| Show TIIE THE WORD MUTUAL AS APPLIED TO THE TRE improvement associations 1 f editor deseret news meirs 7 the number and success of t those a os e societies called the young mers meis N I 1 c ns mutual improvement associations in this city are a very gratifying evi evl evidence of the pro progress cress aress and capability of the young people la in the pursuit ot of knowledge the object Is very commendable implying as it does an ardent desire for mental improvement which cannot fall to exert a beneficial influence upon the rising generation in more ways than one the literary exercises so far as I 1 have been made with them usually have been of a high order calling into practice a thorough knowledge of the clencel cien clen ces history and literature on the part bithe of the members to say nothing of advantages of social intercourse and nd the interchange of ideas withal na kaea W but one word in the title of these societies ha has s always seemed to me a misnomer on account of its limited meaning which in its proper signification Is not ap applicable I 1 li cabie cable to so many persons I 1 refer reier reler to the use of the term aiu ain Alu mutual tuai 11 As derived from the latin mu titus the word means a change of one thing for another 1 e an exchange of benefits and as an exchange can be eff effected acted only between two persons or two parties be the num number berof of individuals in each party large or small it is evident that where a body of members derive common benefit from each other interchangeably without regard to jo number ne the t erm term here has an improper meaning as well as a misleading one it if tiie the word had bad reference to the exchange of benefits between two sexes the title should have been young peoples mutual improvement association but when confined in application to one sex or one society its meaning Is strained too much the best writers writ ers use mutual only in the sense of two persons quotations can be made to support this v view ae w fro from im milton mllton ton Shak shakespeare speare dryden and athers others but one passage from pope will suffice and what wat should most excite a mutual alame flame your rural cares and pleasures are the same in the lines quo teda mutual flama flame between two persons only is meant and not indiscriminately in comm common on with more than that number of persons mutual advantage Is the advantage which is conferred by one person or a number of persons upon another and received vice versa in the same tame sense we say mutual dislike is mutual love mutual improvement it etc PL hoping that these sug suggestions 11 will wit 1 be received I 1 in n a kindi kindl y spirit by the members of the Y M aa MI I 1 associations for the reason that they are I 1 given for what they are worth with wit a good purpose I 1 lam iam am yours respectfully HARRY WHITE department for deaf mutes university of deseret despret Des eret cret P S would it not be well to omit the word mutual from the na name e of the associations as it can be done without any injury to of the tho whole or substitute therefore the word operative cooperative co 11 as the young men subscribe the wealth of their brains in a common stock for the advantage vanta yanta ge and profit of all 11 W |
