"That is why so many of our college graduates are working in such unfitting positions. That is why so many young men take a normal or even a commercial course. Come in from the country at considerable expense and spend four or five years at hard study to complete such a course, then go up into Idaho or Canada, or somewhere else, take up land and go to farming or fruit growing. Why didn't they go to the Agricultural College? They didn't have any object in their labor. Some people are too quick to lay the responsibility on the colleges. "But: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.' "The founders of great industries are all men who had an object early in life, and who have worked hard and perseveringly toward that object ever since, kept their eyes open for opportunities in that line and they have succeeded. "Now, boys, when you get the kind of job you want, don't sleep at your work, but look around you. There are thousands of golden opportunities to improve on present methods everywhere. "It was only a few years ago that a certain boy stood on the docks at Chicago, watching the men wheel the ore up out of the ship. He asked how much the human labor on such work cost a ton, and on being told that it cost fortyfive to fifty cents, he said that that was too much, but he didn't let it stop there. He wasn't in the ore business or in the shipping business, and he might well have said, 'Well, it's none of my business, let them tend to that.' Instead of that he said, 'Now if I can get something which will do that cheaper, it will be worth a great deal to those people.' "What is the result: -Today Brown Hoisting and Conveying Machinery, for handling ore and coal, is in use all over the world. And it is estimated that it saves to the world over fifty million dollars a year. "It was only a few years ago that cotton-seed was considered worthless and a nuisance. Then someone discovered that it contained valuable oil, and that after the oil was pressed out the cakes which remained in the press were good food for cattle. Since then the saving has been over thirty million dollars a year. For years all this wealth had been thrown away. "Business and success lie within a man, if he'll only develop them. Andrew Carnegie came to the United States at ten years of age, and went to work as bobbin boy for twenty-five cents a day. Fifty-four years later, in 1901, he sold out to the United States Steel Corporation at a valuation of $500,000,000. He says, 'Organization is not only necessary in business-the organization is the business.' Again he said, 'Take away all my material assets and leave me my organization, and in four years, I will have all the rest back again.' "Some people have an idea that money, or goods, or credit, or buildings, or trade-marks, or years of business history, are the business. We smile;-these things are not causes, they are simply effects. "Go now, my boy. Be a live wire. Have an object. Produce effect." Instructor 3rd Ward Y. M. M. I. A., Junior Class. EVENTS AND COMMENTS. BY EDWARD H. ANDERSON. Standard Oil Acquitted.—It will be remembered that in the famous rebate case of this company, some two years ago, Judge Lewis, at the first trial, imposed a fine in the enormous sum of $29,240,000. The case was tried over again before Judge Anderson, in Chicago, beginning Feb. 23, and ending on March 10. The jury this time was instructed to bring in a verdict of acquittal, on the ground that the proof relied on by the government was incompetent, and the expense of the trial is thrown on the government. So the oil company goes free. There is grave danger now that corporation abuses, privileges and corruptions will flourish more than ever, and that a reaction from the position taken by former President Roosevelt will be brought about. Messina Earthquake Funds-According to English advices, the funds for the sufferers are being badly mismanaged. The Central National Committee, to whom they were intrusted for distribution, have failed to distribute them, and while there is still much suffering, appeals to the Central Committee in Rome, who held (Feb. 28), about $4,300,000, of which the American contribution must have amounted to $2,000,000, have gone unheeded. Instead of using the money for immediate relief, the committee has chosen to regard the fund as a sacred trust for the future as well as the present needs of the victims. Their excess of caution has been exasperating, and while no suspicion of dishonesty attaches to them, the committee, according to the advices, have entirely misconceived the part they were asked to play, and many people are suffering for immediate help which they cannot get, though the means are at hand. China Struggling to be Modern.-At present a revolution without blood is being carried on in China, which will either result in her Europeanization, socially politically and in a military way, or else sink her once more in oriental lethargy and stagnation. Two parties, as usual, are engaged in the conflict-one for reaction, the other for reform. In the first are the Chinese of the old school, the Mandarins and functionaries, and the Manchus; against them, and for reform, are the anti-dynastic party, which consists of the reformers, the students, threefourths of the learned class, all the schools and colleges, and two-thirds of the commonalty. Both sexes are abandoning their ancestral styles for European, and many give up their ancient traditions without regret, in order to conform to European usages. "Liberty" is their slogan, but whether it will come without a bloody conflict with the reactionaries, remains to be seen. Off for the Orient.-Frank J. Hewlett, president of Hewlett Brothers Company, and director of the Utah State Fair, and former president of the Salt Lake City Council, left some weeks ago, en route to Yohahama. He will visit Japan, China, Ceylon and India before his return, and has promised the IMPROVEMENT ERA pictures and impressions by the way which will be of special interest to our readers. The "Mormons" and the West.-The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, which opens June 1, in Seattle, will contain an exhibit illustrating the influence of "Mormon" emigration upon the development of the West. The exhibit will include features of "Mormon" civilization, literature, and art, as illustrated in the settlements of the Latter-day Saints, in Utah and surrounding States, Canada and Mexico. The committee in whose hands is the preparation of this exhibit is composed of the following: Orson F. Whitney, chairman, George D. Pyper, secretary and treasurer, Spencer Clawson, Mrs. E. B. Wells, and Professor Byron Cummings. Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans in Utah.-Admiral Evans spoke to a large congregation in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 3, giving his experience in rounding the Horn from Hampton Roads to San Francisco, a very entertaining, sometimes amusing, and instructing story, coming from "the man who did the feat." The Admiral reviewed the High School Cadets on the school grounds on the afternoon of the same day, in their admirable drill. There were hosts of people who completely surrounded the ten acre campus, and the admiral was loudly cheered. Editor of "Our Dumb Animals" Dead.- On the 16th of March, George Thorndike Angell, who was one of the founders, and for forty years president of the Massachusetts Society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, and also founder and for twenty years president of the American Humane Education Society, died. His whole life was devoted to humane work. Our Dumb Animals, which he edited, was well known in every newspaper and magazine office in the country. Through it and the societies which he organized, he was instrumental in establishing more than 70,000 bands of mercy, in this and other countries. He was nearly eighty six years of age when he died and will be long remembered for his active service in behalf of animals and mankind. Building Battleships.-There is considerable rivalry existing at the present time between England and Germany in the matter of building battleships of the Dreadnought type. In a recent speech in the House of Commons, Mr. McKenna stated that by 1911 Germany would have thirteen of these vessels ready for sea, and by 1912 probably seventeen. Mr. Balfour warned the government that if Germany continued at the present rate, by the end of 1912 Great Britain would have only twenty Dreadnoughts while Germany would have twenty-one, and pos sibly twenty-five. So the rivalry goes on, and people are heavily taxed that their earnings may be spent in battleships, to gratify the desire for supremacy of the seas, entertained by the nations. South Pole Explorer.-In July, 1907, Lieutenant Ernest H. Shackleton, of the British Navy, left England in command of an expedition for Antarctic exploration. He just returned to New Zealand on the 23rd of March. His expedition experienced great hardships and succeeded in getting to latitude 88 degrees 23 minutes, which is only one hundred and eleven miles from the South Pole. This places that pole three hundred and nineteen miles nearer than any other expedition has been able to do, the most southerly point heretofore reached being four hundred and thirty miles from the pole. Trip of President Smith and Company to Hawaii.-On the 17th of February, President and Mrs. Joseph F. Smith, the Misses Emily J., Rachel, Emma, and Edith Smith. Bishop and Mrs. C. W. Nibley, and Misses Nan and Alice Nibley, and Mrs. A. W. McCune, with Samuel G. Woolley, president of the Hawaiian mission, left Salt Lake City for an outing to the Sandwich Islands. They sailed from San Francisco on February 20, on the ship Alameda, arriving in Honolulu six days later. On the voyage they experienced only two days of bad weather. The trip otherwise was very delightful from beginning to end. Everybody whom the party met treated them with the utmost consideration and courtesy At Honolulu the ship was met by the Royal Hawaiian Band, and a large Photo by Edward Fernandez. President Smith and Party, Draped in Garlands of Flowers by the Hawaiian Saints. |