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Show II SPIRIT IS DEPRECATED BY APOSTLE IIS Official at Conference Quotes From Speech of J. Frank Hanly, Prohibition Pro-hibition Candidate. COUNSEL IS AGAINST REPRISAL IN MEXICO Between Twelve and Thirteen Thir-teen Thousand Hear Advice Ad-vice in Opposition to Intervention, Twenty thousand people, it was estimated, esti-mated, surged into Temple square yesterday yes-terday morning to attend"1 the reconvened session of the eighty-sixth semi-annual conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Between 12,000 and 13,000 of these that being the estimated number of persons crowded into the tabernacle at the morning morn-ing meeting heard Apostle Anthony W. Ivins deprecate a recent' utterance of one of the candidates for the presidency of the United States. While Apostle Ivins did not name the candidate whom he quoted, all of his hearers who were of years of understanding under-standing knew that he made reference to a speech delivered by J. Prank Hanly, Prohibitionist candidate for president of the United States. Against Intervention. During the course of his address Apostle Ivins said: Three days ago a man who stands before the American people, asking for the highest place in their gift, publicly announced and It has been published In the principal newspapers newspa-pers of this republic that if elected he would Intervene forcibly in the affairs af-fairs of Mexico. In other words, there would be Immediate declaration of war. because this is just what his policy pol-icy would mean! Now, my brethren and sisters, It may seem to be a simple thing to have war with Mexico just a handful of people, a few more in number than ttie inhabitants of the state of New York but whenever you begin a war you don"t know just where It. Is going go-ing to end. Yesterday's meetings had an attendance that was equal to that of any other conference con-ference of the church. There were three meetings in the morning and three in the afternoon. The assembly hall ana a large tent tu the east of the bureau of information infor-mation were utilized to accommodate the great overflow of members who sought to obtain belated admission to the great tabernacle. tab-ernacle. In addition to the 15.000 who sat and Btood in every available space in the tabernacle, including the spacious and many open doorways, there were about I50( in the assembly hall and 500 in the tent. The estimated total of those who received instruction at the conference in the morning was 18,000. and an equal number was present during the afternoon. after-noon. This is probably a record for the morning meetings, as heretofore the afternoons aft-ernoons only have been characterized by overflow meetings, as a rule. About 2000 lingered In the square, unable to secure admittance. At the assembly hall in the morning Apostle Tlyrum M. Smith had charge of the meeting, assisted by President Mel-vin Mel-vin J. Fallard of the northwestern states mission; President Walter p. Monson of the e;i stern slates mission ; President Thomas B. Kvans of the Ogden stake; President George T. Hyde of the Port-neuf Port-neuf stake. The afternoon meeting in the assembly ball was In charge of Apostle Orson F. Whitney, assisted by Elder Rulon S. Wells of the first council of seventy; President John P. Herrick of the western states mission, and Elders Daniel K. Udall and John W. Batter. Tenor Appreciated. At the tent meeting In the morning Apo?tIe Pavki o. McKay had charge, assisted as-sisted by Joseph "W. MoMurrin of the first council of seventy: President Joseph K. Robinson of the California mission, President Pres-ident A. Cnllis of the southern states mission and Elder Wilford Day. For the assembly hall niertings the Pioneer Pio-neer stake chorus, under direction of Trai'y V. Cannon, furnished the must, wiille the Ensign stake ninl ual chorus, under the leadership of Professor Henry E. CAWs. supplied the singing service at the two meetings In the tent. One notable feature of the morning meeting In the tabernacle was the tenor soo sung by John T. Hand. He sang 'If With All Your Hearts Ye Trulv Seek M." from Mendelssohn's oratorio." "Elijah." "Eli-jah." Never before has Mr. Hand been heard to better advantage to himself or given greater pleasure to his auditors. The dramatic tenor had pet fe.-t control of his malic tenor had perfect control of his 1 excellent voice; it is doubtful if his modulation modu-lation could be improved upon; his phrns-iug phrns-iug was superb, and his interpretative aMllty, nood, as It always Is, was never bettor demonstrated. The regular tabe:nacle choir, with A. C. Lund directing, and J. .1. McClellan at (Continued on Page Tliree.) j g APOSTLE IIS l- IS OPPOSED TO INTERVENTION Makes Reference to the i Mexican Situation in Ad- - dress at Mormon Conference. (Continued from Page One.) the origan console, sanp the liymiis, "Great i God. Attend While Zion Sings" and "Hn.ll, Bright Millennial Uay of Rest." The invocation in-vocation was offered by President Rey I. Pratt of the Mexican mission, and the . benediction was pronounced by President f S. O. Bennlon of the central states mis- j sion. T At the afternoon meeting' the choir sang ' the hymn, "Author of Faith, Eternal V Word" a( the opening, and "O. Awake, My Slumbering Minstrel" after the invo- h vocation, which was given by President f Nephl I.. Morris of the Salt Jake stake, i As the closing anthem the choir sang W "Hallelujah to tiie Father." f A musical feature of the afternoon was i.X an organ solo played by Professor J. J. 1 j; MfClellun when the services were about t - half-way througli. The theme was "Near- er, My God, to Tiiee." and it was played in such a manner as to bring out many , of the tonal qualities of the great instru-' instru-' ment, which served to give a partial idea of the scope and numerous stops of the organ. The marvelous range of instru- r-. mentation embraced in the splendid in- ! , : sirument was partly disclosed when the I ' chimes and piano stops were introduced , wk in the master! v fashion cusLomary to Professor MeCTellan. , - Prior to adjournment of the conference ' for six months Apostle Heher J. Grant jLm read the names of the general authorities W of the church and of the general and aux-, aux-, i iliary board officials of the organization, i and thev were all unanimously sustained. f Only one change appeared of any ' note, i That was the substitution of Elder Nephi L Anderson as clerk of the conference for Elder I uncan M. McAllister, who has served in that position for many years. The benediction was offered by Presiding Patriarch Hyrum G. Smith. I Apostle Ivins Speaks. I y Apostle Anthony W. Ivins was the first I ' speaker at the morning meeting, and he tfpoke in part, as follows: T have recently returned from a pro-' pro-' traded trip which took me among the stakes of the church. It gives me much satisfaction to report that ' - I found the spiritual and temporal ' condition of the people from Canada on the north to Kanab and St. George . on the south to be excellent. Never y before in the history of the church have as large congregations been gathered gath-ered together at stake conferences. I l .' ' found also that the presidents of i ft stakes and the bishops of wards were 1 awake to their duties and enthusias- i tic. devoted, faithful and capable men 1 all at work in the service of the Lord. I want to say that this Is true of " all the guiding officers in tho church. The business of the presiding bishop is conducted in a most orderly manner. man-ner. No onein need is turned away, and assistance is given wherever neo- ossary. The spirit of charity prevails in thi office. Afl the members of the first coun-r coun-r cil of seventy fuukI ready at a moment's not ke to answer any call that may he made upon them for " service in the field. - Tribute to President. T personally 1;hpv Presidents Rris- 1mm Young, John Taylor, Wllford Woodruff and Lorenzo Snow, and I j know that they served the church well X while they were providing over it, but 1 I can truthfully say that the affairs f of the church were never administered with greater cure, in greater humility and In Kreater faith than they are Is.' at the piPSfnt time. . T would not have you believe that all things in the church are as they should bp. or as we would like them to be. There never was a time when suHi was the casie. lint I do desire to say (hat if the Savior came to the earth today lie would find faith exist-!, exist-!, ing in ibis neople. Temporally the people of the church are prosperous, and prosperity is with the merchants, manufacturers and bankers. Money comes to the people easilv, where it formeily was difficult to obtain. This condition, however, brings about an undesirable situation. It is that a spirit of extravagance in hteh living has been engendered in the people. This spirit has extended itself to municipalities. Individuals and cities and towns exhibit an inclination in-clination to borrow money. Do you not know that a bond on your city is a mortgage on your own property? I notice that the disposition to extravagant ex-travagant expenditures is reaching out to the state. When the constitution of the state was formed safeguards were set around the taxes of the commonwealth. com-monwealth. There exists in these prosperous pros-perous times an inclination to break over these safeguards and contract state debts which may cause us come trouble in the future. Declares Against War. Three days ago a man who stands hefore the American people, asking for the highest place in their gift, publiclv announced and it has been published in the principal newspapers of this republic that if elected he would immediately intervene forcibly in the affairs of Mexico. In other words, there would be Immediate declaration dec-laration of war, because tills is Just what Ids policy would mean. Now. my brethren and sisters, it may seem to be a simple tiling to have war with Mexico Just a handful of people, a few more in number than the inhabitants of the state of New York hut whenever you begin a war vou don't know just where it is go-ins go-ins to end. It seemed to be a simple matter for Austria to go over into Ser. bla, but we all know now what the awful results were. At one time, many years ago. I had an experience on the road to Ploche, New, which it may be well to recite. It was a rule of the road that an empty vehicle should give right of way to a loaded one, and that one coming down hill should turn out for the one going up. A man whom I knew was running run-ning empty on the Pioche road when he met a young man driving a loaded j wagon. Neither turned out. Mistake in Judgment. Hank, who was driving the empty I wagon, stopped perforce when the two I teams met. "Are you going to turn out for me?" he asked the young man. j T can't very well," replied the young fellow, "because my wagon is loaded." Hank jumped down from his seat to "take it out of the young man's hide." A little later we saw him washing his face at the creek. "Hank, what is the mutter?" we ! asked him. He replied: "Well. I ! just made a little mistake in judg- ment." I . ; There was another grizzled man , driving a freight team on the road I about the same time. He used to carry 1 a shotgun on the seat of his wagon j at all times and was considered a "terror" by other drivers. One day I saw the long ears of his mules flop over the top of a hill up which I was driving a load. We met and stopped on the hill. He said: "Young man, aro you going to turn out?" I said: "I can't very well, sir. Tou see. my wagon Is loaded." "Well, do you know what I am going go-ing to do If you don't turn out?" "No, sir," I replied. "Weil, I'll turn out." he answered. Which do you think was the greater Christian and exercised the better Judgment? Doctrines Discussed. Apostle Joseph F. Smith. Jr., followed Apostle Ivins. His address was purely doctrinal and had reference to the promises prom-ises of the Lord to L-ehi, according to the Book of Mormon, that his posterity should inherit this land and that it' should become be-come a haven of refuge for the world. Apostle James E. Talmage began in a doctrinal strain and worked into reference to the war in Europe. He said that not long before the opening of the conflict an eminent economist had said that It was practically Impossible for a world war to be precipitated upon civilization, because the sentiment of civilized mankind man-kind had grown away from that tendency. tenden-cy. Yet, he said, the war had come, as it had been foretold by the prophets. President Seymour R. Young of the first council of seventy was the first speaker of the afternoon meeting. He made reference ref-erence to a recent visit which he made to Kansas City to attend the convention of Grand Army veterans, speaking in part as follows: In Kansas City, Ftali was greeted for the most part with respect. The state was applauded generously, hut here and there could be detected a note of derision. In a few years the veteran of tho civil war will be a thing of the past. The old soldiers are dying off at the rate of 500 a year, and this number increases as the years go by. I visited Independence. Mo., the center stake of Zion. where some day a great temple shall be built by the saints. The temple blork originally consisted of about, sixty-three acres. In one spot haa been erected a modern mod-ern and comfortable chapel, where meetings are held. On Saturday afternoon the handcart hand-cart veterans of Utah held a reunion at the Fourteenth ward chapel in this city. That gathering reminded me of the spirit of collecting in Zion that takes possession of our people. So anxious were these veterans in their day to gp. ther to t he valleys of the mountains that they hazarded the risks of a thousand-mile journey on foot, pulling or piuhing handcarts containing their belongings. Elder Brlgham H. Roberts of the first council of seventy said that to face an audience like that made him conscious of his own significance, and said further. In part: It is only a commonplace to say that we live in a momentous age. yet I cannot help using the expression at this time. The world is in the third year of its greatest and most destructive destruc-tive war. How great it is ts bevond the comprehension of man. but there are just a few Items that may enable us to srasp the stupendousness of the conflict. The number of men estimated to have been killed outright is about 4.000,000 and the number of wounded wound-ed or missing in placed at about 12,-000,000, 12,-000,000, a total of about 16,000,000. Foretold by Prophets. i Does the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints stand in any relationship rela-tionship to this great calamity? We certainly do. We had foreknowledge of it, for God has not permitted this great calamity to come upon the world without warning. It has been foretold by the prophets of old and by the Prophet Joseph Smith. England once rejoiced in her splendid splen-did isolation as a bar to entangling alliance with other nations. Finally, through surrounding and contributing circumstances, she was obliged to make a union with other nations in order to defend herself against still other nations. At the close of the second Balkan war it was said bv economists and others that no great world war could ever occur. Notwithstanding this, it has come upon us. The word of the Lord stands. We stand in the relationship of having hav-ing the duty to warn the inhabitants of the earth that Zion is the only land of safety. This relationship is based upon the assurance to us that, notwithstanding not-withstanding the ferocity of that cataclysmic cata-clysmic thing that has come upon the earth, there is the coming of God's kingdom, when the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the tops of the mountains. People can maintain themselves here by accepting ac-cepting God as the only king that shall reign In the earth. Discusses Trade War. There are those who are talking of a trade war after the war at arms shall cease. I am with Lord James , Bryce, who declares this proposed policy pol-icy and advocates a league of nations for the establishment and maintenance mainte-nance of permanent peace in the world. And I believe that our own nation will throw its great power and influence on the side of justice and the promotion of such a league of nations, na-tions, which shall so suppress intense in-tense Individual national feeling that there shall be practically a universal nationality, which will unite all nations na-tions In everlasting peace. President Rey Pratt of the Mexican mission described conditions as he had found them in Mexico and as he now learns of them by letters received from members of the church in that revolution-ridden revolution-ridden country. lie spoke in part, as follows: The original natives of Mexico are all of Lamanite descent, as we are told in the Book of Mormon. The woes which have come upon them are in accordance with prophecy made in I that book. There are about 10,000.-! 10,000.-! ono inhabitants in the country. Two million of these uwn all the land and practically own as slaves the remaln-: remaln-: ing 13,000.000. The aristocratic class, which owns all the land, and the great majority of the population, is descended descend-ed from the Spanish conquerors led by Cortez. Carranza an Aristocrat. At the time of the conquest a do-. do-. mtnion as large as the Salt La.ke valley val-ley was given to one man, and with it was given .10,000 inhabitants to till the ground. Raped upon such actions as i this a slavery quite as bad as that which existed in the south has been established in Mexico. The people own nothing but their misery. Conditions Condi-tions are no better there now ' than they were five years ago. General Carranza is. by birth and training, an aristocrat In whom t lie people can have no confidence. The people have no property, political or religious rights. The l".000,00n will never lay down their arms until they achieve their rights. They are determined de-termined that their children shall inherit in-herit something more than the misery which is their portion of life. I am told in a letter just received from one of our people there that many are picking up fruit and potato peelings In the street, that they niav devour them to sustain life. The same letter says that many of our brethren ! there are subsisting on hut one meal In forty-eight hours. They are a good people In Mexico, and I have absolute abso-lute faith in their ultimate redemption. redemp-tion. Bishop Gives Advice. Presiding Bishop Charles W. Nibley delivered de-livered a brief address on temporal matters, mat-ters, speaking in part, as follows: T would like to emphasize what Elder Ivins said this forenoon. I think, and it is my advice to myself as well as to you, that there never was so good a time as the present this fall to get out of debt. Pay off the mortgages mort-gages on your homes and farms, if there be any on them. Everything which you produce foodstuffs.' beef, mutton, swine and cereals commands good prices. These things are sent abroad by shiploads, and more and more of them are called for. Nov. while the stream of gold is com in? back for these tilings for these food supplies and munitions and clothfng is the time to pay your debts. President Joseph F. Smith closed the conference, nn.l adjourned it until April. 1017. by savins in part: Get out of debt. Keep out of debt. Put down intemperHiuc. Keep tlic word uf wisdom. Be wis1 and moderate in your amusements. Card playing is An evil. Avoid every evil. Honor 1 lie Sabbath .lay and divine authority. Let everybody who can raise his own bread and meat. Sustain home industry. indus-try. Be not fH'OfTci's. Show sympathy to all. especially to the unfort una t The I'nt ted Stains, of which we arc true and loyal citizens, has it. glorious destiny to extend liberty lo all the ! people of the earth. 1 believe in killing- the oppressor, rather than letting the oppressor continue to kill the in-, nocent. |
