing have believed that the earth is not the only home of living beings — such men as von Liebig, von Helmholtz, and Lord Kelvin.

The existence of life in space is exceedingly difficult to prove by the methods of science for us who live on earth. An attempt was made by the famous bacteriologist, Charles B. Lippman, to dis- cover whether meteorites, which fall from the sky, contain living organisms. Every precaution against error was taken. The best-known technique was followed. Lippman came to the conclusion after this careful work that live bacteria and their spores were found in the interior of the rocky meteorites studied by him. Many objections were offered against these findings. The bacteria he found were identical with some known on earth; the heat gen- erated by the falling body would kill the germs — and so on. The controversy still goes on.

Other workers, assuming that life does exist be- yond the earth, undertook to study the possible means by which living germs could be carried through space to the earth. The scientist, Richter, called attention to the fact that it has been shown that germs of life may remain dormant for long periods of time, may exist without food or water, yet may be revivified, as soon as the conditions necessary for active life are available. The emi- nent physicist, von Helmholtz, followed this up with the proposition that meteorites in their descent through the air are heated only on the surface. Carbon, easily combustible, is found unchanged inside of meteorites — hence life germs could sur- vive any heat that might be generated.

In the progress of science it had been found that light, passing through space, exerts a pressure on the objects it encounters. This principle was seized

136

upon to explain how life might have been brought from other heavenly bodies to the earth. The world-famous physicist, Arrhenius, suggested that microscopic germs of life might be carried by at- mospheric currents and electrical disturbances into space and, under the pressure of light, be carried within reach of other bodies in space. Arrhenius even subjected the hypothesis to mathematical treatment, and showed that such particles, leaving the earth, would pass beyond the limits of our planetary system in fourteen months, and in 9000 years would reach the nearest star, Alpha Centauri. He also showed that the heat attendant upon such a journey would not exceed 100°, and that only for a short time. (See Arrhenius, Wortds in the Making, 1908.) A barrage of objections was pointed upon this hypothesis. The chief weak- ness, it was claimed, was that the ultra-violet light and cosmic rays of space, not softened by the at- mosphere, would destroy, quickly, any life germs floating in space. There the matter stands today.

Now, from the very beginning of thinking on the subject of the origin of life on earth, a group of powerful thinkers have insisted that life is one of the eternal realities of the universe, uncreated, eternal, as eternal as any other of the ultimate ele- ments of the universe. One school of Greek thought held that the universe, the solar system, and the earth itself were living organisms.

The doctrine of the eternity of life implies that "things" become alive when the life force enters them. Thus came the doctrine of vitalism, or vital force, which has met such fierce opposition from the school of materialism. Under this doctrine all living things are dual in their composition; they are of matter and of life. Those who so believe declare that either life is spontaneously generated, or it is of eternal existence. The majority of them also are believers in God, and inclined to hold that things are made alive by His power, through means not understood by man, or perhaps beyond his understanding.

The corollary of the doctrine that life is eternal is the doctrine of pre-existence. The essential part of any living being is its life. If life is eternal then the living thing is eternal also. Driven by such logic, schools of thought, from the Greeks to our own day, have harbored more or less completely the doctrine of pre-existence.

As far as the data of science or the speculations of philosophers go, no light is shed upon the origin of life on earth.

The teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith leave the conviction that life is eternal, or at least that it had a pre-existent life, not of spontaneous origin on earth. For example:

. . . These are the generations of the heaven and of the earth, when they were created, in the day that I, the Lord God, made the heaven and the earth;

And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew. For I, the Lord God, created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth. . . . And I, the Lord God, had created all the children of men; and not yet a man to till the ground; for in heaven created I them; and there was not yet flesh upon the earth, neither in the water, neither in the air;

. . . All things were before created; but spiritually were

they created and made according to my word. {Pearl of Great Price, Moses 3:4, 5, 7; see also Abraham 5:2-5.)

One may read into these sayings that individu- ality itself is eternal. With respect to man, that is a well-settled doctrine. "Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be." ( Doctrine and Covenants 93 :29. ) This doc- trine is confirmed in the Book of Abraham:

Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelli- gences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones;

And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born.

And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell;

And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them;

And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever. (Abraham 3:22-26.)

From the organization of the Church to the pres- ent day, the pre-existence of man has been taught as a necessary element in the plan of salvation.

Whether the references in sacred writ concern- ing the pre-existence of all life, plant and animal, justify the belief that individuality is preserved even in the lower orders of creation, must remain, until further light is obtained, a matter of personal opinion. The wording of the above quotations from the Book of Moses seem to imply the pre- existence of individual life everywhere. Certainly, the earth on which we live is an imperishable, liv- ing organism:

And again, verily I say unto you, the earth abideth the law of a celestial kingdom, for it filleth the measure of its creation, and transgresseth not the law —

Wherefore, it shall be sanctified; yea, notwithstanding it shall die, it shall be quickened again, and shall abide the power by which it is quickened, and the righteous shall inherit it. [Doctrine and Covenants 88:25,26.)

That man, as perhaps all creation, is a dual being, is an equally certain doctrine. Man is composed of the eternal spirit residing in a mortal body. The Gospel centers upon the conversion of a perishable into an imperishable body to be possessed by the everlasting spirit. "The spirit and the body are the soul of man." (Doctrine and Covenants 88 : 15. )

Science stands at present helpless before the mystery of the origin of life on earth. It offers guesses which have no precedence over theological inferences. Through revelation we know that life existed before the earth was, and that "man was in the beginning with God." Life was placed upon earth by God, through His power. That doctrine satisfies the inmost need of man. In time, that doctrine will be confirmed by the accumulation of human knowledge. The method by which life was brought upon earth is not known by anyone. — J. A. W.

137

jhL VITAMINS

By DR. JOSEPH R. MORRELL

Chairman, Utah State Board of Health

There is at present a widespread and rapidly growing interest in dietetics, stimulated by much publicity. School curricula contain courses that establish a foundation for practical knowledge of foods and nutrition. Magazine and news- paper articles appear daily discuss- ing all phases of the problem. The radio repeatedly emphasizes the virtues of various systems of diet and various forms of food. Adver- tisements picture beautiful figures that were made so by eating as di- rected. The government and scien- tific organizations are publishing pamphlets and bulletins with ad- vice based on research and careful study.

There is much confusion in the mind of the untrained person who listens and reads, and who wants to know the truth for himself and his family. It makes him wonder how he ever survived on the old system of feeding, because he was deprived of so many of the essential elements of the modern diet. In spite of all this publicity, nutritional disturb- ances are still present in great abundance; we are running after fads in diet and are being exploited as never before. On the whole, however, we are probably advanc- ing in our practical appreciation of dietetic knowledge, but it is often against odds, and with accumulated sad experience.

Research has been carried on in many phases of nutrition, and sound information has been made available to everyone who seeks it. The high pressure methods employed by the unscrupulous, however, often reach farther and travel faster than the plain facts of science, and experience shows that we move forward slowly in the practical application of scien- tific knowledge.

The study of the vitamins has been a most fascinating one. They are so spectacular in their ability to work wonders in nutrition that the story of their development reads like an interesting romance. For that rea- son they have been advertised at- tractively and sold in enormous quantities under the misapprehension that they are the answer to the cry for perpetual health and restored youth. 138

HPhe word has become important in our health par- lance. Here is a summary of what is known about them — and their use and misuse.

Ordinarily vitamins can be sup- plied adequately in a balanced diet of natural foods, and there need be no deficiency. Some care and study must be given to the selection of foods, however, as indifference will soon be followed by evidences of trouble. At times it becomes neces- sary to supplement the diet with some form of concentrated vitamin for a special reason and here again care should be used. Vitamins should not be taken indiscriminately because they can be procured so easily, but, after a careful examina- tion, should be taken in the form best suited to the need, and only on the advice of a physician who rec- ognizes the need. If used without such careful consideration, much harm may be done, and certainly much unnecessary expense may be incurred.

Vitamins are chemical substances present in the bodies of all animals and in growing plants, and are neces- sary for the proper utilization of the food and minerals consumed by them. Vitamins are not food in themselves, but they are catalytic agents, essential to the normal func- tioning of all body tissues. With- out them, growth is retarded, the various physiological processes are disturbed, and deficiency conditions of more or less seriousness develop.

The vitamins are necessary in only small amounts, because their activ- ity is prodigious. They are, like the internal secretions of the glands of the body, governors that control our physical and mental development and activity. It is readily under- stood, therefore, how important these active agents are in our lives and how necessary it is to know something about them. As they go into our bodies with the food we eat, it is important to know in which foods they may be found most abundantly and how they may best be utilized.

Long before any of the vitamins were known as chemical entities, some diseases were known to be due to the lack of certain foods Scurvy

for centuries was known to follow lack of fresh fruits and vegetables in the diet. Beriberi killed thousands every year among rice-eating people who lived on the white or polished rice instead of the whole rice. Rick- ets was attributed to a lack of fat. Nothing was known of vitamins, but much was published regarding these deficiency conditions, until in 1912 Funk correlated all the available literature and advanced the "Vita- mine Theory." He concluded that these substances were amines and that they were vital to life, and hence the name he gave them. Later it was shown that they were not amines and the name was shortened to vitamin.

From this time on, rapid progress was made in the research on vita- mins, but the whole subject became much confused and reports from dif- ferent observers often seemed con- tradictory. An enormous literature accumulated which only recently has been clarified. A series of articles has just been published by the rec- ognized leaders in this field of re- search, giving the present status of the entire problem. This was deem- ed necessary because of the wide publicity being given the subject in popular magazine articles and in all forms of advertising.

Tt is now possible to make definite statements regarding the value and the limitations of vitamins, and it is not necessary to be led astray by false claims made for them. Vitamins are not cure-alls. They have a definite place in promoting and maintaining health, but they cannot do the impossible things often attributed to them. The vitamin problem is still far from solved, and what is thought to be true today may be supplanted by more exact knowl- edge tomorrow.

McCollum in 1915 separated the then known vitamins into the fat soluble and the water soluble and called them A and B. Later it was shown that each of his apparently single vitamins contained many fac-

THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MARCH, 1939

tors with different functions, and they became known as A and B complexes. Only recently many of these factors have been isolated and their chemical structures determined. Some of them have been prepared synthetically and have the same properties as the vitamins found naturally in food. The nomencla- ture of vitamins is still very much confused, some still referring to them by the letters A, B, C, and D, and others giving them various names more or less suggestive of their origin. Soon, perhaps, a uni- form nomenclature will be estab- lished which will greatly simplify the whole subject.

It is now known that in addition to the typical deficiency diseases that have long been associated with vitamins, there are many conditions caused by partial deficiency. The diets of civilized peoples contain many highly refined and attractive, manufactured foods which have be- come almost staple, replacing many of the natural foods which contain the essential vitamins. We are paying the penalty for these innova- tions by suffering many forms of disturbed digestion, heart and cir- culatory weakness, and disturbances of almost all of the specialized functions of the body.

Vitamins are found naturally in growing plants and in the organs and secretions of animals which utilize those plants as food. We get them, therefore, by eating fresh vegetables and fruits, milk and eggs, and the flesh and fats of various animals. Some of them are found in abun- dance in fish which live largely on marine plants, the vitamin being stored in the fish liver. Extracts and concentrates of fish livers have come to be the most fertile sources of some of the vitamins. The vita- mins in plants are found largely in connection with chlorophyl, and consequently the green vegetables are useful sources of most of them. Cooking and canning of vegetables and fruits, if properly done, de- stroys the vitamins only in part, and canners now pay particular attention to preserving the vitamin content of their products. Freezing does not injure them, but after thawing the food must be quickly consumed.

In grains the germ and the husk contain most of the vitamin, and in preparation for use these parts of the grain are often discarded, leaving a refined product that is poor in vita- min value. The whole grain flour and cereal are therefore preferable to the refined products. Foods such

Ml

DR. JOSEPH R. MORRELL

Dr. Joseph R. Morrell, Chairman of the Utah State Board of Health, was trained at Rush Medical College and in Vienna. He is a practicing physician of Ogden, Utah, where he is also an active member of the Church. He has long been identified with forward-looking move- ments in the field of medicine and health. Out of his experiences as Chairman of the First District World War Medical Advisory Board, as a frequent medical examiner of depart- ing Mormon missionaries, and out of his official participation at national medical conventions, and in other civic, social, and professional move- ments, has come a spirit of inquiry into popular conceptions and miscon- ceptions in medicine and health. Dr. Morrell has here clarified and sum- marized a subject on which there is much confusion.

as potatoes contain their vitamins in or just under the skin which is often thrown away as useless. Foods cooked in water give up the soluble vitamins to the water, which is often poured off as worthless after cook- ing. The addition of soda in cook- ing usually destroys all the vitamin of the food. Cooking under pressure also destroys vitamins. In these methods of preparing our food we are, therefore, constantly depriving ourselves of the most essential ele- ments contained in it.

Adults require less vitamins than children, but they should have it often and in sufficient amount, as little is stored up as a reserve in the body. A deficiency will soon devel- op if vitamin-containing foods are not eaten regularly. At certain ages, and under special conditions, there are increased demands for vitamins. Infants, especially prematures, re- quire an abundance as do growing children up to and including adoles- cence. Pregnancy and lactation in- crease the demand for both the moth-

er and the child. Chronic and wast- ing diseases and convalescence from acute disease usually require in- creased vitamins. Persons who work out of the sunlight such as miners, night workers, and often workers in large, poorly-lighted factories re- quire more than other people.

Diets cannot be considered from the standpoint of vitamins alone, however. The body requires a cer- tain amount of calories for the pro- duction of heat and energy, and fats, carbohydrates, and proteins must be properly proportioned. Elim- ination requires adequate attention to fluids and roughage. All of these requirements can be readily met in a balanced diet of natural foods and the vitamin content provided at the same time. Care and study are re- quired to understand the important problems involved in the selection and preparation of these foods, as they must be made to appeal to the sight and taste if they are to be en- joyed. Good wholesome food can be made worthless and often repul- sive by indifferent preparation and cooking. The intelligent, interested cook who has the priceless attribute of common sense is worth more to the family health than the well- stocked medicine chest or perhaps the family doctor. Fortunately, all the foods required to satisfy the de- mands are readily available and most of them are inexpensive. They are more valuable in their natural form than as artificial or manufactured products, and with some thought given to preparation all the require- ments of health and pleasurable eat- ing may be met.

VITAMIN A

Witamin A has the important func- tion of keeping up the normal physiology of the mucous mem- branes of the body. The secretions of these membranes must be main- tained or disturbances and infec- tions develop. This vitamin has been erroneously called the anti-infection < vitamin. It has no direct function in combating infection except as it keeps the membranes up to a state of normal resistance. If the mem- branes become dry, keratinization occurs, and this is shown in a pe- culiar redness of the eyes called Xerophthalmia which may result in blindness. Secondary infections commonly leading to pneumonia de- velop. The teeth, especially of chil- dren, are damaged by the attack on (Continued on page 186)

139

*"• "CHICKEN COOPS

//

" "POULTRY CO-OPS" urn*.

A STRIKING STORY OF COOPERATIVE MARKETING ACTIVITIES, WHICH, STARTING IN UTAH, REACHED OUT TO AFFECT THE PRINCIPAL MARKETS OF THE NATION.

By DAVID W. EVANS

Prior to 1923, poultry-raising in Utah was largely a haphazard business, with a chicken coop or two on nearly every farm and on many city and suburban lots besides. There was no organized body to promote either quality for the con- sumer, or sales and profits for poul- trymen. Then something happened which brought order out of chaos, and profits out of losses. That some- thing was cooperation — the passing of the individual chicken coop in favor of the poultry "co-op." Let us look briefly into the causes of this movement and the way it all hap- pened:

Agriculture was in a deep depres- sion in 1923. Many remedies for its rehabilitation had been proposed. But it was noticeable that in all con- ferences and councils the drift of opinion was ultimately toward some sort of cooperative procedure.

In agricultural circles compara- tively little was known at that time about "cooperation," except what could be drawn from the experience of foreign countries and from the history of the citrus fruit growers in California, and the milk producers of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The American Farm Bureau had conducted a program of publicity

THE UTAH POULTRY PRODUCERS' ASSOCIATION SALT LAKE CITY PLANT AND CENTRAL OFFICES.

which included a series of meetings in a number of states, among them the state of Utah. The principles of cooperation as enunciated by speak- ers and through the columns of pa- pers and magazines had a familiar sound in intermountain communities, particularly among the older people, and it was noted that more ready adherence was given to the move- ment here than elsewhere in the country. It had already been recog- nized by students of the poultry in- dustry that a better product both in eggs and in fowl meats was to be found in the high altitudes and that the inland west offered many advan- tages for successful poultry pro- duction.

Even before this important eco- nomic movement, which culminated in the setting up of important coop- erative marketing associations, there were personal forces at work which were to have an important bearing on the birth and development of the cooperative marketing of poultry in Utah and the surrounding area. The story of the winning of the nation's markets for intermountain poultry products cannot fairly be told with- out giving great credit to a small group of Utah men, most of them Mormons, who were then living and working in Sanpete County.

THIS is the third article on coop- erative enterprise to appear in the pages of the Improvement Era in comparatively recent issues. Two previous articles have dealt with the Wyoming Star Valley Swiss cheese industry and the Growers' Market of Salt Lake City. The author of this article, David W. Evans, has been widely schooled and experienced in advertis- ing, promo- tion, and public rela- tions work, as well as in Church ac- t i v i t y, in which latter field he has seen service as a mission- ary, Sunday School and M. I. A. worker, a bishop's counselor, high councilman and stake supervisor of Aaronic Priesthood. He has done promotional, policy-determining, and public relations work for many ma- jor western industries, and has been close to the later development of the poultry cooperative movement as ad- vertising counselor of the parent as- sociation, and of America's largest turkey cooperative, the Northwest- ern Turkey Growers' Association, in which capacitv also he coined the trade name, "Norbest," which has become the largest selling brand of turkeys in America. Cooperation, always a fundamental Mormon prin- ciple, is finding some notable uses in "cooperatives." Here is the story of a notably successful one.

DAVID W. EVANS

Perhaps the man who deserves first mention in this modern epic of western agriculture, is an immigrant

140

THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MARCH, 1939

to America from Ukraine, Russia, who, after making several unsuc- cessful social-economic experiments in behalf of his own race in the East, came into this region as the youth- ful leader of a group of Jewish peo- ple who were brought here through the influence of Governor Simon Bamberger.

This racial group, seeking farm homes where they could work co- operatively for the common good, settled on a selected tract of land in Sevier County, Utah, in the hope that they would have a better chance on the land than in the crowded cen- ters in the East. The failure of the project seemed forecast from the out- set, however, and the colony grad- ually dwindled. But Benjamin Brown, (who died February 5, 1939) with whom the principle of cooperation was a fixed philosophy, was neither beaten nor discouraged by this setback. Endowed with un- common courage and determination he industriously turned to reclaiming a rundown farm, and to the recoup- ing of some of his lost capital. As succeeding events showed, coopera- tion, under Benjamin Brown, was to prove highly successful in the inter- mountain area, but in an entirely dif- ferent way than he had first hoped.

To go on with Brown's story: In 1917, still smarting under the sting

AN EARLY PICTURE OF THE OFFICERS AND

DIRECTORS OF THE POULTRY PRODUCERS'

ASSOCIATION

Left to right: (back row) Clyde C. Edmonds, Secretary-Treasurer; Ben Brown, President-General Manager; R. A. Puffer, Director; (front row) Harry H. Metzger, one of original cooperators; Albertus Willardson, one of the original cooperators and Vice President; George A. Browne, Sales Manager.

CLYDE C. ESMONDS, SECRETARY AND GEN- ERAL MANAGER OF THE UTAH POULTRY PRODUCERS' ASSOCIA- TION, AND A MEMBER OF THE GENERAL CHURCH WE(LFARE

COMMITTEE.

HERBERT R. BEYERS, GENERAL MANAGER OF THE NORTHWEST- ERN TURKEY GROW- ERS' ASSOCIATION.

of temporary defeat, he acquired possession of a 160-acre tract in cen- tral Utah, and developed out of this barren, forbidding stretch of land, one of the fine farms of the West. Not content with this achievement, he soon sold the improved farm and acquired another tract of 120 acres.

From this, in a single year, he grub- bed the sagebrush, plowed, planted and harvested a bumper crop, and made of the farm the model of the district. Included in this new agri- cultural enterprise, was poultry raising.

But Brown was not satisfied to

MR. CLYDE C. EDMONDS EXPLAINS ADVANCE- MENT IN EGG CANDLING TO MR. EARL J. GLADE, KSL, (LEFT) AND MR. FRED W. MERRILL (CENTER), OF AGRICULTURAL TRADE RELA- TIONS, INC.

market his poultry in the customary way — namely, to carry them to the nearest store in small quantities and trade them for merchandise at a price fixed by the merchant — and he sug- gested to some of his neighbors that they join with him in pooling their produce to make up a carload for shipment to a distant market. Out of these rich experiences grew the idea, in Brown's mind, that an im- portant and far-reaching cooperative movement for the producing and selling of quality eggs and poultry products could be built in the abun- dant sunshine of his adopted state. Accordingly, Brown went to his local banker, Clyde C. Edmonds, who recognized in him integrity, ability, and perseverance to a high degree, and together they interested

141

THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MARCH, 193 9

DR. JOHN A. WIDTSOE (RIGHT) VIEWING A MARKET CHART AT THE UTAH POULTRY PRO- DUCERS' ASSOCIATION 16TH ANNUAL CONVEN- TION IN SALT LAKE CITY, FEBRUARY, 1939. H. M. BLACKHURST, ASSISTANT GENERAL MAN- AGER OF THE ASSOCIATION, IS AT THE LEFT.

a practical and successful farmer of the region, Albertus Willardson. These three organized and incor- porated the Central Utah Poultry Exchange. This was in August, 1922.

The advantages of this method of marketing spread rapidly and it fit- ted in well with the prevailing senti- ment of working together. At that time the Utah State Farm Bureau had adopted some similar policies favoring cooperative marketing, and word came to the Bureau through its secretary, James M. Kirkham, of the interesting experiences of this cooperative association. At once the Bureau, through its council, invited the youthful Benjamin Brown, to- gether with some of his associates, to Salt Lake City, and proposed to them that a cooperative association state-wide in character be initiated, and the Central Utah Poultry Ex- change became the Utah Poultry Producers, Inc., with Benjamin Brown, Clyde C. Edmonds, Albert- us Willardson, George A. Brown, and Harry H. Metzger as incor- porators. At the outset, this com- pany boasted 270 members, who were largely located in Sanpete, Se- vier, and Juab counties. This group constituted approximately half of the commercial poultry producers of Utah at that time. By the end of the first year, through the stimulat- ing influence of the newly-organized association, production of Utah eggs had greatly increased and the num- ber shipped by the association had more than doubled, and, subse- quently, the membership increased to more than 8,000!

The principal provision of the ar- ticles of incorporation of the new association was that the producers were bound to deliver all of their eggs to the association for sale for 142

a fixed period of time, namely, five years, reserving only enough for family use.

O

N March 5, 1923, when the first plants of the new association were opened simultaneously in Salt Lake City, Ogden, American Fork, and Provo, besides the general of- fices which were located in the Mc- Cornick Building in Salt Lake City, the total staff, consisting of the man- ager, a stenographer, a clerk, can- dlers, laborers, truck drivers, sales- men, and others, totalled about twenty persons, not one of whom had had any experience in the han- dling or selling of eggs. Contrast this with the 450 present employees of the association, besides the 50,- 000 Utahns who now derive their livelihood from the poultry industry in all its phases! Truly a miracle has been performed before our very eyes!

Among the original employees who have since become officers of the association are: Clyde C. Ed- monds, the association's first secre-

PART OF UTAH'S $20,000,000 POULTRY WEALTH, SHOWING A FLOCK OWNED BY A MEMBER OF DRAPER EGG PRODUCERS' ASSO- CIATION, INC.

tary and now secretary and gen- eral manager; Hyrum M. Black- hurst, present assistant general man- ager, who was in charge of the American Fork plant on the opening day in 1923; and Harry L. Strong, present treasurer, who was the as- sociation's first Salt Lake City plant manager in the same year. Another person who performed indispensable service in the work of organizing and incorporating this pure co-op as it was finally set up, was Frank Evans, prominent western attorney, who was serving at the time as legal counsel for the State Farm Bureau Federation, and who is now serving as president of the Eastern States Mission for the Mormon Church.

The principal obligations for the operations of the Association were assumed by five men, who consti- tuted the board of directors. In fact, these five men provided the required 10 per cent of $300,000 capital, for which the company issued 30,000 shares of its stock at par — $1.00 per share. The remaining $270,000 was assured and the notes of the per- sons receiving this stock were ac- cepted in payment, together with a contract guaranteeing due care in the handling of the products, and this guarantee was backed by a $75,000 surety bond.

The Association was organized under the Corporation Statute for Pecuniary Profit for the reason that there was then no cooperative mar- keting law in Utah. But the pro- moters of the enterprise at once set about to secure the necessary legis- lation to authorize the incorporating of a cooperative. This was accom- plished within the ensuing year, and the articles were amended to bring (Continued on page 182)

GENESIS amL GEOLOGY

By DR. STERLING B. TALMAGE

Head of the Department of Geology,

New Mexico School of Mines

EDITOR'S NOTE

'T'his letter, presented without persuading or dissuading comment, comes from Dr. Ster- ling B. Talmage (eldest son of the late Dr. James E. Talmage of the Council of the Twelve) and at present Head of the De- partment of Geology, New Mexico School of Mines. It may or may not express the views of any or all of the Gen- eral Authorities of the Church, and its appearance here in no way establishes or disestab- lishes it as official opinion.

To the Editor:

I have followed with some interest your articles on "Evidences and Reconciliations" appearing cur- rently in The Improvement Era. I was particularly interested in the article "How old is the earth?" appearing in the December issue. Your conclusion seems a wise and tolerant one. It oc- curs to me, however, that we may be guided to the correct choice by the scripture itself; and this not by any resort to strained or figurative inter- pretations, but by a strictly literal in- terpretation of a neglected passage, which very definitely interprets some other passages that seem obscure.

I ran across this possibility more or less accidentally. I had purchased a new Bible dictionary and, in browsing through it rather casually, I stumbled on a discussion of the "dual record of creation." The commentator pointed out several apparent repetitions, not- ably that "God created man in his own image" (Gen. 1:27); that later, following the record of the creative sabbath, "there was not a man to till the ground" (Gen. 2:5); that in the next verse but one, "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground." There is also an apparent repetition of the creation of the plants (Gen. 1:11-12 and 2:9) and the animals (Gen. 1:24- 25 and 2:19). The commentator ven- tured the opinion that the whole first chapter of Genesis and the first five verses of the second chapter pertained to the spiritual creation; and that the actual, physical, terrestrial creation was referred to later.

This idea opened up such interesting possibilities that I turned to the second chapter of Genesis, and read the 4th

and 5th verses with critical attention. I quote (inserting italics here and in later quotations for emphasis, and not according to the text ) :

4. These are the generations of the heav- ens and of the earth when they were created in the day [not days] that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,

5. And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew . . .

This certainly seems to give some foundation to the idea expressed by the commentator, at least so far as the botanical 'Mual creation' was con- cerned. But the continuance seemed fraught with rather astounding geo- logical significance. Verse 5 continues :

for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth.

This brings us to the reference in the article cited to radioactive re- searches indicating an acceptance in some informed quarters for the earth's age approximating 2,000 million years. The statement of the fundamentals of the uranium-lead ratio method is ad- mirably condensed, and fundamentally accurate. One sentence, however, calls for amplification: "The age of the oldest rocks approaches, by this method, 2,000 million years." This is quite true; but the fact remains that the determinations were made — and had to be made — on the next-to-the- oldest known rocks, which are of gran-

s'

itic nature, and were formed by con- solidation from a melt. These granites, however, border in places on still older rocks, which have been cut, baked, in- vaded and altered by the action of the heat and juices derived from the granite. And these oldest known rocks, highly altered it is true and showing the effects of their invasion by the granite, still show conclusive evidence of having been formed through the agencies of rain and running water. Such water- sorted sediments cannot be tested for their age by the uranium-lead ratio method. These sediments belong to the same general age-period as do the granites on which the measurements were made, but were obviously earlier in that period than the granites that altered them.

What, then, becomes of the long- disputed "conflict between geology and Genesis?" It simply ceases to exist. For, if all that precedes Gen. 2:5 belonged to the spiritual creation and occurred when "the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth," and all that is known in the field of geology belongs to the time after the formation of rocks by rain and running water, there is no basis for a conflict. Gen- esis and geology, under this rendering, relate to different things, occurring at different times and in different places. There is neither agreement nor con- flict, but simply difference.

This explanation seemed so start- lingly simple and satisfying that I was afraid to accept it. I did not want to get caught in the uncertainties of any private interpretation. So I did as I have done on other occasions — turned from Genesis to the Pearl of Great Price, to see whether the wording of the Mosaic or Abrahamic parallel would indicate whether or not this ex- planation was tenable.

In the Book of Abraham, chapters 4 and 5 differ most notably from Gen- esis, chapters 1 and 2, in being cast in the future tense. In many places, there is a direct statement regarding what the Gods planned; the direct state- ments of accomplishment — "and it was so, even as they ordered" (Abr. 4:7, 9, 11), are almost parenthetical in structure, and later in the chapter even the statement of fulfilment takes the future tense: "And the Gods saw that they would be obeyed, and that their plan was good" (Abr. 4:21; compare verses 25 and 31). Abraham 5:5, paralleling Genesis 2:5 already quoted, shows some significant differences; it reads :

5. According to all that which they had {Concluded on page 179)

143

Utah's pioneer women doctors

By CLAIRE WILCOX NOALL

yyiaJdkcL diuqhsA, (Paul fan/wo.

DR. MARTHA HUGHES CANNON AND HER FOUR- MONTHS-OLD DAUGHTER, GWENDOLYN, AS THEY APPEARED IN 1S99.

"M

y child, you might better take a seat in the third circle of the Salt Lake Theatre than to attempt this un- heard-of thing!" Martha Hughes Paul's mother scraped her iron cook- pot and put it in the dishpan. Her very gesture expressed her protest.

"Mother! What a comparison to the study of medicine!" Mattie laughed; but her eyes flashed with determination. "You are mistaken. No girl has ever been seen in that Circle of the theatre."

"You have broken other conven- tions."

"I should be breaking no precedent in this case. Other women have studied medicine."

"Yes — Sister Romania! And Maggie Shipp! They are women, mothers of ripe years; it is fitting in their cases; but you — a young girl with life before you. You should be thinking of a husband and children of your own! How else can the Saints establish themselves in these val- leys?"

"But can you not see? That is the very reason I want to go away. It's because we are pioneers that I must branch out and try to overcome some of the conditions which surround us."

"I don't understand. . . ."

"Mother, dear: You must under- stand. The pioneers themselves need help. Our women need help — in health, sanitation. . . ."

"There you go again. Sanitation! Health! . . . You talk of nothing else!"

"Perhaps I do, Mother. But suf- fering in another has always hurt me. Needless suffering and death don't belong among our people. Only yesterday another child was need- lessly taken. 'I'm tired, Mother; I've done playing now,' she said, and the little girl was put to bed. Before morning she was dead. . . . 144

Diphtheria! . . ." Suddenly the de- termined look in Mattie's eyes soft- ened to one of sheer compassion.

"It's an impossible achievement! The long years of study it would mean. . . . Child, put this tempta- tion from you. ..."

But Mattie simply hung her dish- towel to dry and vowed to herself more firmly than ever that she would be a doctor. She joined her broth- ers and sisters in the living room of the low adobe house in which they lived. Here sat Logan and Adam Paul, her half-brothers. There were half-sisters, too; her own sister; and children of the present family, also. Logan was an actor, Adam a de- tective. The entire group was laugh- ing at the story of one of Adam's encounters with a desperado.

As Mattie came into the room her gay voice echoed theirs. She was proud of these elder brothers with whom she had come to live as a tiny child when her widowed mother married a widower. They gave her a wide outlook, as did the friends who came from far and near to drop in at this port of natural call, to visit in this home of varied kin.

But sorrow had also splayed its bitter stain on her young life — the pathos of death on the plains, the tragedy of parting in the "Valley." This was before she ever saw the Paul children. . . . Her own father, Peter Hughes, was desperately ill. With his family he was making the great trek across the plains when Mattie awoke one night in the cov- ered wagon. "Peter! . . ." Such a note of anguish in her mother's voice the child had never heard. "Annie's gone! She's gone! . . . My baby! . . ." Such dry eyes of awful resignation Mattie would have seen had it not been so fright- eningly dark!

"Elizabeth!" The sick father's voice was weak; a wasted hand pat- ted his wife's shoulder.

Mattie huddled down into her covers and did not say a single word. But the pain in this four-year-old child's heart was as nothing in com- parison to that which she felt the next morning when she saw her dry- eyed mother herself push the spade into the ground that was to receive the little body. There was no cof- fin; Elizabeth would have sacrificed her finest piece of furniture to make one, but the father was too ill. Be- sides, the wagon train must push on. The gladness of the arrival in the Promised Land was cut short when her father was "called home" three days later. After leaving England, he was very ill for a year in New York. At last, feeling that life was short for Peter Hughes, Erastus Snow arranged for the sick man and his family to be brought to Utah. The mother walked that he might ride, but Peter arrived none too soon.

Now Elizabeth wept. Life in a dugout without him was dreadfully lonely. "But," she said to her two small girls, "God has been good to us. Your dear father's last wish was gratified. He beheld the moun- tains and the valley of the Saints. Always I shall know that he knows where I abide." She looked toward the setting sun. A huge tumbleweed cartwheeled past her long calico skirts as she stood against the hill on the east bench. Taking her chil- dren, each by a hand, she walked down the earthen steps which led to her half-cave, half-sunlit dwelling.

Tt was not surprising that Elizabeth welcomed James P. Paul's friend- ship some time later. Very different indeed were his fundamental quali- ties from those of Peter Hughes. But Elizabeth saw in him the goodness of an upright man. Scottish ways, carpenter's hands, his children and her own to be provided for, others to follow — those were her prospects. But she stepped gladly into the new life. She was even happy to help

THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MARCH, 1939

build the house that would shelter the composite family, to do her part in establishing the home that would foster understanding in the hearts of contrasting natures.

And seldom had there been a day in the flashing-eyed Mattie's life when the forthright father had not encouraged her. Though it was her mother from whose intellectual strain her own great mental powers seemed to stem, it was James Paul, her step- father, who struck fire to tinder in encouraging Martha to dare, to do, to accomplish her untried experi- ments. Somehow, she roused his imagination. He sensed that this girl's life was illumined in the days of her youth with the divine fire of purpose.

"Yes, Mattie! I think that is a good thing to do." And yes again he would say, although at times his confirmation seemed in the eyes of the gentle mother like adding scandal to a scandalous deed.

One day Brigham Young sud- denly found himself contemptuous of those men in the community who were doing a woman's work . . . measuring ribbon behind a counter, lifting tiny little type, a single letter at a time, and dropping it into the stick, the wooden box which gauged a line for the press. He would do something about this. . . .

"Miss Martha Hughes Paul," said a messenger one evening, "is wanted at President Young's office."

The fourteen-year-old girl was not one to question such a summons, and the next morning found Mattie Hughes Paul facing Brigham Young.

"My dear," he said, "you have been chosen to apprentice yourself to Brother Hyrum Parry. How would you like to become a type- setter?"

Mattie would like it very much.

DR. CANNON AS SHE APPEARED IN LATER LIFE, PICTURED AMONG THE CHRYSANTHEMUMS SHE RAISED IN HER CALIFORNIA GARDEN.

She had reasons beyond those any- one could guess.

One day, with five other girls, she walked through the portal of the high rock wall that led to the Deseret News building, and up the stairs of an adobe structure at the rear to learn her trade. But only three of the six girls could master the skill of this mission to which they had been called: Mattie Hughes, Mattie Home, Annie Park. Mattie Hughes became so efficient she sometimes set up type in the Scandinavian tongue, though she could not read a word of it. There she stood, all day long, before her case of leaden letters, holding the stick with her left hand, dropping type with her right, never failing to verify each letter's proper placement, bottom up, top down, notch to the right of the lead.

It was the columns of The Wom- an's Exponent upon which the girls worked. Stories of enterprise, Re- lief Society missions in far places of the earth, the surprising position of Mormon women in international suf- frage congresses fed Mattie's am- bition. The cry of a babe, the white look of death upon the face of a child, the agony of motherhood — and its joy — measured her creation. Gradually, the dream to make some- thing of her life shaped itself into a surpassing desire to study medicine. In this desire one theme stood out pre-eminently — the wish to bring knowledge of the laws of health and well-being to the people of her com- munity, and to all Zion as well.

Through a life in which she con- stantly brushed shoulders with nu- merous people, she walked alone, making of no girl a confidante, mak- ing with no youth a compact of more than impersonal friendship. In her heart there was a living flame whose altar she must attend. Her flashing eyes, her love of fun, her ready wit brought her no close companion, until

DR. MARTHA HUGHES CANNON AT AGE 35, AS SHE APPEARED IN SAN FRANCISCO IN 1S92

at last she gave her promise of mar- riage, and that was only to be broken later on. To accomplish her end, she violated her own natural reti- cence; she severed established ties, and as she strode fearlessly toward her goal the small ways of her inde- pendence were significant of the larger ones to follow.

"Brother Solomon," she said one day, walking into the Z. C. M, I. shoe factory, "I want you to make me a pair of boots."

"A pair of boots! My good girl, what are you wearing now?"

"Not the kind that I should like to have. I want some tall ones that will come clear to my knees. Make them exactly like a gentleman's rid- ing boots — no laces, no buttons, but of the finest leather you can get."

In winter the snow was heavy; the sidewalks of Salt Lake City were unscraped; and in the spring and fall there was heavy mud. The oiled shoes most women wore to exclude moisture were not sufficiently pro- tective for Mattie's long walks. "But," she said when she at last ob- tained her precious boots, "What an awful price!" She was so econom- ical her mother had dubbed her penurious. She cut a strange figure in her boots, shoebag in hand, skirts pinned high, and coat hanging scarcely low. "It's not good for my health to stand with wet feet all day," she would explain, changing into her shoes before commencing work, knowing well that men as well as long-skirted women had looked at her askance.

"It's not good for my health," she

said again, when some people's eyes

nearly popped from their heads as

(Continued on page 180)

145

Jhz.

DISTORTED FACE

CL St&u^ pvojfL duL ovl JthsL JjuuL

s,

By CLAUDE T. BARNES

'ometimes even now I cannot suppress a fleeting shudder when I recall the horrible sadness of that distorted face and the uncanny wildness of its eyes gleaming at me between the •willows in the moon- light. The strange incident occurred in that lovely region known as Thousand Lake Mountain. The Thousand Lake Mountain of Wayne County in Utah, was marked by meadowed acclivities with snow- seeped rills — the sort of alpine, grassy flats that bask in the warmth of the sun and enchant the sojourner with the beauty of their natural wildness, the kind of place that in- spires in one the thought that when tired of all else he may yet dwell there in sweet tranquility. And to the face — a refuge too.

In riding upward in search of the mule deer that everywhere tracked the sands about the junipers, I came at last to a canyoned forest of pines through which a crystal brook dashed down its bouldery way — a rather darksome place from the nar- 146

rowness of the defile, yet one so marked by seclusiveness and the sparkling purity of its water that one would naturally choose it as a peace- ful refuge. There I made my camp, a camp I was to hold alone for a few days until my companions returned from a placer inspection in the Henry Mountains.

That afternoon instead of hunting deer I rode the horse to a distant cave that yawned in the face of a sloping cliff; for this region is replete with ancient Indian relics and hiding places. I reached my tent about sundown, and almost immediately perceived that during the day some- thing mysterious had visited it. There were no tracks; nothing was missing; but the magazines on my cot were all opened and laid face upward one on another. I thought it strange at the time, but was too hungry and tired to do aught but eat and then stretch wearily on the bed.

Sometime during the night I was waked by the creepy feeling that

somebody was watching me in the moonlight; so I propped on my el- bow and listened. Even the horse was still; but, being unconvinced, I reached for the flashlight and in my bare feet stepped outside. Finally, from the midst of a thick clump of willows, something reflected the rays; and when I spoke angrily there was no answer. Slowly I approach- ed, and when within a few yards, I found myself peering at the most dis- torted face I have ever seen — torn almost completely away on one side, with teeth exposed in a ghastly grin. I shuddered, hesitated; and then suddenly it sank from sight and I saw it no more.

Since it was not long before day- break, I tried to shake the uncanny apparition from my mind by reading the only book I had with me, Byron's poems, and the following day I rode high up into the hills as usual. Re- turning, however, early in the after- noon, I was scarcely surprised when again my tent proved the visitation of someone strange. There on a little camp stool was the book of poems, open, with two matches and a salt cellar inclosing this stanza from Byron's "When We Two Parted."

When we two parted

In silence and tears, Half broken-hearted

To sever for years, Pale grew thy cheek and cold,

Colder thy kiss; Truly that hour foretold

Sorrow to this.

That verse meant much to me; for it aroused a sort of sympathetic curiosity rather than disquieting ap- prehension. I decided to keep my eyes watchful for man as well as deer as I hunted further along the creek.

Finally three deer scampered be- fore me as I suddenly came upon them, and I caught but another glimpse of them as they bounded over some rocks into the willows of the other side; so, in order to ap- proach more cautiously others that might be there, I sprang from the saddle, and, with the reins over my elbow, stepped forward as softly as my moccasin-footed boots would allow. Since it involves intelligent attention to sound, movement, and direction of air currents, to me the chase of deer is always fascinating. Being thus alert, I suddenly saw in the labyrinth ahead of me a slight movement, and, before I quite real- ized it, I was again looking between the twigs directly at the most distort- ed visage I have ever seen upon a man. It was a face, but literally torn

THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MARCH, 1939

down the left side with shreds and scars that in the making had obliter- ated eye, cheek, part of the nose and chin, and had permanently exposed several teeth in that hideous grin. It was a head natural on one side but frightfully distorted on the other.

His stare at me was steady, watch- ful, in truth, slightly apprehensive and wistful; but, without further delay, I told him quietly that I must have made too much noise for the deer.

B,

»eing reassured by my observation, he emerged from the bush and stood before me — an old man, repulsively disfigured in visage, poorly clad, and carrying a rifle that from the length of its barrel I recog- nized as one of the earliest magazine- Winchesters.

"Yes, you made too much noise," he said with that sickening grin. "They've gone up into those pines."

Following his gesture I saw across the canyon, not the deer he had indicated, but a small log cabin built, as it seemed to me, around a mam- moth pine, as one might pitch a tent around a stupendous flag pole.

"Do — do you live there?" I asked as casually as I could under the cir- cumstances.

"Yes, that's my home," he said slowly, and rather wistfully as well, I thought. "Come on over and come in if you like."

Though his gray hair was long and his corduroy trousers torn here and there, his eye, literally his one eye, was kindly and sad in appear- ance; so without further parley I followed the strange man to his simple habitation.

To my surprise, the interior of the lonely cabin contained a hundred books or more, a pleasing indication of culture behind tragic loneliness of some unexplained kind. Like a faithful dog, a good book never fails a man who treasures its every page, and without complaint it will go with him into forlorn deserts or wilder- ness hills, I mooded in such fashion as I scanned the otherwise rough, hand-made furnishings.

"I watched you for a long time before I became convinced that you would not shun me when you saw," he said, as if really delighted at last that a human being sat willingly before him. "You see the deer here- abouts know me, but are quick to detect strangers."

"Do you live here — all alone?" I asked.

"Yes, for a long time here and for forty-three years altogether in like manner in quiet places along the river," he answered with reflective sadness in his tone.

I was overwhelmed with that simple statement, and gazed incredu- lously for several moments before I said the one word: "Why?"

"Well," he said as he gave a wry smile with those hideous teeth, "It's quite a long story."

"I promise you it will not be too long for me," I encouraged with the eagerness that always betrays my enthusiasm concerning strange ex- periences in the wilds.

"Over fifty years ago," he started, "I was a trapper at the head of Hen- ry's Fork in the Uintah Mountains; and, though I spent each winter on .those streams that constitute the very sources of Henry's Fork, Black Fork, and Bear River, I usually passed the summers in Wyoming, either at Evanston or Fort Bridger, where I had many friends. I had been educated in my native state of Indiana, and like many another lad, had sought the West for the sheer joy of being in its wildness. My books here, as you may note, will attest the fact that in reality I am a civil engineer. My trapping was to be but a venturesome experience pending remunerative employment. Among those I knew was a girl whom I loved deeply."

As I listened, I was impressed by his unmistakable culture, which was cruelly masked by his shocking facial distortion and indifference to the amenities of civilization.

"Go on," I said appreciatively.

"Well, it was in the month of May in those high mountains which bosom the sources of many delightful streams that the terrible experience befell me that changed the whole course of my life. I had enjoyed a prosperous catch of beaver skins, and had during the winter taken one mountain lion, one wolverine, three Canadian lynxes, two red foxes, as well as numerous snowshoe rabbits, in addition to the beavers. At the time the incident occurred that blighted my life, my partner had gone to town with a stack of pelts, and I was all alone.

"One day I strolled about a mile from the cabin with my Winchester in hand, more to pass the time than anything else, for we were well sup- plied with venison, when, upon en- tering a spruce grove, I suddenly came face to face with a grizzly bear. Apparently as surprised as I.

the animal arose upon its hind feet and tossed its head from side to side as if sniffing the air. It being my first meeting with a grizzly, I was unaware of the strange fortitude of the animal which permits it to fight desperately for whole minutes after being shot clear through the heart; so I did the foolish thing — I took aim at its chest and fired. Down it went; but in an instant it got up and came at me. Once more I fired, but the smoke of my gun had not even cleared before the brute was on me. I can see that huge paw in the air now; it tore, as you see, the half of my face away in that one terrific swipe that rendered me unconscious then and there."

"Whew!" I exclaimed.

"Yes, it was awful," he continued. "I knew nothing until three days later when a doctor at Fort Bridger stood over me. I was covered with bandages, and then heard the story from my partner of how he had found me unconscious with the bear dead at my side. I won't dwell long on the rest. The doctors those days did not have the facilities they have now. My eyeless left side was to be a horrible mess forever after — you yourself see it now. Perhaps I could have stood it, perhaps I could have gone on somehow; but — well, the plain truth is my girl tried bravely at first, but finally made one excuse after another for her cold- ness. I did not want her pity; so I again sought the hills. Four years later I learned from a friend that she had in the meantime died with my name on her lips. From the day I left her she "had refused the atten- tion of anyone else; and I never knew it. She languished and sank; her heart was broken, and I, fool, never knew. Oh, I never knew! I was shocked and heartsick with the world, for I could see nothing but crushing unhappiness through- out life. I haven't cared much whether I live or die since that time. I have drifted here and there up and down the Green River country, or the Colorado, always alone, always with some simple cabin like this one as my home, but none of them ever containing a mirror. Here I am on the slopes of the Colorado where often I visit those caves over there made by the ancient Indians, for I seem to be at home with those who are dead. I guess, son, that's about my entire story."

As if it were but yesterday, I see the sad, frightfully torn face of the hermit of the hills.

147

JhiL PROTESTORS OF CHRISTENDOM

m.

xU. OflctAiitL <Zuih&L

By JAMES L BARKER

Head of the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Utah, and a member of the Gen- eral Board of the Deseret Sunday School Union

( Continued )

Luther's opposition to Rome reached its highest point at Worms. After Worms, he re- peated his earlier arguments against the abuses of the church, and he con- tinued the struggle to set the con- science free. With the aid of the New Testament he was to under- take his work as a reformer of church discipline, to organize the Protestant communities, and to revise the forms of worship and church doctrine. As a rebel, he had been bold and rad- ical; as a reformer, he was conserv- ative and cautious. As a rebel, he made an important contribution — he stood for the rights of the individual conscience as opposed to the author- itative group; as a reformer, both in doctrine and organization, his con- tribution was slight, and in doctrine by no means free from error.

The true story of Luther's disap- pearance when he was seized and carried away on his journey home from Worms was not known until long afterwards. All sorts of rumors flew over Germany: he had been captured by emissaries of the pope; he was in prison, perhaps dead. When Luther's hearing before the Diet proved fruitless, the Elector of Saxony requested Spalatin {his sec- retary), his chaplain, and two of his councillors to hide Luther until the immediate danger was past. They were not to inform the Elector of Luther's whereabouts, and weeks passed before the Elector knew that Luther was safe and living in dis- guise in his own castle of the Wart- burg.

After Luther left Worms, the papal legate prepared an imperial mandate ( The Edict of Worms ) for the Emperor to sign. It threatened Luther's followers with extermina- tion. Had it been carried out, there would have been a war in Germany 148

such as the Albigensian war two centuries earlier in Southern France, but the uproar, created by the rumor that Luther had been killed, caused the German princes to defer the execution of the edict. In spite of the imperial edict, Luther's books were sold everywhere, and were even circulated in England where Henry VIII had ordered them to be burnt and in Scotland where the Scotch parliament had prohibited their im- portation.

Luther was very popular "and is spoken about in the most extrava- gant terms. He is . . . the Elias that was to come, the Angel of the Revelation 'flying through the mid- heaven with the everlasting gospel in his hands,' the national champion who was brought to Worms to be silenced, and yet was heard by em- peror, princes, and papal nuncios."1

At the Wartburg, Luther was called Squire George; he grew a beard and wore a sword at his side like a knight. He was permitted to correspond with his friends, and was well cared for. And he was in no immediate danger: the Emperor was at war with France and had left Ger- many; in Germany the power and perhaps the will to enforce the Edict of Worms were lacking.

Luther had time now to work on his translation of the New Testa- ment. In September it was ready for distribution and by December a second edition was issued from the presses. Before the first edition was ready for distribution, Luther had al- ready begun the translation of the Old Testament. The New Testa- ment went through sixteen revised editions and fifty reprints before 1534.

Authorities of the Roman church forbade the reading of Luther's translation and issued orders for its confiscation. The following is a

1Lindsay, A History of the Reformation, p. 302.

WARTBURG CASTLE

present-day Roman church appraisal of Luther's Bible:

The Bible of Luther possesses real literary- value; but what merit as to form can atone for the twisted (tendancieuses) interpreta- tions of the translator, for the skillful inter- polations and the perfidious suppressions which make of his work a profanation of the Sacred Book.2

In interpreting the scripture, Lu- ther took the view that anything that was not expressly forbidden by scripture was permissible. Among his followers there were some who were not so conservative, among them Carlstadt, who exerted the dominant influence in Wittenberg during the absence of Luther in the Wartburg. Carlstadt preached that if every priest were compelled to marry, it would be far better than enforced celibacy; on Christmas Day, 1521, he administered the Lord's supper in both kinds, giving the wine to the laity as well as to the priests; in February, 1522, riots broke out in Wittenberg against im- ages and pictures.

There also came to Wittenberg the "Zwickau prophets." They look- ed "to a mystic process of self-ab- straction from everything external, sensual, and finite, until the soul becomes immovably centered in the one Divine Being. . ." "They boast- ed of a direct revelation from God, of prophetic visions, dreams, and fa- miliar conversations with the deity."" And they rejected infant baptism.

In answer to their attack on bap- tism, Luther wrote to Melanchthon:

They urge nothing but the passage: 'He that believeth and is baptized, shall be

2Mourret, l.a Renaissance et la Reforme, p. 331. sKostlin, Martin Luther, p. 269.

THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MARCH, 1939

saved.' But what proof is there that in- fants do not believe? Is it that they do not speak and declare their faith? Accord- ing to this test, at how many hours will we be Christians? What when we are asleep, or engaged in other matters? Can- not God, then preserve faith in children in the same way, during the entire time of their infancy, as in a continual sleep? . . . By a singular miracle of God, it has come to pass that this article alone concerning the baptism of infants has never been called in question. No heretics, even, have denied it. The confession to its validity is constant and unanimous. . . . Whatever is not against Scripture, is for Scripture, and Scripture is for it.*

Luther felt it necessary to return to Wittenberg and, without the per- mission of the Elector, he arrived there on March 7. Without mention- ing any names, from the 9th to the 16th, he preached daily against fa- naticism. The Zwickau prophets de- manded that he recognize their au- thority. Of this interview, Luther says:

I finally requested them to establish their doctrines by miracles, of which they boast- ed contrary to Scripture. They, however, declined, but boasted that I must some- time believe them; whereupon I warned their God not to work a miracle against the will of my God. Thus we separated.6

Both Carlstadt and the Zwickau prophets shortly thereafter left Wit- tenberg.

About this time, Henry VIII of England caused Luther's books to be burned at Saint Paul's. He also urged the Elector to commit Luther and his books to the flames. Henry wrote a book against Luther and caused it to be presented to the pope. This so pleased the pope that he conferred on Henry the title of "De- fender of the Faith," a title the king of England still retains.

On December 1, 1520, Pope Leo X died and was succeeded by the Dutch Pope Adrian VI. Adrian sought to check the Reformation "by reforming the church, and above all, the Roman Curia, of which the conduct had of late been more than usually disgraceful. He accordingly proposed to the Diet of Nuremberg ( 1 522-23 ) that a general council should be held in Germany. In his opinion the abuses in the^ church were the source of all the trouble. . . ."6 The papal legate also carried a brief, urging the German princes to carry out the edict of Worms. "The princes received this urgent request in silence; but all the prelates who were present, in the interest of Rome, insisted that Lu-

4Jacobs, Martin Luther, p. 213.

5Kostlin, The Life of Martin Luther, p. 250, cited by Qualben.

6Funk-Cappadelta, A Manual of Church History, vol II, p. 88.

ther be put to death."7 The Diet re- issued the Grievances of the German Nation. It was finally determined that the rulers should restrain Lu- ther and see that the Gospel was preached according to the interpre- tation of the church until the meet- ing of a council within the year. However, only in Southern Ger- many were these promises kept. Adrian died and his successor, Clement VII, let the matter drop and the council did not meet.

Following the Peasants' War, the Romanist princes condemned men "to confiscation of goods or death, not for rebellion, for they had never taken part in the rising, but for their confessed attachment to Lutheran teaching."8 "It is said that (Aichili, a provost-marshal to the Swabian league) hung forty Lutheran pas- tors on the trees by the roadside in one small district." As early as 1525, the Roman church princes united for mutual defense; the Protestant princes entered into a covenant also until they should meet at Spires, where they would unite in resistance to the pope.

against the clergy, and asked that nothing be done to prevent the preaching of the Gospel. Ferdinand recommended a compromise which was unanimously adopted:

That the welfare of religion, and the maintenance of the public peace made it necessary that a general, or at least a na- tional council should at once be called, to commence its deliberations in the space of a year; that the emperor should, by a sol- emn address, be requested to procure such an assembly; and that, in regard to the ecclesiastical concerns and the Edict of Worms, the princes and states should, un- til either one or the other sort of council was called, undertake so to conduct them- selves in their respective provinces, as to be able to give to God, and to the emperor, a good account of their administration.

Thus until the meeting of a Gen- eral Council, each state should be allowed to control its own church.

In 1529, a Diet met again at Spires. It had been summoned by the emperor "in order that decisive and energetic measures should be taken as recommended once more by the pope, to secure the unity and sole supremacy of the Catholic Church."10 This second Diet of Spires declared that "those states

LUTHER'S STUDY

AT WA.RTBURG CASTLE.

When the Diet met in June, 1526, the emperor was represented by his brother, Ferdinand, who indicated the purpose for which it had been called; it should determine the best method for preserving the Christian religion; and the emperor looked to it to carry out the Edict of Worms. A committee of bishops and princes was appointed to find a solution to the religious differences. The Lu- theran party made many charges

The Religious Tract Society, The Life of Luther, p. 127

8Lindsay, A History of the Reformation, vol. II, p. 341.

which had held to the Edict of Worms should continue to impose its execution on their subjects; the other states should abstain at least from further innovations. . . . The subjects of one state were never to be protected by another state against their own."11 This resolution gave the power to the princes and bishops to stop the spread of Lutheranism. The Lutheran party protested that what had been decided unanimous- {Continued on page 179)

10Kostlin, Martin Luther, p. 386. "Kostlin, Martin Luther, p. 388.

149

jfa. NATIVE BLOOD

By ALBERT R. LYMAN

npHfi STORY THUS FAR: Down in -*- the land of the Navajos, where the great, weird shapes of Monument Valley punctuate the skyline of the Southwest, Yoinsnez and his son and his daughter, Eltceesie, lived in a hogan, neighboring Husteele and his little son Peejo. But de- spite their neighborliness in alt other things there grew a bitter rivalry between the two for the capture of a phantom horse — Beeleh thlizhen {blackhorse) — a stallion of Arabian type that appeared full-grown on Huskaniny Mesa on the Utah-Arizona line, and which defied all efforts for his capture, whether of trickery, stealth, or force. As the occupants of each hogan would attempt his capture, the occupants of the other would lie in wait to see if their rivals were successful. Suddenly, however, the dread influenza struck the hogan of Yoinsnez, crushing the life from his son and pros- trating all others. While their rivals were so stricken, Husteele and Peejo sought again to capture Blackhorse — but without success. Then the devastating plague vis- ited the hogan of Husteele. Ten days later, after Yoinsnez had finally gained strength enough to visit his neighbor and rival, only eleven-year-old Peejo was still alive. Yoin- snez took the boy to his own roof and cared for him. He also took Husteele's horses and herds and mingled them with his own, and burned down Husteele's ho- gan in an effort to blot out the dread epi- demic. Yoinsnez's first feeling of compas- sion soon, however, turned to rising resent- ment and bitter distrust when Peejo seemed reluctant to tell all that he and his father, Husteele, had learned of Blackhorse. Be- fore an adequate period of convalescence, Peejo and Eltceesie were out caring for the sheep, and as a rival for Eltceesie's fa- vor there came Natawney Begay, vain and favored son of the tribe's big medicine man. In boyish physical conflicts he bested the sick-worn Peejo. Husteele's open ap- proval of Begay's attentions widened the breach between Husteele and Peejo, and, driven to anger, Peejo told Husteele that he would never find Blackhorse until he had returned to Peejo the sheep and horses taken from his father s corral, and then Peejo disappeared. Months had lengthened into years when Begay returned home from a celebration in New Mexico to tell a brooding Yoinsnez of having seen Peejo — a new Peejo, now the adopted son of a wealthy white man, who sent word that he would come back some day — a day of triumph for Peejo in which Yoinsnez "will crawl on his belly and beg me to help him." Then there came further to plague Yoinsnez' life a burly white man who set up a questionable trading post.

Chapter V

T

.he white man began by- making a rude dugout in the hill- side, and as he wielded the pick and shovel, throwing the dirt out behind him like a burrowing animal, the Navajos called him Na~hus~tcit, which means badger, and from that time he was known to the people 150

of the reservation as The Badger.

From their camps all around they came to his dugout-store to smoke and listen while they commented on his half-filled shelves and asked for his prices. They wanted to know what he would give for their wool, their blankets, their silverware. What would he charge for flour, bacon, sugar? He laughed loud and carelessly — he would beat all the prices they had ever known — why should a store-man be stingy with his customers? They need not be at all afraid; he would buy high and sell low. He jingled his silver before them and slapped them on the back, "Ha, ha, ha, youbetcherlife!"

With lavish fellowship and shrewd understanding of the ordi- nary Navajo's prevailing weakness, he threw a blanket on the counter and on it a deck of cards. It would be a little game of coon-can, they would play, of course. "Hacoon," (Come on) he bantered, plunking down a handful of silver as if it were so many buttons.

They played coon-can and some of them won — more of them lost. The Badger appeared to have little concern for his money; all he want- ed was a lively game. He laughed boisterously and slapped them on the back when they got his cash, tickling their ego and exaggerating their sense of gain. He lost a well- advertised little, but slyly and quiet- ly gained by a safe margin all the time.

He would bet on races, cards, dice, anything. He carried his own special deck and his own attractive little cubes always in his pocket, preferring to stake his values on them as on some very familiar friend with dependable bias in his favor.

It was the men of influence who won, and they carried glowing re- ports of the store in all directions. They told of the big games, the easy winnings, the lowest prices when they bought, the highest prices when they sold. They came riding in from all around to buy, to sell, but when they had sold out, and before they bought the necessities they had in mind in making the trip, they heard the careless jingle of sil- ver and figured they would double their little wad by the mere exercise of their wits.

This whole business was offen-

sive to Yoinsnez; it was an insult to his cherished pride, another ugly shadow on his dark horizon. From the day The Badger first stuck his pick in that hillside, nothing con- nected with the dugout ever set right on the old man's stomach. When- ever he went there, it was to protest, and every visit gave him added oc- casion.

The Badger laughed loud at all objections, drowning the old man's arguments with his big noise,

"Ha, ha, ha, youbetcherlife," he boomed, "the old Navajos are a hundred years behind time, but the young men are quick to pick up new ideas in spite of all these silly stories."

The young men liked the compli- ment, and laughed at the troubled old man as he went in disgust and indignation from the hillside store to nurse his grievances in the dust of his flock and frame some better argument for next time.

With increasing antipathies for the trading post as the months slip- ped by, Yoinsnez watched it trans- fer business from the dugout to a neat stone building where his peo- ple sat losing their money to the big laugh for hours at a time. And the big laugh was always wise to send none of them away downcast or hungry; if they felt too bad about their losses he returned enough of, their money to soothe their wound- ed spirits. "Ha, ha, ha, youbetcher- life. We're friends; we play for fun and nobody hurt."

Yet however much the fun or strong the friendship, however great his much-advertised losses, and the generous amounts he returned after the game, the coon-can, the dice, or some other smooth kink in the sys- tem was making him rich at the ex- pense of the old man's simple people.

Yoinsnez knew by some unfailing intuition that it was fraudulent, though he could not point to the proof. He did know that the wool, the hides, and blankets were weigh- ed in over one pair of scales, while the sugar, bacon, and other things were weighed out over another pair, and he insisted there was a snake hidden somev/here in the contrap- tions of the business. When he tried to tell that to his people, they laughed at him, and when he said as much to The Badger, he was called a slow and doting old man.

"It's a trick!" he insisted, shout-

ing to be heard above the big laugh, "'A mean, sneaking trick!"

"Don't I bet on horse-races and foot-races!" laughed the store-man, making Yoinsnez ridiculous before a full house, "Where's my trick in that?"

"The races are few, but the tricks are all the time. You play—" but he was smothered under the big laugh and a slap on the bony old back.

It was an outrage! He withdrew to brood over the humiliation of it, and to tell it to himself in the way he had always failed to tell it in the store. That ponderous jackass laugh was always a slur at him and his people. White men were an effem- inate breed unable to survive the stern realities through which the Navajos had been fighting for ages, yet this trickster was reaping the hard-earned crop which the Nava- jos had made the dry desert to yield. Yoinsnez looked back in anger at the neat warehouse packed with "wool, pelts, and blankets which his people had brought in by the back- load only to go away practically empty; but worse still, to go away satisfied. The Badger had increased his stock, employed a clerk, and be- come free to give his own time to operating the big laugh and the mysterious separating machine which poured the Navajos out of one spout and their cash values out of another.

Yoinsnez watched the sly process and hated it more devotedly every day. Yet he couldn't resist the hate- ful lure of the place, though he al- ways came out inflamed afresh with another discovery or another hurt. He could seldom be heard above the laugh, nor could he always dodge

■■I^M

THE TOTEM POLE, MONUMENT VALLEY. THIS GIANT OBELISK STANDS A THOUSAND FEET ABOVE THE FLOOR OF THE VALLEY.

Photo by Harry Goulding, Monu- ment Valley Trading Post Operator.

the hated slap on the back. He could not forgive it.

O

ne day The Badger boasted to a crowded house that his pale race had horses and men to run off and hide from the fleetest Navajo that ever rode or ran. The old man was on his feet with raised hands in a second — no patronizing slap could settle that into the tem- pest of his resentment, and no laugh, however bovine, could drown his angry protest. With his sloping brow deep-furrowed and his long teeth giving force to his words, he made The Badger listen.

"The Great Spirit has given no people faster horses or better legs than He has given us. Don't boast any more!" he roared in a fury, his muddy old eyes ablaze. "Bring your fast horse and your fast man. Let your money talk about it."

"Ha, ha, ha, youbetcherlife! That's just the way we'll do it," rejoiced The Badger, as if he had caught a fish, "I'll be ready for you in ten days. Send word to your people all around to come to the big races."

Getting the people in from all around — that was the system; he could afford to make a generous bid for their coming since he would run them through his separator when they came. So he sent up the river for a fast horse and to Flagstaff for a man.

He put up fifty dollars on each race for them to cover if they could by joining together, for he knew that their cash was as short as their foresight on which he doted for his separating machine. With his silver

THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MARCH, 1939

up there to mock at their poverty, he pretended to care little what they did in answer, and told the old man to help himself.

Yoinsnez studied to make out what long-headed scheme was be- ing incubated under The Badger's red hair, and he bubbled with de- light as he guessed it: Any foot- racer to be picked up at random in Flagstaff, and any horse to be found among the posts along the river could not be seriously expected to beat the Navajos — this was just a sly bait for another race later on, nothing more. The Badger expected them to win it, or to come so near it they would by all means want to run again. "Let it be just that way," chuckled the old man to himself, "it is a game at which we can play."

He asked Begay not to run in the race, to keep Tillego away out of sight, pretending that the brown colt was dead or hopelessly lame, but to bring the old bay mare and get some speedy Navajo boy to do the running for them. They would win if they could, but in any case they would be ready for the big race to follow.

The old man and his intended son-in-law chuckled to each other as the appointed day arrived, bring- ing with it a gray horse from a post on the river, and a trim athlete from the Arizona town. The bay mare was to do her best, which they con- fidently hoped would be enough, and the Navajo boy, not in on the secret, intended to win or burst a blood vessel.

The people of the reservation came from distant points, and a number of white men came in cars from towns in Utah and Arizona. The storeman, taking account of the profitable-sized crowd, made it a point to have the big events de- layed till late in the day, giving him more time to run them through his separator before the cash values were too much disturbed.

The medicine man's son encour- aged the report that the brown colt was done for, and that he was run- ning the fastest horse in the north side of the reservation. Husteele's old mare was nothing for size, even if age had not begun telling against her. Her grooming in the great out- doors, where real fitness is sup- posed to sharpen its edge on the raw surface of adversity, had given her an appearance not promising to say the least. The storeman looked her over and conferred in a whisper with his jockey.

(Continued on page 162)

151

\\

PRAYER PERFECT

//

jMMmz

J. El

et lambs, a lunch pail, and a prayer!

That is a queer assortment of material things and spiritual, isn't it?

Yet that assortment on one oc- casion brought the richest experi- ence of a lifetime — the assurance to the soul of a ten-year-old boy that God had heard and answered his prayer for help.

Lambs were more than mere pets in that pioneer settlement in south- ern Idaho forty-odd years ago. They meant wool for quilts or for sale in a year or two, or winter meat to supplement a food supply that was all too scanty.

That is the reason that news of a passing sheep herd out on the prairie caused an exodus of small boys from the little country schoolhouse that morning in early springtime. Scam- pering barefooted through the sage- brush, their lunch pails in their hands, they thought only of a tri- umphal return in the evening with lambs abandoned by the herders as too weak to stand the long drive to summer ranges.

Nor is it strange that in the ex- citement of finding lambs not too far gone, one of the lads set his pail on the ground some place in that wil- derness of brush — and forgot it. He thought only of the two lambs the herders had given to him.

The enormity of the loss came later when he returned home in the dusk of evening. Even the woolly bits of salvage he proudly laid be- fore his parents did not compensate for the loss of the pail: even now it 152

A TRUE SHORT

SHORT STORY

Complete on this page

By W. W. CHRISTENSEN

rises before him, rectangular and tinny, the inverted cup on the lid like the turret of the Monitor in his old history book. Pails far better can be bought for a quarter nowadays.

But it was different in that new country. Economy, even in little things, was the price of living. For the only source of income until crops were harvested in the fall was a few dozen eggs or a few pounds of but- ter, swapped at the country store for the bare necessities. New lunch pails for careless boys were not in- cluded in the family budget.

That is why the boy trudged out on the desert the next morning with the stern order ringing in his ears to stay there until he found that pail.

It was like sending him to search for the proverbial needle in the hay- stack. Sagebrush almost as high as the boy's head stretched around him for miles. Landmarks there were none in that broad sweep of hills and hollows. Only the distant mountains and the green of wheat fields on the foothills pointed the way to his home.

llouR after hour he searched, trying to retrace his foot- steps of the day before. At times he imagined he caught the glint of tin on a distant hillside and raced toward it, only to find it was an illu- sion, or a bit of flint glistening in the

sunlight. Noontime found him tired and thirsty — but still doggedly de- termined. Late in the afternoon the blue shadows beginning to slant from the western mountains drove him to more frantic efforts. He would not give up; he dared not go home with- out that pail! Child though he was, he already knew the pioneer code which accepted no excuse for failure.

Perhaps his desperation led him to think of praying. From babyhood he had been taught to murmur the word-patterns which pass for prayer in the minds of children. But never before had he really prayed. Now he did pray, a sob choking the whis- pered words in his throat:

"Please, God! I — I can't find it alone. You know I have tried. Won't you please help me now?"

Somebody has said that perfect prayer is a meeting of the soul with the Infinite. If so, that meeting was surely made out there in the desert twilight, for infinite peace came to the heart of the troubled boy — and the assurance that his halting plea had been heard.

Yes, he found the pail — not a hundred feet from where he had lifted his tear-stained face to the darkened sky.

Coincidence, you say? It was possible, of course. But the peace and assurance which flooded his soul even as he whispered his plea for help was not coincidence. It welled up from deeper sources — sources never before felt in his life.

Now, after all these years, he cherishes that experience as his richest remembrance — a memory of Prayer Perfect.

"ChvwhkcL 3bwuwA. /$. cl

NEW RELIGION

//

A

NATIONALLY-RECORDED CHAPTER IN THE RISE OF MORMONISM FROM A 19TH CENTURY REGISTER.

BY

PROOFS OF THE FIRST EDITION OF THE BOOK OF MORMON.

FEW things happen in this little earth, but what some keen ob- server records his reactions to what is happening.

For more than a dozen decades the rise and progress of Mormonism has occasioned events, not a few of which have been captured and re- corded in some manner. I live in one part of the world, you live in another, and our mutual friend dwells in yet another, but each of us, nowadays, picks up his newspa- per or news magazine, and reads press reaction to an annual confer- ence address delivered in the historic Tabernacle the week or day before. This press comment has become part of the social record, and is by us digested, perhaps weeks before we see a Church periodical. And this same press comment concerning Mormonism has been poured into the record since — well, how long? Thereby hangs my story.

In the early 1800's, Baltimore, Maryland, was in many respects the outstanding metropolis of the coun- try, at least the most central one. The Boston post road to the north, new roads to the south from the new national capital on the banks of the Potomac, and the coastwise trading vessels, north and south, made Bal- timore the information-diffusing cen- ter of the new republic. Thus, on Water Street, east of South Street, one H. Niles plied his presses and issued forth each week to the read- ers of the young nation, Niles' Weekly Register.

For a picture of the United States

G. HOMER DURHAM

University of California at Los Angeles

of America between the years 1801 and about 1840, an examination of one of the annually-bound volumes of the Register is without a peer; nation-wide coverage of news, listed by states and localities, including even the formidable frontier states of Ohio, Indiana, and Missouri! Re- views of recent Supreme Court de- cisions delivered by Mr. Chief Jus- tice Marshall; announcements of "Mr. Fulton's amazing invention" — the steamboat — in brief, Niles' Weekly Register was to that day and age, what the nation's most in- fluential news magazine is to us.

And I thought to myself: Fre- quently today's news magazines give space to news and events from Mor- mondom. Would it be possible that Niles' Register may have recorded any comments on the rise of the Lat- ter-day Saints? Here was a weekly press, clanking out a weekly record of world events for American read- ers; the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was formally or- ganized on April 6, 1830; how long did it take for the "new Church" to break into national print? Pricked by such questions as these, and knowing the unique stock in which the Register is set by historians, I recently "dug" into the 70-odd vol- umes preserved in the library of the University of California at Los An- geles, which were interesting to dis- cover.

In the index to volume 42, I found my first clue: "Mormonism, A New Religious Sect . . . page 353." Turn- ing rapidly to the page, I found un- der date of July 16, 1831, the fol- lowing account, prominently placed in the "Editorial and Miscellan- eous." I was interested in two things: first, the date line, only fif- teen months after six men formally organized the Church; and second, the typographical misplacement of an "r" rather than the "n" in "Mor-

monism," despite correct spelling in

the index. The complete account

follows :

Mormorism. Most of our readers must recollect that certain knaves, pretending to have found some holy writings, hidden under a stone in Ontario county, New York, started a new religion! The leaders make bold pretensions and assert a gift to work miracles. The members of this sect are now said to amount to 1,000 souls! — some of whom, very honestly, no doubt, believe in all things that are told them, and yet have borne the character of worthy men. Their great prophet Jo, has selected a part of Geauga County, Ohio, and pro- nounced it to be "the promised land," and thither the deluded people are flocking, chiefly, from New York. As a few men of property have been induced to cast their funds into a common stock, there is no want of recruits from among the lazy and worthless classes of society. They saw that a miracle was worked in their behalf, by clearing a passage through the ice at Buffalo — some of them affect a power even to raise the dead, and perchance (such is the weakness of human nature) , really be- lieve that they can do it! The chiefs of those people appear to exempt themselves from labor, and herein is, probably, the grand object for which they have established the new religion.

piLLED with many things with which Latter-day Saints will not agree, the account nevertheless be- trays the dynamic energy and pow- er that marked the rise of the Res- toration. The account's beginning takes for granted that "most of our readers" have heard of the new re- ligion, though but fifteen months old, and gives it credit for a membership of one thousand. Revealed in the account, despite its choice of words, are the principles of gathering and "common stock" or security, which came like a thunderbolt of power to aid the little movement from its out- set. Even the miracles and refer- ence to leadership, though badly misinterpreted, would play their part with the average reader, arousing his curiosity about' the "great Proph- et Jo" who "could exempt himself from labor" and yet attract "worthy men"- — ideas that simply do not mix! That actual power resided in the group is the unmistakable impres- sion of a comment printed in the issue of September 8, 1832 (now appearing in volume 43) :

Mormonism. Two preachers of this sect {Concluded on page 168)

153

The relief society

SOME COMBINED CHORUSES OF THE RELIEF SOCIETY SINGING MOTHERS AS THEY APPEARED AT GENERAL CONFERENCE, APRIL, 1938.

SINGING MOTHERS

By ANNIE WELLS CANNON

Of the Relief Society General Board

Tnto the lives of thousands of women there comes a new outlook on life, as the routine of home service is broken by the joy of song.

LOUISE Y. ROBISON

ON A summer evening in 1933, over the ether waves, from the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, to the city of Chi- cago, came the voices of mothers, singing the quaint old song, "Songs My Mother Used To Sing," follow- ed by the modulated voice of Rich- ard L. Evans announcing, "The Singing Mothers of the National Woman's Relief Society send greet- ings on wings of song to the Na- tional Council of Women and the International Congress of Women, assembled in the Hall of Science in Chicago."

It had been the inspiration of Mrs. Louise Y. Robison, President of the Relief Society, that the mes- sage from the women of Utah to 154

the 1933 Council, held during the "Century of Progress," at Chicago, should be a broadcast. Arrange- ments had accordingly been made and following pertinent comment by Elder Richard L. Evans, relative to woman's work and place in world affairs, the Singing Mothers ren- dered a program of classical music under the direction of Mrs. Char- lotte O. Sackett, accompanied by Dr. Frank W, Asper on the great organ.

Hundreds of women, officers, delegates, and members of the Coun- cil, distinguished and representative women from many foreign lands, as well as the United States, were gathered in the beautiful Hall of Science as the Utah delegates, in breathless anticipation, awaited the first announcement, but when the voices of 250 women burst into clear, melodious song, they saw the suc- cess of the venture clearly express- ed in the pleased smiles on many faces. The event brought, perhaps, the first realization of the possibili- ties of the group of Latter-day Saint women known as "The Singing Mothers."

Music has not been considered a major activity in the Relief Society, though it always formed a part of the regular meetings and at stake and ward conferences has been an interesting and attractive feature.

During the presidency of Mrs. Bathsheba W. Smith, a general Re- lief Society choir was organized and trained by the talented Welsh sing- er, Lizzie Thomas Edward. This large choir of selected voices held regular rehearsals and learned many fine anthems and hymns to sing at the general conferences of the Re- lief Society held semi-annually in April and October. In 1919, a song book, with hymns suitably arranged for the voices of mature women members of the Society, was pub- lished and used for many years. Time was allotted for practice un- der appointed choristers at both union and ward meetings and many stakes and wards had fine choirs and choruses.

In 1931, the Liberty Stake, pre- sided over by Mrs. Ida Rees, held a music festival in the Yale Ward chapel. Mrs. Charlotte Owens Sack- ett was stake chorister, and directed

THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MARCH, 1939

the festival. During her service as stake chorister she had organized a large chorus of selected voices from the several wards, which she called a mothers' chorus. Present on this occasion were President Louise Y. Robison, also Utah's notable singer, Mrs. Lucy Gates Bowen, invited there to give a talk on music appre- ciation, and the music committee of the General Board of the Relief So- ciety, Ida Peterson Beal, Elise B. Alder, and Ethel R. Smith. All of these women were enthusiastic in their praise of the chorus and the chorister.

Because of the enthusiastic report of the committee, President Robison invited Mrs. Sackett to bring her chorus and participate in the music at the April conference in 1932. After this event, an enlarged chorus of women's voices to be sponsored by the General Board and directed by Mrs. Sackett was organized. This group, consisting of 250 mothers, furnished the music for the April conference in 1933, appearing un- der the name of "The Singing Moth- ers." They had previously given one broadcast and owing to their dili- gent work were well prepared for the great event referred to at the beginning of this article.

A singing mother is usually asso- ciated with home life, with cradle songs and lullabies, and with Sun- day evenings, when the family group gather around her, at the organ or piano, and sing the old familiar songs, "Annie Laurie," "Home, Sweet Home," "My Old Kentucky Home," "Just A Song At Twilight," and others sweet to recall. Soon, however, the children leave the home fireside and the music is only a memory. Not so today — here is a large group of women who thought their singing days were over but who now have answered the call of the Relief Society and formed choirs of Singing Mothers throughout the Church.

Eight years have elapsed since the Liberty Stake music festival, which was followed by the organ- ization of the Singing Mothers, and although no survey has been made of the exact number, it is estimated that several thousands of women have joined the ranks to enjoy the social and cultural development of the divine art.

For special occasions, the central choir can be augmented by hun- dreds of singers from the several stakes and missions. This fact was demonstrated at the April confer- ence, 1938, when mothers to the

number of one thousand gathered in the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City and furnished most excellent music, not only for the Relief Society, but for two sessions of the general Church conference. The chorus com- pletely filled the choir seats and ex- tended some distance down each side of the balcony. It was an inspir- ing and wonderful spectacle, when, at the signal of the baton, these fine women, clad alike in dark skirts and white satin blouses, stood and, in harmony and unison, sang classic hymns and anthems to the accom- paniment of the great organ.

VS7HEN one contemplates that these women, mothers of large families, some of them grandmoth- ers, to some of whom Rossini, Men- delssohn, Marchetti, and Schubert were not long since only vaguely meaningful names, are now singing with ease the compositions of these great masters, one can but wonder at the achievement. Their repertoire consists of a hundred numbers of sacred anthems and hymns, and over thirty secular songs, most of which have been memorized.

In addition to the enjoyment and spiritual uplift this organization has given to the public by furnishing unusual music at the general and Re- lief Society conferences and radio broadcasts, it has been a means of bringing into the lives of thousands of women a new outlook on life. There has also been a marked im- provement in the ward meetings; greater attention is being given to the selection of music; the hymns and incidental numbers, vocal or instrumental, harmonize with the

programs or lessons of the day, thus producing a mood in keeping with the spirit of the occasion.

The success of this undertaking is first of all due to the encourage- ment of President Louise Y. Robi- son, to whom the music committee and director always refer for coun- sel and assistance; second, to the committee, which at times has un- dergone some changes in personnel, but has always had Ida Peterson Beal, an ardent member. Mrs. Beal is herself the possessor of a clear, soprano voice. Janet Thompson, chairman of the committee, is an ac- complished pianist, and a woman of fine understanding and pronounced executive ability; Beatrice F. Ste- vens, the other member, composer of the Relief Society membership song, is also an ardent lover of mu- sic. The cooperative work of the music committee has been invalu- able to the chorus.

[owever, the arduous work of building up the organization to its present status of efficiency, must be accorded to that dynamic direc- tor, Mrs. Charlotte Owens Sackett.

Lottie Owens, when a young girl in her home town of Willard City, Box Elder County, had a close as- sociation with the late Evan Steph- ens, conductor, composer, and mu- sician. An innate love for music com- bined with home encouragement early brought Sister Sackett's talent to the front. When quite a young woman, she became superintendent (Concluded on page 162)

A TYPICAL GROUP OF SINGING MOTHERS AT ONE OF THEIR APPEARANCES AT A GENERAL RELIEF SOCIETY CONFERENCE IN THE SALT LAKE TABERNACLE. THERE ARE MANY SUCH GROUPS THROUGHOUT THE CHURCH.

H(

WHY JOHNNY DOESN'T TALK

HATTIE BELL ROSS

Clinical Assistant, Institute for Human Adjustment, University of Michigan.

Tf he doesn't, clinical research shows that there may be * any one of many causes, not the least of which may be nutritional deficiencies.

CONDUCTED BY MARBA C. JOSEPHSON

Johnny doesn't talk! Mr. and Mrs. Brown are very "worried. The fam- ily physician has examined the child's mouth and said: "There's no reason why he can't talk." Father and mother look at each other in silent con- sternation. Tears come to Mrs. Brown's eyes — perhaps, Oh, horrible thought! Perhaps Johnny isn't just "right!"

Two years went by. Johnny was still not talking. Mrs. Brown found it more and more difficult to take him out among people, for they, too, had begun to look askance at the silent child. One day a neighbor came hurry- ing up the front walk, so excited she found it impossible to restrain herself. "Mrs. Brown," she called, "Mrs. Brown, see here!" She waved a news- paper in her hand. Mrs. Brown took the paper and read: "Speech Clinic formed at the University. Work to be done for children who do not talk, those who can hear only in part, and those generally classed as stammerers and stutterers."

At the University Mrs. Brown was asked to give a history of Johnny's life. She was surprised. She had come to have Johnny's speech "fixed up."

"It isn't quite that easy," she was told. "We must find out where in his background the development and con- trol went wrong. Now, is there any history of speech difficulty on either side of the child's family — either on yours or your husband's?"

"None that I know of."

"Is there any history of deafness in the family? Especially where the age of onset is steadily younger?"

"Why, my husband's grandmother lost her hearing, but she was very old. What has that got to do with speech?"

"If Johnny is deaf or has lost even a part of his hearing, he cannot hear what others say and therefore would not be able to imitate. Does he make any sounds at all?"

"Yes, once in a while."

"Does he seem to hear — anything?"

156

"Yes, he comes when I call him. He likes to listen to the radio."

"Does he turn it up loud? Or does he put his hand on the cabinet as he listens?"

"No, not that I've noticed. What would that mean?"

"It might be an indication of a lack of hearing and a supplement of what hearing he might have by the vibrations through the wood of the cabinet. Johnny! Come here, please."

Johnny came over and looked in- quiringly at the clinician. She held a stop-watch in her hand and extended her arm toward him. "Can you hear this?" she asked, smiling.

Johnny looked at the watch, then at the clinician and grinned. She moved her hand near first one ear then the other, varying the distance. Each time Johnny grinned. "He seems to hear. It is, I'm sorry to say, impossible to test these tiny children accurately. Now, what are his eating habits? Does he eat vegetables, milk, eggs, meat, cheese?"

"No, he's always been a feeding problem. He doesn't eat much of any- thing but he does drink a lot of milk. Ought I to make him eat more solid proteins? I thought children shouldn't have them."

"These foods are the muscle builders, and since he is a growing child, he has to have them to furnish the material for muscles. You can't build brick houses, you know, without bricks. Milk is made up so largely of water that it takes an enormous quantity of it to supply the materials needed for muscle building and repairing. It is an ex- cellent source of calcium for bones and teeth. But growing children need these other protein foods to keep the already formed tissues repaired, you see, so they may do the very complicated work we call speech. Does Johnny chew his crusts? Or eat any vegetables raw?"

"No, he doesn't. I've never given him raw vegetables — won't he choke?"

"No, he'll soon learn to guide his tongue, keep his mouth closed and hold his breath while swallowing— muscles are very intelligent."

"I'm sorry to ask so many questions, but what has that chewing got to do with speech?"

The clinician smiled. She had an- swered just such questions from parents, eager to understand the difficulties of their youngsters, many times before.

"You see there are no special speech organs. Those that we use for speech have other, and more important work, as far as maintenance of life is con- cerned— what we call vegetative func- tions. That is, they are for breathing, swallowing, sucking, and chewing (food-taking) purposes. Now if these structures do not perform their first purposes well, they won't do an added and very special work well either, will they? If a child cannot or does not suck, he won't be able to make the vowels based on that pursing of the lips, hollowing of the tongue activity, will he? If his tongue hasn't learned to keep out of the way of his teeth in chewing, it cannot be expected to do such highly complicated and complex work as valving for the speedy con- sonants."

"Oh." Mrs. Brown had material here that needed thought before she could say more.

"You might," the clinician went on, "give Johnny thin strips of carrot to chew on or even gum, so that he may learn to control his tongue and chew vigorously. Also don't strain his vege- tables. Give them to him in cubes, then in regular slices."

( Concluded on page 1 62 )

MARCH By Queena Davison Miller

She thrusts aside the littered fronds From winter darkened earth And frees the sod of chilly bonds To give new bracken birth.

She breasts the tide of freshet flood

To where the alder dips And tints each drowsy little bud

With gentle finger tips.

Rejoiced to know her vernal task

Commendably begun, She loiters on the hills to> bask

And breathe the slanted sun.

THE WIND By Jean Stagg

I would that I could be the wind A'swinging high and low, Convention all undisciplined, How quickly I would go.

I'd scale the highest mountain, Then swoop down o'er the plains,

Make misty spray of fountains, And loiter through the lanes.

I'd make the smallest grasses play,

And bend the tallest tree, Fling birdies far on sky-high larks

In hilarious revelry!

I'd move the mighty ocean,

Make waves white-capped with foam, Fill out the sails of stranded barks,

And send them winging home.

I'd cool the burning desert sands.

The grains about I'd sift. Enjoy the sights of far-off lands,

Send thistledown adrift.

Strange eerie songs I'm sure I'd sing

In some deserted hall, Bring down the bright-hued autumn leaves,

A blanket in the fall.

And then when day was nearly gone,

I'd calm down to sleep, To wake up, rested, filled with song

The world again to sweep.

■ <— •

SPRING'S SERENADE By Dorothy H. Porter

SPRING tossed her head at Old Man Winter And cried, "I dare you to intrude." The Old Man winked his fading eye And sighed, "I wouldn't be so rude." Spring smiled and waved her slender hand And flowers blossomed in the sand; "You see," said she, "what joy I bring, Now don't you wish that you were

Spring?" The Old Man stood and from his face The wrinkles fled with sudden grace; He puffed and blew and snowflakes fell; But Spring just smiled and waved goodbye; There was a twinkle in her eye. Tired Winter sank upon the ground, While Spring went tripping through the

hills, And when at dusk she found his mound It was covered over with daffodils.

RESIGNATION TRIUMPHANT By Irene E. Jones

(The author of this poem has been blind since childhood)

Along the path that climbs life's mountain peak I wander slow, with feet that grope their

way; The sun with soft caressing warms my

cheek, But paints for me no gorgeous-colored day.

The darkness clings as though with fright- ened hand

I might reach out and push aside the shades of night,

Let in the day, and liberated stand

Within the glories of life-giving light.

For. in the darkness, life is incomplete, A time for deep forgetfulness and sleep; The day means action for eager hands and

feet, Full-filled with blessed toil — no time to

weep.

I yearn to have my pa. t in building life, A home where love returns at eventide To find a respite from a world of strife, And in the service of my hands take pride.

I long to know what mothers know of pain, The joy to answer tiny arms that reach For mine; beside my knee a heart to train, A lisping voice a baby prayer to teach.

As I, created, am a living part

Of God's great plan to create life a-new,

And bring to ultimate peace the human

heart, I ache to grow a life as my life grew.

These soul-desires throughout the years de- nied, I question why, and beat with broken wings Against the prison bars, like one who tried To thwart God's will in great and little things.

Then, words of comfort, spoken from a- far: "God gives each one his place and thou hast

thine; He gives each clod a task, each shining

star, And who art thou to question the design?"

And so, content, I grope the upward trail, Not submissive to my fate, but strong. With faith and courage I shall never quail Beneath the lash, or twisting, torturing thong.

I know not yet what part I have to bear, Perhaps a minor chord within a hymn, A little word in universal prayer, A fleeting smile on features gray and grim.

But, God be thanked, I have a life to share,

A heart to beat in unison with man,

A soul that sings, and still can humbly dare

To be a tiny part in God's great plan. . ♦ .

SPRING

By Belle Watson Anderson

T wandered along the foothills *• And followed a winding stream. Every flower that I carried home Was the portrait of a dream.

A FEBRUARY DAY By Virginia Woolley

LONG do I search through the dark, cold house, Yet I know not for what I seek. Might it be the friend upon the bookshelf, Who often in a dreary hour has comforted My aching heart?

But no, for while I turn the loving pages, My eyes wander to a vase of dying roses; My ears catch the sound of a slow, rhyth- mic tango, And my heart is filled with deep sentiment And emotion.

I have the urge to dance in a wild, swaying

fashion, And though my spirit soars to the damp,

gray Clouds above, I am standing motionless In the open doorway. The wind, gathering the spray from the

pelting Rain, blows in on my face, cooling the fever Within me. Then as in a dream, my hands play strange

and Soulful chords on the yellowing ivories. I weep a waterless tear for a person of my

own fancy. Oh, changing moods depart — Let peace and

quiet Overcome me!

HIS SOIL By Anna Prince Redd

The plowman scans with practiced eye, Resting a moment from his toil: The cirrus clouds that sweep the sky, The folded furrows of his soil —

Scurrying clouds too white for rain, Red soil too dry to promise yield — Then drives his sweating team again Across and up and down the field.

Behind his team he strides along; Above his head the sea gulls fly, He whistles, calls them with his song, Gives back a raucous cry for cry.

He plows and sings, and sings and plows, Nor stops until his plowing's dene; It's bound to rain, so he allows, Undaunted by the glaring sun.

And when it comes, with fitful gust, Or slanting strong and steady, His fine rich soil as red as rust, In deep-serried rows is ready.

He scans his work with practiced eye And rests at evening from his toil; He loves the blue capricious sky, The folded furrows of his soil.

JEALOUSY By Mrs. N. C. Michaelson

"VTour jealous anger, like a scorching sun, ■* Fell on the flower of love, that bloomed so fair; Too late, remorseful tears, like freshening

rain Fell to revive it. for no love was there.

157

EARLY UTAH JOURNALISM (J. Cecil Alter, Stevens & Wallis, Inc., for the Utah State Historical Society, 1938. 405 pages. $3.50.)

A prodigious task of gathering and as- ** sembling factual information has been accomplished by J. Cecil Alter and his aides in this work. Nor is the human ele- ment lacking. In visiting every Utah town which has or ever had a newspaper, and in preserving facts concerning 585 publi- cations, the victories and defeats, the dreams and the plights, the libels and the crusades, the politics and the persecutions have en- tered the pages of this volume in sufficient quantities to save it from becoming a mere tabulation of data. Something of the flavor of what is to follow is suggested by state- ments in the author's introduction: "The pioneer editor usually considered himself a weakling if he did not stand positively and aggressively for or against some- thing. ... As a result, there are more wrecks on the shoals and shores of news- paper journalism than of any other business of equal investment. . . . They portrayed the propaganda and public sentiment of earnest groups of people having sharply conflicting views. . . . No newspapers of any section of the country or of any period in the nation's history, were ever more eagerly awaited or more closely read than those hailing from Utah. . . ."

This work is valuable for reference, and has the added virtue of being entertaining to those who have an interest in the sub- ject.—/?. L. E. .

DISPUTED PASSAGE

(Lloyd C. Douglas, Houghton Mifflin

Company, Boston, 1939. 432 pages. $2.50.)

Taking the title from Walt Whitman, "Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed the passage with you?" the author works the solution of his theme through his favorite protagonist, the medi- cal man. Into this book, Mr. Douglas in- troduces a Chinese-reared girl of American parents. The young doctor, who has been fired to exclude all that would divert him from his scientific research, finds that love and research can complement each other in building a finer life. The chief opposer of young Beaven was Dr. Milton Forrester, who recognized Beaven's worth and jeal- ously wished to save him for science.

Into all of this author's books is injected a potent Christianity that will result in better living on the part of those who read them.— M. C. J.

A GARDEN OF PEONIES (Translations of Chinese Poems, by Henry H. Hart, Stanford University Press, Palo Alto, California. 152 pages. $2.50.)

The author in his introduction to this vol- ume of Chinese poetry makes the state- ment, "If civilization be, as I believe, 'the art of living together,' then China may well be considered more civilized than we of the West." The Chinese poems reflect the deep understanding of life and living and the feeling for beauty and culture which all of Mother China's children have.

The poetry is written in what we should term free verse, since it seems to express in poetic form hV thoughts which could very

158

well be expressed in prose. The poetry in the book is at one and the same time restful and stimulating. We cannot help smiling a bit ruefully over the information that Liu Te Jen "though his reputation as a poet was firmly established, was never able to pass the literary examinations for public office." And we wonder whether it might not be worth while to try to set up some literary standards for those who would hold public office in these United States — and elsewhere. — M. C. /.

THE PAGEANT OF JAPANESE

HISTORY

(Marion May Dilts, Illustrated, Longmans,

Green and Company, New York, 1938.

341 pages. $3.00.)

THE background of Japanese history is fascinating, as all history fascinates those who would reach back into the origins to seek out man. The beginnings of Japan- ese history are shrouded in darkness, and historians must rely on the work of arche- ologists largely to reconstruct early life. The actual dawn of history in Japan was as late as between 400-700 years after Christ. The author traces the development of Jap- anese trends through the various forces at work in and about Japan during the succes- sive generations.

Miss Dilts has lived among the Japanese where she could study at first hand their social conditions and history. She has done much scientific work that entitled her to an award from the Rockefeller Foundation so that she might return to Japan again to check her material and gather additional data before this book was finally published. The book also has been checked fully by the curator of the Japanese Library at Columbia University, which makes the vol- ume the best short history available on this great island country. — M. C. J.

ON A RAINY DAY

(Dorothy Canfield Fisher and Sarah Fisher Scott, Illustrated, National Recreation Association, A. S. Barnes and Company, New York.)

Dorothy Canfield Fisher needs no in- troduction to American readers. In this little book for children, she collaborates with her daughter. The suggestions that are included in the book for rainy days are merely indicative of what can be done when children are stimulated to create their own games. — M. C. J.

I WONDER By Zara Sabin

These were your books and that your favorite chair — I wonder if they miss you as I do, I, who used to sit beside you there And listen while you read, or read to you.

I wonder if the rug knows that your feet No longer press it; the piano* could Still feel your finger tips, if memories sweet Of songs once sung are held bv polished wood.

I wonder — oh, I know it can't be true, That it is foolish of me thus to ponder; And yet, they always speak to me cf you — Incessantly of you — I wonder!

LETTERS TO CHILDREN (Compiled by Eva G. Connor. Illustrated. Macmillan Company, New York. 231 pages. $2.50.)

Beginning with a fragment that was un- earthed at Herculaneum and that was written by Epicurus to a little child, the author has diligently gone back into history to find letters that have been written by famous people to children. To enhance the book, there are ten delightful pictures of some of those to whom the letters are writ- ten.

This book, which children will enjoy, will prove of great interest to adults who' will find surprising traits of character in his- torical characters. For instance, Philip II of Spain, who to most English-speaking people has been an ogre, displays in one of his letters to his daughter a delightful qual- ity of whimsy and a love of beauty and a devotion amazing to those who have read of his Spanish Armada. The reader of this collection will wonder why history isn't written from these human fragments that have persisted, revealing some of the better characteristics of men and women. — M. C. J.

BLUE STAR

(Kunigunde Duncan, Illustrated, Caxton Publishers, Caldwell, Idaho. 206 pages. 1938. $2.50.)

Fast-disappearing are the pioneers of the West, who dared all to accept the challenge of the new frontier. One of the women who left the drawing rooms of Washington in the eighties to teach Indians in the Dakotas was Corabelle Fellows, a girl who, although used to the niceties of life, had the courage to remain in the fron- tier country and win the respect of the Indians. From the respect and love they gave her, they selected her Indian name, "Blue Star," the sign of the brave heart.

The story is told in the autobiographical manner that lends charm and verity. More- over, the book gives the reader an insight into the educational work that has been and is being done by our government for the Indians.— M. C. J.

Young Emerson Speaks (Unpublished discourses by Ralph Waldo Emerson, edited by Arthur Cushman McGiffert, Jr., Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1938. $3.00. 276 pages.) Tn these addresses of his young man- *■ hood, Emerson shows those qualities which made him famous as an author and lecturer later. His epigrammatic style, his truthful analyses show prom- ise of his later richness. His subjects reflect even thus early in Emerson's life the seriousness of his thoughts and the depth of his wisdom. Such titles as "Pray Without Ceasing," "On Showing Piety at Home," "Conver- sation," "Trust Yourself," "Find Your Calling" are found among the twenty- five lectures reproduced.

Those who have learned to appre- ciate Emerson through his mature es- says, will come to love him for the freshness of his style in this collection, never before published.- — M. C. 1,

NEW PROJECTS OUTLINED FOR CHURCH WELFARE

"VT early 1400 Church Welfare work- ^ ers, leaders of the sixteen stakes comprising the Salt Lake Region, met January 29 in the Assembly Hall to hear progress reports and obtain quota assignments for 1939.

New projects announced include: 1 . Every Priesthood quorum in the area to aid at least one family during 1939 to find employment which will perma- nently remove them from any type of relief roll. 2. A processing plant for making various types of cereals to be built and operated by Highland Stake. 3. A manufacturing plant to make soap powders and other types of cleaners to be established by Liberty Stake.

An enlarged and diversified program will attempt to meet more nearly the needs of those earning sustenance through the Plan.

President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., sounded timely warnings. He stated that the actual mechanics involved in the Church Welfare Program, includ- ing organization, production, and dis- tribution, are now in good order, and emphasized the fact that the real prob- lem left was to develop the attitude in the minds of both leaders and persons helped which is necessary for living lives of righteousness.

B. Y. U. LEADERSHIP WEEK DEMONSTRATES "LIFE AT ITS BEST"

HpHE eighteenth annual Leadership Week of the Brigham Young Uni- versity, held January 23-27, drew 3109 visitors from sixteen states, represent- ing 95 stakes and eight missions of the Church. Daily lectures, demonstrations, and exhibits given in general assem- blies and in more than forty different departments endeavored to show what the contributions of religion and the arts and sciences are to "life at its best." Speakers at the general assem- blies who enlarged upon the theme in- cluded President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., President David O. McKay, Elder Richard R. Lyman, Elder Stephen L. Richards, and Dr. Adam S. Bennion. Under the general supervision of Franklin S. Harris, president of the institution, and a staff of ten commit- tees headed by Professor Seth T. Shaw, outstanding programs featured the work and aspirations of the Church auxiliaries in particular, and furthered almost every field of scientific and cultural endeavor.

NEW B. Y. U. BOARD OF TRUSTEES APPOINTED

TThe First Presidency of the Church on January 21 announced a new Board of Trustees for Brigham Young University, as follows: Heber J. Grant, J. Reuben Clark, Jr., David O. McKay, Rudger Clawson, Joseph Fielding Smith, Stephen L Richards, Richard R. Lyman, John A. Widtsoe, Joseph F. Merrill, Charles A. Callis, Adam S. Bennion, Franklin S. Harris, Franklin L. West, and Arthur Winter, Secre- tary and Treasurer.

The retired Board, released on Jan- uary 19 with an expression of thanks and commendation for past services, was as follows: Heber J. Grant, presi- dent; Thomas N. Taylor, vice-presi- dent; Reed Smoot, Lafayette Holbrook, Joseph Fielding Smith, J. William Knight, Stephen L. Chipman, Joseph Reece, Sylvester Q. Cannon, and Leah D. Widtsoe. Edward H. Holt and Joseph Don Carlos Young, who held membership on the Board, had passed away before the reorganization.

EAGLE GATE CHANGE SUCCESSFULLY OPPOSED

Tnequivocal opposition on the part *■"* of Church, civic, and historic groups, and thousands of individual petitioners, caused the Utah State Road Commission to abandon its plan to widen Eagle Gate and State street north of North Temple street in Salt Lake City. It was declared the project would injure the historic value of the Eagle Gate and destroy the Pioneer wall flanking the Bee Hive House.

As proof that no alteration should be allowed to touch the building or

grounds in question, reference was made to the plaque affixed to the Bee Hive House bearing the following in- scription :

Department of the Interior, Washington, D. C. This is to certify that the historic build- ing known as The Bee Hive House in the County of Salt Lake and the State of Utah has been selected by the advisory committee of the Historic American Build- ings Survey as possessing exceptional his- toric or architectural interest and as being worthy of most careful preservation for the benefit of future generations, and that to this end a record of its present appear- ance and condition has been made and de- posited for permanent reference in the Li- brary of Congress.

CONGRESSMAN LAUDS WELFARE PLAN

r\uRiNG a debate on appropriations, January 13, in the House of Rep- resentatives of the National Congress, Congressman Pierce of Oregon gained the floor and in a four-paragraph eu- logy that may be found entered in the Congressional Record, called attention to the aims, organization, and accom- plishments of the Welfare Plan of the Church. Stating that he had personally attended some of the meetings relative to the relief program of the Church, he asserted that as far as he knew "this is the only religious organization that is making a really determined ef- fort to meet the problem."

TABERNACLE CHOIR HOLDS ANNUAL DINNER

'T'HREE HUNDRED TWENTY-FIVE mem-

bers of the Tabernacle Choir,

in company with their partners,

(Concluded on page 161 )

mm

■

MISSIONARIES LEAVING FOR THE FIELD FROM THE SALT LAKE MISSIONARY HOME ARRIVED JANUARY 23, 1939— DEPARTED FEBRUARY 2, 1939

Left to right, first row: William U. Schofield, Jr., Wilfred K. Wegener, David Arthur Harris, Leslie Marvin Bowers, LaRue Valgardson, President Don B. Colton, Dayle Alldredge, Ted Beck, Dean Haslam, Alvin Christensen.

Second row: Jose S. Sanches, James R. Blaser, Barker Selman, John D. Laudie, Seymour J. Godfrey, Boyd T. Squires, George R. Biesinger, Keith Hunter, Norman Harding.

Third row: Alfred T. Zaugg, Ted R. Kindred, Wm. Howard Edwards, Delhert Palmer, Lloyd Jay Allen, David Young Glenn Cornwall, William L. Black, J. Keith Gudmundson, Muthan Niederhauser.

Fourth row: G. S. Henderson, Claytor Larsen, Ross McMullin, Robert P. Kirkham, Yale Peterson, Walden W. Johnson, P. LaVell Koller, L. Clell Covington, Ned T. Loveless.

Fifth row: Jarvis Keddington, Ellis G. Nielson, Wilford W. Goodwill, LeRoy P. Taylor Olsen, Maurice Clayton, Max Hunt, Rex Leaman, Tom J. Summers, Delbert W. Curtis, E. Otho Johnson, Jr.

Sixth row: J. Dallace Butler, Roy E. Fielding, Cornelius Gayle Williams, George A. Gundry, Robert S. Thorup, Raymond Barlow, Arend DeBoer, Wm. M. Harker, J. Milton Orme.

Seventh row: Elmer Orvill Johnson, Walter Miller.

159

£diJt&uaL

PAMldnnL glawAML TkwtA. 82

"pOR his past service, for his present usefulness, for his example of integrity, consistency, and de- votion, and for the accomplishment of having lived actively eighty-two years with the honor, re- spect, trust, and affection of his friends, associates, and fellow men, the editors of the Era congratulate President Rudger Clawson as he nears the eighty- second anniversary of his birth. He has served the Lord. He has blessed mankind. We wish for him those blessings which are reserved to those who live life well. — -R, L, E.

Wjml aSu Jthsuf jcUisl

f^)NE of the most universal wishes of humanity is that humanity were somehow different. Even those we love sincerely, we love with an awareness of their faults, and love them in spite of their faults. We yearn always for better things in men.

We love our neighbors — sincerely so. But we wish that they would refrain from doing those things which annoy us. We cherish and respect our associates, but we wish that we did not see in them those traits of human weakness which are common, in greater or less degree, to all mortal men, and with which we ourselves are so generously endowed.

We protest nepotism in others, while we place our own kin in whatever position of favor we are able to place them, justifying ourselves by reason of the circumstances. We protest acts of acquisi- tiveness in others, while we ourselves seize every reasonably legitimate opportunity to add to our own store. We condemn in others all of those traits of humanity to which we are blind, or partially so, in our own lives. In short, we wish men were different, but they are as they are, some better, some worse, but all falling short of the ideal of perfection — of which only one faultless Pattern ever walked the earth.

These are things we all know of others, and we know them even of ourselves, whenever we are honest and courageous enough to turn the spotlight of scrutiny inside instead of outside. And these deficiencies of human behavior are the reason for the failure, or partial failure, of every idealistic movement since time began, and before. Except for them Lucifer would have kept his first estate; Joseph would never have been sold into Egypt; Israel would never have wandered forty years in the wilderness; Samuel would never have re- placed the sons of Eli; David would never have brought about the death of Uriah; Martin Luther would never need have become a Protestor; Robert Owen would have had his Utopia; there would have been no great Apostasy and hence no need for a Restoration; there would be no bad govern- ments, no dictators, no locks, no jails, no violence, no fear, no> infidelity.

But that's another story — something to be hoped for, to be sought after, but something that neither has arrived, nor will, until the promised day when the Lord Himself reigns upon earth and all men shall know Him as their King. In the meantime our job is to take men as they are, without excuse, without apology, without evasion of responsibility, and use them in that manner in which they can

best be used, and help them to become better than they are. Any organization that does less than this does not justify its own existence. Any move- ment, creed, or philosophy that does not have this as its fundamental aim and actual accomplishment does not merit continuance.

The problems involved in taking men as they are, and using them for the upbuilding of them- selves and the common good are not fundamentally different today from what they have always been in the history of the world or of the Church. Not perfect men, but unlettered fishermen were those from among whom the Savior chose to be His Apostles in the day of His ministry. Nor did per- fect harmony dwell among them even in His pres- ence. Nor did perfect loyalty, even to Him and His person, result from all His choices. But they grew, and all who continued faithful made their exit from life with a broader vision and greater service than when He found them on the shores of Galilee.

Not perfect men did the Lord raise up unto Him- self when He effected the Restoration of the Latter- days — neither the unschooled boy who was His chief instrument, nor those who rallied to the cause to become part of the leadership, walked without deviation. The Doctrine and Covenants bears wit- ness, as do the Old and New Testaments before it, of the Lord's frequent displeasure, disappointment, and sharp reprimands. And as with the leaders so with the people.

Another example of what our leadership has done with men as they are, is found in the western colonizing era under the leadership of Brigham Young and his aides. Old country artisans and tradesmen were helped to adapt themselves to frontier life. The poor were encouraged to the dignity of self-reliance. The "oppressed of all nations'' were shown the way to become pros- perous citizens of a liberty-loving, God-fearing commonwealth. Men were found as they were, and helped to become better than they were.

And so the problem remains as it always was. Men are still as they are, and it is still our job to help them to become better. If, in our day, they are being encouraged, for one cause or another, to indulge and accentuate some of their less desirable inclinations, our responsibility becomes even greater and our mission more vital.

Such is the function — the only function — of the Church of Jesus Christ and all its helping organi- zations: not only to find desirable associates and accept them into our fellowship, but to take men as they are and help them to become better than they are. And on that day when we lose sight of this function as the primary reason of our existence we shall become an organization without a purpose worthy of perpetuation.

The conclusion of the whole matter is this:

Sometimes I wish that other men were different. But then, sometimes other men wish that I were different. And so, in the wisdom of Providence, finding ourselves as we are, it is our eternal hope that we shall continually become better than we are, both we, and those to whom we look for leadership, and those who look to us for leader- ship. The Lord being willing, we shall so move on together. — R. L. E.

160

THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MARCH, 1939

The Church Moves On

(Concluded from page 159)

members of the choir staff, the First Presidency and the Presiding Bishop- ric and their wives, attended the or- ganization's annual dinner party, Feb- ruary 2, 1939, at the Hotel Utah. A ten-minute skit was presented by each of the voice sections; and short ad- dresses were made by Church leaders. Dancing followed the program. Alex P. Anderson was chairman of arrange- ments, assisted by Dr. T. A. Claw- son, Jr.

ALL INDIAN BISHOPRIC HEADS WASHAKIE WARD

A RECENT re-organization gave to the '**' Washakie Ward, Malad Stake, the first all-Indian bishopric to be ap- pointed in the history of the Church. Succeeding George Parry, released after nine years' service, are Moroni Timbimboo, bishop; Nephi Pecdash, first counselor, and Jim John Neaman, second counselor.

BRIGHAM YOUNG DESCEND- ANT LEADS SUNBOWL PARADE

"VTell B. McKay, second great- ™ granddaughter of Brigham Young, acted as grand marshal of the Sun Bowl carnival parade, held January 2, in El Paso, Texas. The carnival, which this year featured a football game between the University of Utah and the Uni- versity of New Mexico, in the Sun Bowl, is regarded as one of the biggest events in the southwest.

FAITHFUL ERA SUBSCRIBERS OBSERVE ANNIVERSARY

T)roud that they have welcomed The Improvement Era and its predeces- sor, the Contributor, into their home from the very beginning, Sister Laurette M. and Brother Swen Peterson of San- ford, Colorado, recently celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. The couple, who have rendered distin- guished service to Church and com- munity, were early settlers in the San Luis Valley, Colorado. Brother Peterson drove the stakes which marked off the Sanford townsite, sur- veyed by his father in 1885. (See photo, page 175.)

SEMINARY DEDICATED AT IDAHO FALLS

A modern seminary building, with "^ accommodations for 110 students, was dedicated Sunday, February 5, at Idaho Falls by Elder Charles A. Callis. Of brick with terra cotta trim, the one- story building has two large class rooms and two offices. Seminaries have been constructed in recent years at Ririe, Ucon, Midway, and Rexburg, in Idaho. Construction has also begun on one at Blackfoot, and funds are being raised for a seventh at St. Anthony.

PRESIDENT RUDGER CLAWSON

PRESIDENT CLAWSON NEARS 82ND BIRTHDAY

An appreciative Church membership ^* offers sincere good wishes to Presi- dent Rudger Clawson as, on March 1 2, he prepares to enter the 83rd year of his life. Ever an industrious, method- ical worker, President Clawson is serv- ing his 41st year as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, over which he has presided for twenty years. The beloved Church leader still leads an active daily existence.

APRIL CONFERENCE MUSIC FESTIVAL PLANNED

"Dehearsals under the direction of local organists and choristers are being conducted in wards of the six- teen stakes in the Salt Lake area in preparation for a choir festival to be featured during general conference week in April. 3000 voices will take part in the mass performance to be given in the Tabernacle, under the di- rection of the Church Music Commit- tee. The following are assisting Tracy Y. Cannon in making arrangements: J. Spencer Cornwall, Frank W. Asper, Alfred M. Durham, Wade N. Steph- ens, Albert Eccles, Mrs. Rose B. Lewis, and B. F. Pulham.

DEATH CLAIMS WILMA JEPPSON "pUNERAL services were conducted on Tuesday, January 31, for Wilma Jeppson, prominent health education leader, a member of the Primary Gen- eral Board, and Associate Professor of Physical Education for women at Brigham Young University. Death came after a lingering illness. Gifted in her field of recreational leadership, she will be especially remembered for her work in organizing the first posture parade of girls from high schools as part of the annual B. Y. U. relay car- nival, a feature which has since be- come its most spectacular event.

PRIMARY COLLECTS BIRTHDAY PENNIES

"IVfloRE than 2,000,000 pennies found A their way into Primary collection

boxes all over the world during Febru- ary when the organization staged its annual drive for funds for the Chil- dren's Hospital in Salt Lake. Each Church member was asked for as many pennies as he is years old. Construc- tion is expected to begin during the summer on a new hospital, a site for which has already been secured.

Thursday, January 5, 1939

Elder Melvin J. Ballard dedicated a seminary building at Mesa, Arizona.

Egbert D. Brown was sustained as Bishop of the Mesa Second Ward, Maricopa Stake. Sunday, January 8, 1939

President Heber J. Grant dedicated the new chapel in Glendale Ward, Pasadena, California.

President David O. McKay dedicated the new chapel in Edgehill Ward, Highland Stake.

The Fairview North Ward, North Sanpete Stake, chapel was dedicated by Elder Charles A Callis. February 5 , 1939

Thomas W. Muir, with Andrew Jacobsen and Orson M. Richins as counselors, was appointed bishop of the 21st Ward, Ensign Stake, succeed- ing Harold G. Reynolds, and Walter A. Wallace and W. A. Hardy, coun- selors.

FORMER ASSISTANT ORGANIST DIES

"piiNERAL services were held February ■*■ 8 in the Hollywood Stake Taber- nacle for Walter John Poulton, former assistant organist in the Salt Lake Tab- ernacle. Before taking up residence in California, he was a student under the late John J. McClellan, Tabernacle or- ganist, and directed an orchestra and several choruses in Salt Lake City.

UTAH'S EARLY WOMAN DOCTOR PASSES ON Chortly after having celebrated her ^ 92nd birthday, Dr. Ellis Reynolds Shipp, one of Utah's earliest women physicians, died January 31, 1939, leav- ing behind her a memorable record of service to the women of the state. Born in Davis County, Iowa, in 1847, while her parents were on the pioneer trail to Utah, she later attended the Brig- ham Young family school in Salt Lake. Herself a graduate, at the age of 28, from the Women's Medical College of Philadelphia, Dr. Shipp founded a school of nursing and obstetrics in Salt Lake from which almost 500 women were graduated. During her sixty years of active service she was a member of the Deseret Hospital staff and has been a member of the staff of the L. D. S. Hospital since that institution was es- tablished. One of the eight women to have been elected by the Salt Lake Council of Women to the Women's Hall of Fame, she is survived by three daughters, 38 grandchildren, 25 great- grandchildren, and four great-great- grandchildren.

161

THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MARCH, 1939

Homing

(Concluded from page 156)

"Thank you, I will."

"I've a few more questions to ask you, Mrs. Brown. What childhood diseases has Johnny had?"

Mrs. Brown settled back in her chair, still puzzled. "He had whooping cough when he was nine months old, that's all."

"That's quite enough to upset the regular development of speech, for," and the clinician went on to explain Mrs. Brown's unasked question, "that time and shortly after was the normal time for speech to appear. It was delayed by a serious respiratory ail- ment."

"Johnny seems to have had a lot of reasons for not talking."

"O, we're not through yet. We haven't run through his whole history. Was Johnny breast-fed?"

"No — I wasn't able — "

"And did you 'help' him by making the hole in the nipple nice and large so he needn't work so hard sucking?"

"We-ell, I'm afraid I may have opened it a little with a sterile darning needle. Someone told me — "

"I know. So you see, Johnny never had to suck at all. He just swallowed. He doesn't chew bits of solid food — he hasn't had a chance to learn the basis of speech movements."

"Can I do anything about it now?" the eager mother wanted to know.

"Yes, we'll help you teach him these vegetative activities so he can get ready for speech. We have now worked back to the actual birth. Was there anything unusual in that? Were you completely anesthetized?"

"No, just the bit of ether."

"Was there any delay in Johnny's breathing after birth?"

;No."

"Good. You remember we said any delay is a risk to the proper function- ing of a tissue. Were you suffering from any chronic infection before Johnny's birth?"

"No, not that I know of."

"Was there any severe illness in the family that might have made you ex- ceptionally tired and weary?"

"No." Mrs. Brown seemed more and more puzzled at this line of ques- tioning.

"At that time were you in some financial straits that worried you? Or were you emotionally upset?"

"No — but I don't see — "

"It's unfortunate that so many do not see the relationship. You know, of course, that the only nourishment the unborn child can get is from the blood stream of the mother. Not directly, but by a kind of double exchange — the fetal circulation sending waste into a common territory and the mother's blood stream sending oxygen and food materials there, from which the fetal blood stream receive it. Now anything

162

that is carried by the mother's blood stream, such as toxic materials from an infection or excessive glandular se- cretions such as might be present un- der severe emotional strain, would also be sent to the child. If the mother lacked nourishment or oxygen ( as might be shown by a low red blood cell count ) , that lack will also be found in the fetal blood stream. Healthy, happy, well-nourished mothers are essential if we are to have healthy babies. Pedia- tricians have estimated that over 6,000,000 children have been hurt by recent economic stress. Our work has increased enormously — 'depression babies' we call them."

"But Johnny — ■"

"Of course. Now let's get his pulse rate and have the doctor make a blood count. Then we'll get busy on his specific training. Now what days could you bring him here . . ."

Johnny is going to learn to talk. He is one of the estimated 6,000,000 children affected by the depression. If this figure seems enormous, Dr. Muys- kens* finds that speech difficulties have increased by 100 per cent in the last ten years. The old estimate of 12 per cent of the population no longer holds. Lack of proper diet, unhappiness, strain on the mothers must be paid for by the children. "The sins (of omission as well as commission) of the fathers — "

If the various Johnnys are unfortu- mate enough not to be near a speech clinic or some private teacher who un- derstands the problem, there are things that can be done. Mothers can see to it that the nutrition is brought up to optimum, that the child gains in weight. This may necessitate expense for eggs, meat, cheese, milk, fresh vegetables and fruit. It may mean step- ping up nutritive processes by high Vitamin B feeding, and cod and haliver oil. If she is not sure of herself, she can write the Superintendent of Docu- ments, Washington, D. C, for Farmer's Bulletin 1757.

With the nutrition properly adjusted, a mother can teach her babies nursery rhymes and rhythmic games which help in rhythmic development and control of speech. She can eliminate the en- couragement of "baby talk." She may not be able to help a child in the way of making "difficult" sounds, but she can encourage care in speaking until the habits of correctness are established. Not that deranged speech develop- ment is the result of encouragement or any other mental phenomena, for if the efficiency of nervous as well as mus- cular activity depends, in part at least, upon physiology — digestion, circulation — then neither nerves nor muscles can be said to control each other. They integrate in function for the production of speech. And "mind" (mental ac- tivity) is a highly specialized nerve

center. Therefore a good state of nu- trition is of paramount importance to good speech.

Mothers may also help in guarding children from disease, at least until speech has been well "set"- — guarding the child carefully past his third year at least.

The prenatal nutrition determines the degree of efficient development made by structures and "organs." The work done by these body parts depends for its energy upon lack of interference by diseases and optimum nutrition after birth.

Any "correction" of speech difficul- ties must, to be of lasting benefit, see to it that any derangement in these factors is corrected, in so far as pos- sible, before "exercises" are given. No roof can stand unless the foundation is firm.

If a child is nicely tided over this period of speech development, then the unfolding personality becomes more useful, positive. Thus what is done to keep mothers happy and aids in the well-birth of children and their development will have meaning to the adult. For from such small beginnings useful personalities result. Prevention is more valuable than cure.

*Director of Speech Clinic, Institute for Human Adjustment, University of Michigan.

The Singing Mothers

[Concluded from page 155) of music for the Box Elder County schools, a position which required the same abilities in organization and conducting which have been so marked in her later work in the aux- iliary associations, particularly in handling the large organization of Singing Mothers. Since last fall when Sister Sackett went to New York to study, Wade N. Stephens, assistant Tabernacle organist, has ably conducted the group, which augmented with Singing Mothers of other stakes and missions will fur- nish the music for April 6 of Gen- eral Conference.

The Singing Mothers have at- tained a high and honored place in the hearts of the Latter-day Saints. They are praised by those high in authority for their beautiful contri- bution to the large gatherings of the Church; they are established among the cultural arts of our people; with- in their own souls there must be glorious satisfaction and joy in praising the Lord in song.

i ♦ i

The Native Blood

[Continued from page 151)

"Youbetcherlife! Come on, old

man," he called in tones audible like

the voice of a yearling calf, "I'll let

this gray horse say it for me."

( To be Continued)

THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MARCH, 1939

Tempting New Dishes for In-Be- tween Season Meals

Spaghetti- Fiesta

Tomato Jelly Ring

Rolled Sandwiches

Chocolate Cream Filled Angel Cake

Divinity Fudge

Don't forget the cooking schools. The first one was a grand success in Highland Stake; Liberty Stake, Harvard Ward, Thursday, March 23; Granite Stake, Lincoln Ward, Thurs- day, April 13; Bonneville, place to be announced, Wednesday, March 17; Wells Stake, Wells Ward, Thurs- day, June 15. The other stakes are now making their arrangements for the cooking schools which will be conducted by Barbara Badger Burnett.

For Beverages

For Baking

For Dessert- Making

Whenever the recipe calls for cocoa or chocolate . . . call on Ghirardelli's Ground Chocolate. There's no grat- ing; no melting; no waste. You save time, steps, dishes!

GHIRARDELLI'S

DOLL UP DULL

unik

GLOBE

Al

BISCUITS

MEALS

The family will forget you're serving yesterday's left-overs, if you give them plenty of fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth Globe Bis- cuits. It's child's-play to make perfect biscuits with ready- mixed Globe "Al" Biscuit Flour. You don't have to han- dle the dough gently. Treat it rough — thump it. In fact, the rougher you treat it, the better your biscuits will be. So be sure to ask your grocer for Globe "Al", the Biscuit flour that's EASY to use— the kind that makes perfect biscuits with the real home-made flavor!

The Quick, Easy Way to Make...

• Biscuits

• Muffins

• Dumplings

• Shortcake

• Nut Bread

• Meat Pie Crust

And many other good things!

GLOBE Al BISCUIT FLOUR

SAY GEAR-AR-DfUY

Don't Serve SKIMPY

Breakfasts !

Start your husband off to

%—f -y™ work and your children off

to school with a delicious

pancake breakfast — one that

provides lots of nourishment

■ — lots of pep and energy.

Make pancakes the quick,

easy, THRIFTY way— with

Globe "Al" Pancake and

Waffle Flour. This special

!■ 1 I J §■& m pancake flour contains lots

^^ ^^ ^^ of buttermilk for extra rich-

tt £k ■■ If ness and flavor.

PANCAKE FLOUR

163

CONDUCTED BY THE MELCHIZEDEK PRIESTHOOD COMMITTEE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE TWELVE — JOSEPH FIELDING SMITH, CHAIRMAN; MELVIN J. BALLARD, JOHN A. WIDTSOE, AND JOSEPH F. MERRILL

PRESIDENT CLAWSON'S LETTER

The "Era" is pleased to have the privilege of publishing the following letter sent to the field by President Rudger Clawson. It will be read with interest by all who hold the Priesthood.

TO THE COMMITTEES AND QUORUMS OF THE MELCHIZE- DEK PRIESTHOOD OF THE CHURCH

January 28, 1939. Dear Brethren: •

We heartily congratulate you on the work you did during 1938 and the degree of success that attended your efforts. During this period the so-called New Priesthood Plan was being put into operation. As a result the year 1938 witnessed more activity by the members and quorums of Priesthood than had been shown for a long time. This gives us all cause to rejoice.

But let us not "rest on our oars" and be satisfied with our present state of activity. We all know there is room for improvement even by the most ac- tive quorums. And those committees and quorums that were slow in getting started with their activities might well make special efforts to catch up with the leaders. "What man has done man may do." Active, energetic leadership can accomplish wonders. The Lord will bless those who worthily try to magnify their callings.

We call your attention especially to the following suggestions:

1. Emphasize the importance of a monthly union meeting of the stake Melchizedek Priesthood committee with the officers and leaders of the quorums. These meetings are a key to the success of the "new plan."

2. In these meetings study carefully the meaning of each of the 20 number- ed questions on the Quarterly Report forms. Determine how and where the data can be secured to answer these questions, whether from bishops, ward clerks, quorum officers, or committees, etc. Try to get all the officers to have the same understanding of these ques- tions so that there will be uniformity in answering them.

3. The data needed for answering the questions should be kept in writing by the secretary of each group or quo- rum so that the end of the quarter the report forms can be readily and fully filled in. An inexpensive book may serve to keep the required data.

4. Let the stake committee and the officers of each quorum study how the quorum and the groups composing it (if there are groups) can best be brought into full activity. For example, find what activities and projects are

164

suited to each quorum. {See list, page 770, Improvement Era, December, 1937, and the information given in the Second 1939 Quarterly.) The monthly issues of the Era, Melchizedek Priest- hood Department, beginning Decem- ber, 1937, name projects and give sug- gestions.

5. Encourage the officers and mem- bers of all Priesthood quorums to co- operate fully with the Church Welfare committees of the stake and wards.

6. Encourage these bodies to co- operate likewise with the committees in charge of the campaign for the non- use of liquor and tobacco by all Church members.

7. Aim to have a meeting of every quorum and of the groups of every quorum visited by one or more mem- bers of the stake committee at least once every quarter. Backward quo- rums should be visited more frequently.

8. During 1939 this office will send Quarterly Report forms to be used by groups in making reports to their re- spective quorums. All quorums that cover two or more wards are made up of groups that meet weekly in their respective wards. The Quarterly Re- ports sent to the stake are quorum re- ports, for the making of which group reports are needed.

9. Let every quorum, especially the officers, be kept informed of the con- tents of the Melchizedek Priesthood Department of every issue of the Im- provement Era. One way to do this would be to listen to a suitable report once a month on the contents of this department.

The foregoing are a few of the sug- gestions that arise from reading the Quarterly Reports made by the quo- rums. To burden you is farthest from our desires; but for the good of all we urge increased activity by all the quorums of the Holy Priesthood, know- ing that this will bring an increase in divine blessings. The Lord never fails to reward us as abundantly as our merits justify.

We pray that He will preserve you all from the power of Satan, and give you the rich inspiration of the Holy Ghost that you may be happy and successful in all your work.

Sincerely your brethren,

The Council of the Twelve, By Rudger Clawson,

President.

IS THIS TRUE?

XTot long ago a live stake chairman ■^ of the Melchizedek Priesthood committee came to the office. Among other things, he remarked that "any man failing to reply to respectful per- sonal letters relative to his duties and responsibilities is guilty of a gross neg- lect of duty and treats with contempt the writer of the letters."

Will all those responsible for mak- ing reports ask themselves if any part of the statement could apply to them?

The stake chairman was speaking of those responsible for filling in the Priesthood report blanks. He himself is a "do it now" type of man. He wants the reports from his stake to be sent when due. But this can not be done if the quorum reports are not promptly sent to him.

Brethren, no one wants to complain or criticize, but is it not possible that reports shall be made when due? Let those responsible for making the re- ports consider and answer this ques- tion. How much more smoothly things would move if all of us were "do it now" men.

ANTI-LIQUOR-TOBACCO COLUMN

ALCOHOL HELD MAJOR ACCIDENT CAUSE

; Tnder this heading the Journal of ^** American Insurance in its January, 1939, issue publishes an interesting and informative article. The Journal says:

There has never been much doubt in the public mind of the truth of the axiom that alcohol and gasoline do not mix. But just how large a contribution the drinking driver made to America's motor accident toll has been pretty largely a matter of conjecture.

Dr. Herman Heise of Pennsylvania car- ried on an investigation that led him to the surprising conclusion that it "was the drink- ing driver — rather than the driver who was quite drunk — who was causing most of the trouble." This conclusion is supported by traffic accident investigators.

This conclusion led several agencies to cooperate in an investigation that was recently published in an issue of the Journal o/ the American Medical Association.

Among other conclusions of the study was that "women drink and drive as much as men when the number of women driving at various hours of the day is considered." . . . "As alcohol increases, accidents in- crease, and at a rate somewhat proportional to the increase in alcohol."

"It has not yet been objectively and con- clusively proved how important a causative factor alcohol is" but "the data gathered . . . confirm a self-evident fact — that al- cohol is a major cause of automobile acci- dents."

THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MARCH, 1939

IT CAN BE DONE

'T'he objective of the No-Liquor-To- bacco Distribution Campaign is to place in every Mormon home at least one copy of each booklet — Alcohol Talks to Youth, Nicotine on the Air, and The Word of Wisdom in Practical Terms.

Can this objective be reached? Yes! "Where there is a will there is a way."

From one stake came the complaint two or three times that the first ship- ment of Alcohol Talks to Youth — in number about one-tenth of the stake population — could not be sold. Some months later, Elder Melvin J. Ballard attended conference in that stake. He asked that the booklets be brought to the conference. They were all sold in one day.

If properly approached, who of our people would refuse to buy a booklet that tells simply, interestingly, and truthfully (no exaggerations) why al- coholic beverages are not "good for man?" Of all the things that money can buy where is there one where so much value can be bought for a dime as is found in Alcohol Talks to Youth?

CAN WE AFFORD IT?

"Decently we obtained data from of- ^ flcial sources relative to the sale of alcoholic beverages and cigarettes in the State of Utah during 1938. The sum total is staggering. Furthermore, the amount paid for distilled liquors at each of the state liquor stores (these stores do not sell beer) would startle many of the people who live in towns where these stores are located.

We were also furnished the "per capita consumption" of distilled liquor in each state of the American Union and the District of Columbia. This consumption was less in Utah than in any other state west of the Missouri River. However, Iowa, New Hamp- shire, and Vermont had a lower con- sumption than Utah. But these three states are not "tourist states." Of course no one knows how much tour- ists pay in Utah for liquor and tobacco, but no one doubts that they pay a con- siderable part of the whole.

With the foregoing introduction may we pass on the figures we received as follows :

For distilled liquors in 1938 there was paid $3,938,565.75; for beer $3,- 959,922.30; and for cigarettes $2,672,- 656.65. Total $10,571,144.70.

There is only one favorable thing about this enormous sum — it is 6% less than for 1937. But remember that this vast sum (Utah has a population of only five hundred and fifty thou- sand) does not include that paid for cigars and forms of tobacco other than package cigarettes. Neither does it in- clude money that may have been paid for bootleg liquor.

But one may say that no bootleg liquor is sold in Utah. Be not deceived! Mr. Sam Morris, in his KSL radio ad- dress December 5, 1938, gave astonish-

ing figures from federal government sources indicating that the bootleg bus- iness in the United States was never greater than during 1938.

And here is an unexplained fact. No distilled liquor for beverage purposes can be legally sold in Utah except through state liquor stores. The state had 94 of these stores during 1938, and it bought 94 hard liquor permits from the federal government. But the fed- eral government sold 194 hard liquor permits. Who were the 100 that bought permits to sell liquor in Utah contrary to Utah laws? Were they bootleg vendors? Why did these 100 people buy a Federal permit? If free of the federal government, were they willing to run the risk of the state?

Again, during 1938 the federal gov- ernment issued in Utah 1192 permits to sell beer. How many beer vendors bootlegged hard liquors? Was there no hard liquor bootlegging in Utah dur- ing 1938?

But in any case, the amount paid in Utah for "legal" liquor and cigarettes was many times too great. And the same is true of every other state.

Governor Blood of Utah in his bud- get message to the legislature esti- mated the total state revenues for the biennium 1939-41 to be $7,477,618.83 — only 70% for two years of what Utah legally spent in one year for nar- cotics injurious to pocket, health, mor- als, and faith.

Can we afford it?

SEVENTIES' COURSE OF STUDY ANNOUNCED

NON-CONFLICTING MONTHLY MEETING TO BE ARRANGED.

T etters have gone out to all Seven- ties' quorums and to stake presidents announcing a new course of study for the monthly quorum meetings of the Seventy and reaffirming the inviolate necessity of arranging a monthly meet- ing from which it will not be necessary for any member of the quorum to be excused because of any conflicting Church assignment. The letter reads in part:

A meeting must be arranged by you at which it will be possible for all the mem- bers and the presidency of your quorum to attend. This meeting should be held once in each month. Consent has been