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Show SAl URGEDTO c SAVE AND SERVE CHURCHMEN ASKED TO F SUPPLIES TO NATION A., u HELP DEFEAT HUN. President PM aV' People in Opening Ad d res s at An nual Conference of Ch c ' Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. ' cvt lake .atv.-T'l'ly-eil'tl' annua, conference of the Church o Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint was held in this city April o,0 and ., i ,u.llt Joseph l- Smith, who l.ul. ...edfi-oin California, where he ;.a l spe,t the grater part t..e -because of his health, deli'. e. u.0 opening address. 1 Apostle Koed Smoot. Roberts, one of the seven i f seventies, and Ilk-hard V,'. iour.g. PK.- tent of the Ensign stake of ion. unable to attend the conJem.ec cause of .their duties, Aposl e S being busy at Washington, and lic h.s two named wearing tl.ev.mU.rm of .he government. - - Those who attended the conference were well repaid, the various speakers bringing out different points of interest and instruction in matters ot vital interest in-terest to all Saints, there being a spin of optimism evident that was good to bCIn'l'his opening address, President Smith pledged the loyalty of his people to the government in this time of need, and urged upon all Satnls rhe.necessity of increased production ami conservation conserva-tion of foodstuffs. That the promised support ot tne government was no empty one was evidenced evi-denced bv.tho fact that at the Saturday session the congregation by unanimous vote' authorized the church authorities to purchase $230,000 of the third Liberty Lib-erty loan Issue. Just six months ago a like sum" was invested by the church. At the Saturday morning session, Richard It. Lyman, son of the late Apostle Francis. M. Lyman, was appointed ap-pointed by unanimous vote., of the Saints as a member of-lire quorum of twelve apostles, to.' fill, the vacancy caused by the recent .death of Elder Hyrum M. Smith. - - Also by unanimous vote of the congregation, con-gregation, Joseph F. Smith, Jr., son of the venerable president of the church, was appointed a- member of the general gen-eral board of education of the church, to fill the office held by the late Apostle Apos-tle Lyman. - All executive authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were sustained in office by unanimous vote Saturday at the afternoon after-noon session. The entire personnel of church executives, from Joseph F. Smith as president and trustee in trust down to the clerk of the conference, were sustained without a dissenting vote. At the closing session on Sunday Richard R. Lyman, the new member of the council of twelve, occupied his official of-ficial seat in the second tier of the rostrum and delivered his first address as an apostle at the afternoon session. President .Toeph F. Smith conducted both meetings in the tabernacle and delivered de-livered a brief closing address, in which he admonished the people not to hold God responsible for the war, telling tell-ing them tnat it was the result of the wickedness of earthly rulers. The Financial Report. expenditures made from the tithing funds of the L. D. S. church during the year 1917 were briefly given in a general summary by President Joseph F. Smith in his opening address, ad-dress, as follows : Expended in the stakes and wards for local purposes, $751.07S.GG ; maintenance main-tenance and upkeep of temples, including in-cluding repairs of the St. George and Logan temples, 111,030.50; construction construc-tion of the Cardston, Canada, and Hawaiian Ha-waiian temples, '?126,745.3G ; maintenance mainte-nance and operation of church schools ?30S.p28.75; charitable purposes, including in-cluding hospitals, S320,903.75 ; mission purposes, including the erection of mission houses and chapels, $333,-801.37; $333,-801.37; completion of the new church office building, $J54.SGS.-U). - Total, $2,1G9,4S2.S5. Other statistics included were : Number Num-ber of -tithe payers. 87,663; number wlio paid fast. offerings, 47,820 ; number num-ber of wards and independent branches, 831) ; number of stakes, 75 ; number of missions, 22; birth rate, 37 per 1000; marriage rate. 17 per 1000; deatli rate, S.l per 1000 ; widows, 33 per 1000; widowers, 7 per 1000; divorced di-vorced after, temple marriage, 80 persons per-sons in 191.7; divorced after civil marriage, mar-riage, 101 person? in 1917; families who own their homes, SO per cent. In addition to the six general sessions ses-sions of the conference, two each day on Friday. Saturday and Sunday, there were also the usual conferences of auxiliary organizations. The last meeting in the tabernacle' was held Sunday night. This was the conference confer-ence of the Deseret Sunday School union. Mutual Improvement associations confined their conferences to meetings meet-ings of. the general and slake and ward authorities. The conjoint meeting meet-ing of officers was held in the Assembly As-sembly hall at S o'clock Sunday morning. |