EDITORIALS We stand for the constitution of the United States with its three departments of government as therein set forth, each one fully independent in its own field. Salt Lake City, Utah Deseret News Sunday, April 17, 1949 Shall the Dead Live Again? Easter Deseret April 17 49 RECENTLY a three year old girl died when she fell into an open well. The story of the attempted rescue touched the heart strings of the entire nation. Her death brought expressions of dismay from all who followed the tragic events. At her funeral, held just a few days ago, the question was asked over and over again. Will she ever live again? During the same week an old man sat at the bier of his wife who had passed away two days before. Friends came in, attempting to comfort him. As he talked with them he said, I wonder if I will ever see her again. You know after all, death is really a great mystery. We really know nothing whatever of death. I guess there isn't a man alive today who really knows whether there is any life beyond. A mother stood in a cemetery as the body of her soldier son was consigned to the earth of his native state, after having been brought home from a foreign burial ground. As the salute was fired, and taps blown, there escaped from her lips a hope, forlornly spoken. I do hope that some time I may see him again. My poor boy. What hope is there for such as these? Into every home at some time, the angel of death comes. A loved one is taken away. With every such event, the question of immortality arises. An answer must be given. What is it? Do we really know what takes place after death? Has any one ever come back from the dead to prove the reality of the after life? Today is Easter. What does that day mean? Can it bring to us the answer to the questions raised above? Do men really understand what Easter is? To every one who believes in Jesus Christ, Easter means resurrection, immortality, victory over death. It means that we who live in mortality will live on, even after our bodies die; that loved ones will be reunited again after death; that although there is spiritual life between the death and resurrection of the body, some time our bodies will come forth from their graves literally and our spirits will re inhabit them for eternity. The true believer in the Messiah cherishes the doctrine that we are all immortal beings; we lived before we came to earth; we will go on living after we leave here. In truth we are the offspring the literal children of God. We can become like him. In fact he commands it. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Did Jesus really live after death? Was his resurrection a fact? Many are the testimonies in the affirmative. The women at the tomb heard the angel announce. He Is Risen. Mary actually saw him as a resurrected being in the garden. The eleven disciples saw him, and to them he said. Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not FLESH AND BONES AS YE SEE ME HAVE. Pauls vision came as a testimony to all mankind, and after that, Jesus was seen by more than 500, according to holy writ. Here in America the resurrected Savior visited the Nephites. To a multitude of 2500 he made an appearance, spoke to them, invited them to examine the scars of the crucifixion to make certain in their minds that he lived, although he once was dead. And this they did, coming up one by one, and were convinced. He lived, for there he was. They saw him, heard him, felt him. In modern times, we have had repeated demonstrations of the fact that the dead live, for men once dead have come back from the dead, here in the United States of America, and appeared to mortals who likewise have felt, heard and seen them. John the Baptist, slain before the crucifixion, came back in modern times as a resurrected man, laid his hands upon the heads of Oliver Cowdery and Joseph Smith and ordained them to the Aaronic Priesthood. Peter, James and John came; Moroni made his appearance; Moses who, according to the Old Testament, died prior to the entrance of Israel into the Promised Land, came back; Elijah, taken into heaven without tasting death, likewise appeared; and there were others. These men, once dead, now fully alive and alert, by their appearance in our day proved that life goes on. Only the body can die. And they proved likewise that the body flesh and bones is restored and reanimated, that we again receive our own bodies, and will live in them. Yes, the resurrection is a fact; life exists beyond the grave. Mothers who place their loved ones in the tomb will have them again. Widows and widowers will see their life long companions once again. Those whose loved ones were lost through the violence of war may also be comforted. The bodies of the dead, even though struck in life by shot and shell, will come forth from the grave in a resurrection which provides that every limb and joint will be restored to its perfect frame. Easter, like other sacred days, too often has its true meaning obscured by worldliness. As we note it today, let us accept it ,for what it really is. an announcement that Jesus the Christ overcame death and brought about the resurrection, not only for himself but for all mankind. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. He lives! And because he lives, we too shall live. Better Citizens in West? SENATOR Owen Brewster of Maine, chairman of the senatorial campaign committee, has recently given to Utah a wholly unintentional but very well deserved pat on the back for good citizenship. A special dispatch from Katherine Johnsen, Washington correspondent for The Deseret News, tells of Senator Brewsters research on figures showing the deplorably low country wide proportion of citizens who exercise their right to vote in national elections. In 1944, the senator tells us, only 59 per cent of eligible voters cast their ballots, and this percentage dropped to 52 barely more than half in 1948. In each of these years, however, Utah stood at the top of the list of states, with 79.3 per cent voting in 1944, and 74.6 per cent in 1948. Reduced to simplest terms, it appears that Utah's margin of voting activity, as compared with that of the nation as a whole, approximated four to three in 1944, and rose despite an actual percentage drop to nearly three to two in 1948. Utah does not stand alone among the Western states, although she stands highest; but both Colorado and Montana rated 75 per cent or above in 1944 and more than 70 per cent in 1948, while Nevada was not far below 70 per cent and both New Mexico and Wyoming scored 60 per cent or higher, both years. Among the mountain states reported, only Arizona with about 46 and 47 per cent, fell below the national average. At first it seems disquieting to note that a man might be elected to the presidency of the United States by a substantial plurality that fell short of a majority in the popular vote, which despite the large majority produced by the mathematical peculiarities of the electoral college would mean active support at the polls by only about one fourth of the eligible voters of the nation. This thought should give pause to those who think that a mandate is a license to stage a runaway. On the other hand, it seems improbable that any one party has a large majority of delinquent voters, so a 50 plus per cent turnout may come close to expressing the true voice of the people. Probably Senator Brewsters figures do not indicate that the citizens in the Mountain States are better than those elsewhere, so much as that there are more Westerners, in proportion, who understand their responsibilities on election day.