February 24-Ensign, Bannock, Utah, Fremont, Star Valley. March 24-Cassia, Woodruff. May 12-Box Elder. May 19-Weber. The conferences of Wayne, St. George, San Juan, Kanab, and Uintah will be held in connection with the stake conferences. Snowflake, St. Johns, Maricopa, St. Joseph, and Juarez are to fix their own dates and notify the General Boards I regret that so many of our boys are doing their Mutual Improvement work in a very irregular, haphazard, slouchy way. This course is very bad for any boy, especially between the ages of fourteen and twenty; therefore, I would urge our junior class teachers to keep their eyes wide open, not entirely on the subject matter which they are presenting, but on the boy, himself; keep a personal tab on the boy; watch him and see what he is doing; and how is his attendance? Is it regular or irregular? If you will just let a boy come and go as he pleases for the five or six years that you have him in the junior class, he will turn out to be a first class dilly-dally sort of a person who cannot be relied upon. there on time each night, and making a record for himself. See if he is With regard to their lessons amd punctuality, when they fail to come to meeting on time, and when they come unprepared, they always say there is something wrong. Let us kill off the excuse hunters; get them in the habit of doing their work so there will be no need of excuse hunting: If something has occurred so a member cannot get there on time, he can state the reason, and he does not have to hunt for an excuse. That is what counts with a boy. I remember, years ago, of becoming acquainted with a horse trainer, and it seemed to me that I got more valuable thoughts from that horse trainer than I got from the professors of pedagogy. Of all the horses this man trained, there was not one in twenty that was not reliable. He simply kept a horse repeating what he wanted him to do, and it became a matter of habit. He never gave him more than he could do, but brought it on by degrees, until, finally, you could hitch him to a tree and he would not give up, because he had been used to pulling everything he was hitched on to. This thought can be applied to our work. If you let a boy fail, you weaken his confidence in himself, and he becomes a failure. Failure is largely a habit, and success is largely a habit; nothing succeeds like success, and nothing fails like failing. DOUGLAS M. TODD. EVENTS AND COMMENTS. BY EDWARD H. ANDERSON. The President's Visit to Panama.-The Chief Executive of our nation, who has just paid a visit to the Isthmus of Panama, has broken one of the precedents that have been observed by former presidents of the United States. While there is no constitutional provision which would prevent the Chief Executives of our nation visiting foreign soil, it has nevertheless, been deemed prudent in the past by them, to remain during the term of their office within the confines of the country over which they preside. President Roosevelt has taken a very lively interest in the great canal. So far as the work may proceed under his administration, he is extremely anxious that it be done with dispatch, that it be free from graft, and that no public scandal shall be attached to the most gigantic piece of work undertaken by our country. Already, newspaper correspondents are beginning to throw discredit upon the administration and work of the canal. It is quite natural, therefore, that Mr. Roosevelt is anxious to learn something about the real status of the situation there with his own eyes and ears. From reports, he is well pleased with the progress and conduct of the work. Japanese Children in our Public Schools.-A short time ago the Board of Education in San Francisco promulgated an order excluding oriental children, namely, those of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese origin, from the regular public schools of that city. The order was accompanied by a provision that separate schools be established for these orientals. The order was at once observed by both the Chinese and Koreans, but the Japanese, who are very much more sensitive to national discrimination of such a character, at once withdrew their children from the school, and entered a protest to the Japanese Consul at San Francisco, and at the same time began a suit to test the validity of such an order. Our treaty with Japan recognized the rights of the Japanese to the enjoyment of the public institutions of our country, as well as to the rights of trade. Such a discrimination will, therefore, give rise to some very delicate and technical questions between that empire and our country. The government of the United States is divided, and its powers are exercised by Federal and state governments. Questions of education have from the beginning of our republic been regarded as purely local, and coming wholly within the principle of State Rights. Now, nowever, we find a city acting in such a manner as to really nullify, at least the spirit, if not the actual words, of the treaty entered into between the United States and Japan. This fine discrimination in the exercises of power by the states and the General Government is not, as a rule, understood by the Japanese, and most of them would he unable to comprehend it. Just at this time, San Francisco is governed by the labor element, whose organizations are strongly opposed, not only to the Chinese, but also to the Japanese laborers. The Japanese have found California an excellent field for their industry. The little Japs throng the great fruit-growing centers of the golden state in large numbers. Now that Japan has won her way to proud distinction in the eyes of the civilized world, and has made such rapid strides in education, it is not likely she will submit to such humiliating discriminations without some strong and effective protest. Meeting House Burned.-On Thursday morning, November 1, a fire completely destroyed the new ward meeting house, at Tabor, Alta, Canada. All the furniture went with it, including an organ, a piano, chairs, books, library, Sunday School and Primary records, and a $35 sacrament set. All was destroyed except a few benches which were on the outside. It will be a great loss to the people in that district, and their friends can only wish that they will be blessed in a temporal way to speedily regain all that they have lost. The Coming Douma.-Russia is preparing to give her subjects another parliament, called, in the language of the country, the Douma. The one which was prorogued some time ago was too clamorous for popular demands which the Czar and his advisers were unwilling to grant, and so was dismissed, and the country was pacified in some measure by the promise that a new election for a new Douma should be held. Power to diminish the franchise and to establish rules for the regulation of the election has been conferred upon the Russian Senate. It is really the creature of the Czar and his advisers, and the exercise of this power by the Senate is final. No appeal can be taken from its decrees. As a result, the franchise is very greatly limited. Certain classes of railroad and other government employees are not allowed to vote. The peasants will not enjoy a franchise so general and broad as that which enabled them to take part in the last election. It looks very much as though the bureaucracy of Russia was determined to whittle down the rights of voting in such a manner as to secure for the coming Douma a class of men who would yield to the imperial will. In the meantime, revolutionary bandits carry on sudden, swift and unprovoked raids. In Warsaw, Odessa, Riga, Mitau, Baku, Tiflis, and other places, every man carries his life in his hands, and the landowners in the country know not the day or hour when the raiders shall choose to torture and kill them and theirs. These raiders are often mere lads, truant schoolboys, who carry death-dealing revolvers. Then we hear of the government capturing them, and, notwithstanding they are mere children, ordering the soldiery to shoot them. But it is astonishing how really little change there is in the two capitals, Moscow and St. Petersburg. There it is said, one might live for months and not witness any firing, or stabbing, or fighting in the streets. It appears now that all parties are moving towards radicalism, and the fate of the monarchy will depend upon whether the new Douma is to be revolutionary or pliable. Hudson River Tunnel.-This engineering feat was completed in October. The tunnel was built under the Hudson River by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and was begun five years ago. Its purpose is to land passengers directly in New York City, instead of on the New Jersey shore of the river. The work involved the driving of two enormous steel tubes, 23 feet in diameter, for 6,000 feet under water. When the shields were 125 feet apart the work was stopped, in order that a test might be made of the accuracy with which the work had been done, and it was found that the tubes were only one-eighth of an inch out of alignment and three-quarters of an inch out of grade a deviation so slight as to admit of a perfect meeting of the bores. Mrs. Jefferson Davis Dead.-On the 16th of October Varina Howard Davis, widow of the President of the Southern Confederacy, died, aged eighty. She married Mr. Davis in 1845, and remained his devoted companion through his political career at Washington, 1847-61; during his presidency of the Confederacy 1861-65; and during his second year's imprisonment at Fortress Monroe, and until his death in 1889. She published a memoir of his life in 1890. Cabinet Changes.-It has been announced from Washington that several changes will soon take place in President Roosevelt's cabinet. Attorney-General Moody will retire in January, and will be succeeded by Mr. Bonaparte, now Secretary of the Navy. Mr. Bonaparte's place will be filled by Mr. Metcalf, now at the head of the Department of Commerce and Labor. Mr. Oscar Solomon Straus of New York, who has twice been minister to Turkey, will succeed Mr. Metcalf. In March, Mr. Shaw, Secretary of the Treasury, will retire, and Mr. Cortelyou, now Postmaster-General, will succeed him. Mr. George von L. Myer, of Massachusetts, will take Mr. Cortelyou's place at the head of the Postoffice Department. Mr. Straus is a member of the permanent court of arbitration at The Hague. He is in his 56th year. Mr. Myer, who is 48 years old, was ambassador to Italy from 1900 to 1905, when he was appointed ambassador to Russia. Ethan Allen Hitchcock, for eight years Secretary of the Interior, has voluntarily retired, and Commissioner of Corporations James R. Garfield, son of the late President Garfield, has been chosen to succeed him, March 4th. Died.-On Tuesday, October 2, Mrs. Bodil Kjar, a citizen of Manti since 1873, and its oldest resident, born in Denmark 96 years ago.—In Salt Lake City, 4th, Rachel Helm, born Utah, July 20, 1855, a faithful and active member of the Church and wife of Andrew D. Helm.-In Santa Monica, Cal., Wednesday, September 26, William C. Mocdy, born Alabama 1819, joined the Church in Texas, 1850, and came to Utah in 1853; he was a colonizer and pioneer, and a resident of Thatcher, Ariz.-In Indiana, about October 11, on a mission, Nephi M. Perkins, president of the Indiana Conference, born Franklin, Idaho, May 1, 1867, a resident of Dayton, Idaho; he leaves a wife and several children. — In Ogden, Friday, October 5, Annie Bowring, daughter of the late H. E. Bowring, Brigham City, and for 20 years bookkeeper for J. G. McDonald Candy Co.-In Baker City, Oregon, Wednesday, September 26, William Swansea Lewis, born England, January 24, 1835; he joined the Church in 1849, came to Utah in 1856, and taught school in Moroni, North Ogden, Kaysville, Malad, Ogden and other cities where he is well known; a resident of Baker City since 1897.-In Salt Lake City, in a street car accident, Judge Charles W. Bennett, founder of the old law firm of Bennett and Harkness, an able jurist, born New York, October 14, 1833, and came to Salt Lake City in 1871, the great Chicago fire having wiped out his business in that city where he practiced in the firm of Bentler, Bennett, Ulman and Ives.-In Taylorsville, Salt Lake Co., Wednesday, October 24, Susan Sneath Harker, the first woman to cross the Jordan river, a pioneer of 1847, born England, June 20, 1821, came to America in 1845, and joined the Church in Winterquarters.- In Salt Lake City, Saturday, 13th, Thomas Marshall, a leading lawyer of the west, and a resident of Salt Lake for over 40 years, born Kentucky, Aug. 25, 1834.— In Ogden, Monday, 15th, William McGregor, born Glasgow, Scotland, Oct. 4, 1842 came to Utah in 1850, a faithful member of the Church.—In Cedar Valley, Utah co., Sunday, 14th, Eli Bennett, a pioneer, and bishop of Cedar Valley for 24 years, born Tennessee, Nov. 26, 1831, came to Utah in 1852.-In Cardston, Canada, Saturday, 13th, Mary Ann Atkins Hymas, born England, 1815, joined the Church in 1854, and came to Utah in 1861, settling in Tooele, and later in Bear Lake, but a resident of Canada since 1898. She left 100 grand children and 153 great grand children and 5 children of the 5th generation. It November Elections.-The Republican ticket at the election November 6, was victorious in the State of Utah by large majorities in nearly every county. won in Salt Lake County by about 2,000 plurality, though Salt Lake City was carried by a small vote, about 800, for the "American" party, about 200 decrease from their vote of last year. Weber, Utah, Davis, Summit, Sevier, and other leading counties of the state, went largely Republican. Hon. Joseph Howell for Congress and Hon. Jos. E. Frick for Justice of the Supreme Court, who headed the Republican ticket, were elected by large majorities. The constitutional amendment: Shall state funds be used to help high schools? carried in Salt Lake county by a vote of Yes, 3,410, as against No, 2,875; and the other amendment: Shall mortgages be exempt from taxation? by a vote of Yes, 4,893, against No, 1,687, which is undoubtedly an indication of how the amendments fared in the state. In New York, Chas. E. Hughes, the insurance inquisitor, for Governor, carried the state by a plurality of 62,000, though the city went for Hearst, the Democratic candidate for the same office. In Idaho, Senator Fred T. Dubois, who advocated the Democratic cause, with his principal issue an Anti-Mormon resolution, and a desire to succeed himself in the senate, was defeated, and Hon. W. E. Borah will be elected to his place. Governor Gooding was reelected. Returns from 42 states where Congressional elections were held, insure Republican control of Congress by a majority of 56, as against 112 in the present Congress. The |