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The Latter-day Saints' Hospital

Another educational factor has entered into the development of the work of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and that is the hospital movement.

There has been established in Salt Lake City, a beautiful and commodious hospital, known as the Dr. W. H. Groves Latter-day Saints Hospital; the name having been derived through a bequest of the late Dr. W. H. Groves who left his estate valued at $50,000, toward the establishment of the hospital to bear his name.

The institution has at present a capacity of 125 beds, and there is in progress of erection an addition which will increase' the capacity of the hospital to nearly 250.

In connection with this institution is a Training School for Nurses which now has an enrollment of seventy in training in charge of seven high class supervisors. When the new wing is ready for occupancy the training school will have an enrollment of about one hundred persons.

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NURSES' HOME, LATTER-DAY SAINTS' HOSPITAL

The institution gives a three years' course of training for nursing in general surgery, medicine, children, hydro and electro therapy treatments, massage, etc. The institution will represent, with the new wing, an outlay of nearly $600,000. All of this vast sum except about $70,000 has been provided from the general Church funds. The Board of Trustees consists of the Presiding Bishopric, (C. W. Nibley, O. P. Miller and David A. Smith), Dr. Joseph S. Richards, and F. S. Richards.

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LATTER-DAY SAINTS' HOSPITAL BUILDINGS, SALT LAKE CITY

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GRADUATING NURSES' CLASS, LATTER-DAY, SAINTS' HOSPITAL, 1913

The first class of nurses graduated in 1906, and since that time there have been seventy-one graduates, ten of this number forming the graduating class of 1913. Their names follow: left to right, top row, Drusilla S. Hodson, Provo; first row, Mabel Rockwell, Lehi, Utah; Adeline Kunz, Bern, Idaho; Daphne Dalton, Manassa, Colorado; second row, Polly M. Skousen, Juarez, Mexico; Miss Dancy, Superintendent of Nurses; Pattie Pritchard, Salt Lake City; third row, Ruth C. Hansen, Salt Lake City; Audrey Benson, Provo; Mary Albrea Shumway, Penrose, Wyo.; bottom, Martha Tipton, Salt Lake City.

The Y. M. M. I. A.

The Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association was organized first in the 13th Ward, Salt Lake City, under the inspiration of President Brigham Young, on the 10th day of June, 1875, Elder Junius F. Wells being appointed to take the initiative in the organization.

Steadily from that time up to the present, the association has grown until in the Church in the intermountain country there are now 670 separate organizations with a permanent enrollment of 33,506, and an active enrollment of 23,335 young men; over 1,000 are away at schools, and more than that number on missions.

The purposes of the association are to strengthen the faith of the young people in the divinity of the work of the Lord-the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; and to develop the natural gifts within them through religious, physical, and intellectual instruction, and by affording them opportunities for practice in these various activities.

To this end the organization has so far printed and distributed, for weekly study, approximately 400,000 manuals in 16 volumes, on religious, moral, economic and ethical subjects. It has established athletic associations, organized M. I. A. Scouts ; and made a beginning to help the boys in choosing vocations and encouraging industries, and in other ways aided them in the development of special gifts and talents through debating, storytelling, writing, music, orations and other intellectual activities. Contests in these are held annually, graded from the ward to the stake, and finally to the Church.

The organization is controlled by a General Board of which President Joseph F. Smith is the presiding officer. The stake divisions of the Church, of which there are sixty-four, have superintendents and boards of aids who have charge of the associations in their respective divisions. The single association, which is subject to the stake board, is directed by a president, counselors, secretary and board of officers who come in direct contact with the membership. The M. I. A. Scouts are affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America, but are a part of the ward improvement association and under its supervision. It is needless to say the activities of the Y. M. M. Ì. A. have been a great power in the educational development of the young people of the Church.

For seventeen years, closing with October, 1896, The Contributor was the organ of the associations. Since 1897, and now in its sixteenth volume, the IMPROVEMENT ERA has been, and is the organ of these organizations. It has a circulation of 13,000 copies and is one of the forces that has aided greatly in the progress of the organizations.—EDWARD H. ANDERSON.

Editors' Table

Welcome

The IMPROVEMENT ERA bids the teachers of the National Education Association a hearty welcome to our city and state. We hope that while they sojourn among us they may enjoy themselves and be pleased with what they see, hear, and learn. We trust also that they may inform themselves correctly on the educational and social conditions in our state. We believe that in these respects our people are not a whit behind the best in the land;neither are they in teachers, buildings, environment, resources, climate, and all that goes to favor intellectual advancement and physical health and comfort. We believe, too, that the people of Utah and surrounding states will compare favorably in earnestness, intelligence, devotion to God and to truth, and in the purity of their social lives, with any other community in our nation. We ask only that the truth concerning them be learned and told, and, of course, that falsehood and falsifiers be refuted.

In this number of the ERA, largely devoted to educational information, our readers will find reliablé data relating to some of the intellectual efforts of the people of Utah, past and present. Aside from illustrated articles that deal with the National Education Association, the history and evolution of education, and the present public school system in Utah, there will be found excellent papers on the organization and government of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, its missionary and financial systems, and its schools,—papers brimful of interesting and up-to-date matter on these subjects, which we trust not only the visiting teachers will read and appreciate, but which we hope may prove valuable also to the missionaries and to our readers in general.

There are thirty-two extra pages in this number, yet we have found little or no space to devote to the material and scenic interests of our state. Even though only comparatively little could be said in detail of the many forces that tend to educate, comfort, and render service to the community, the idea of the magnitude of

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