Cleveland High School - Beacon Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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And the cost? A conservative estimate numbers 15,000,000 lives lost and about S330,000,000,000 spent. In 1932 Andrew Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury, reported that the World War cost us about 3S38,000,000,000. The money cost of all our wars has amounted to almost S54,000,000,000. Suppose Constantine, the great Roman Emperor, some sixteen hundred years ago, had collected S54,000,000,000 gold dollars in a great treasury and had arranged to pay it out at the rate of a 'dollar a second, twenty- four hours a day. There still would be a few billion dollars left. That is what we have spent for war during our short national life. What a price we pay for war! Will there be an advance of civilization if it must be traced by conflict? Wouldn't it be possible to settle all inter- national disputes by peaceful means? I wonder. VX, K- X XIX! lglffffib .r lfw f ,ffl - f ' ' lf? I t ffwfcl ' 'lf' 3 i s ll ,lf . 5 ,jg f 'fl 1294 ray 7 W Page Seventeen 'rf' ! lf!

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under United States rule has progressed in a way that would have been impossible under Mexican rule. Not a quarter of a century elapsed before our country Was distressed by civil strife due not to slavery but to the clash of two hostile theories of government which dated back to the beginning of our national life. Was the national government supreme and the states only departments of the government or was the Union made up of sovereign states which entered of their own free will and could leave it whenever they pleased? The real truth was that the North and South did not know each other. It is said that when planning an invasion of the South, Lincoln walked over to a great wall map and began to search for a railroad leading from the North into that region. A general on the staff remarked, It is not there, Mr. President. If it had been there, we should not be fighting this war. It is an interesting fact that most of the railroad lines ran east and west, and communication between North and South was not easy. We are prone to assume that the War was necessary to rid the country of the curse of slavery, but let us see. In 1850 the United States Treasury Department investigated the cost of slavery in the Black Belt and found that every adult slave cost his master S5135 a year, including interest on capital, insurance, taxation, depreciation, and cost of maintenance. Fifty years later a Southern planter in that same region could hire a negro farm hand for 35120 a year. Economic conditions would probably have over- thrown slavery rather than a war costing hundreds of thousands of lives and billions in money which ended an economic system that had already become unprofitable. However, no price was too great to pay for the pres- ervation of the Union. But even here we see a curious inconsistency. The national government waged a four year war to prove that a state could not leave the Union and then the radicals of the reconstruction period spent ten years getting the states back into the Union. All remained quiet for a time. Then what happened? Another war! Our economic interests and our sympathies for the sufferings of the natives of Cuba at the hands of Spain made it impossible for us to be indifferent to Cuba's fate. However before Congress declared war, Spain had agreed to grant every demand our government had made except that of absolute independence for Cuba. Cuba Won her freedom. But when we consider the present situation in Cuba-in spite of all the guidance and aid the Cubans have received from the United States-we wonder if the returns of the Spanish-American War justified the cost. But Why can't we settle down? In a little less than twenty years we were fighting another great contest. This time the master of them all- the World War. The causes were mainly due to economic rivalry and the imperialistic policy of the other nations. Fifteen years have passed since the war ended, and we are still trying to decide who won the war. Page Sixteen

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S 5 gl' lei xv- E.. ,ev .xg N 03'-9:,..,-Z.. 1-Rf The Lost Princess By William Reiley X , O NCE UPON a time there were three young men named, respec- O tively, Pat, Mike, and Harold Isadore, who lived all alone in a wee cottage in the middle of a wood and made their living by selling apples. One morning they were on their way as 141' f usual, to town, carrying their apples 1n wlcker crates, when they noticed a huge poster hung to the branches of a wayside oak. In glaring characters it proclaimed: qv' :PFW UOYEZ! OYEZ! OYEZ! WE REGRET THAT THERE WILL BE A SLIGHT CHANGE OF PROGRAM. THE PRINCESS IVA, WHO WAS TO HAVE MARRIED PRINCE EGBERT OF NUTMEG, HAS BEEN KID- NAPPED BY THE WIZARD RSFTE. AS THE PRIN- CESS IS THE APPLE OF OUR EYE, AND OWES US 2510.45 BESIDES, WE WILL GIVE HER HAND IN MAR- RIAGE TO THE GUY WHO RESCUES HER. Signed, BERTIE XXX King. The three young men stared at this bulletin for quite awhile. They were not exceptionally brilliant, and the words had to be given time to sink in. Finally Pat dumped his apples to the ground. . 'Tm off to rescue the Princess! cried he, and forthwith galloped off down the road. Me tee! announced Mike, and followed, leaving Harold Isadore still gazing atqthe poster, his brows wrinkled in unaccustomed thought. After making numerous inquiries and raising large blisters on their feet, Pat and Mike came to the place where the Princess was last seen. This was a lonely spot in a dense forest, and was generally shunned by the townspeople on account of the fact that it was haunted by an Evil Spirit. When Pat and Mike plodded wearily on the scene, they found the Spirit seated comfortably in the middle of a creek, eating peanuts. The brothers, in quest of more information leading to the whereabouts of the Princess Iva, bespoke the Spirit courteously. How do you do, said Pat, I hope you are well. Page Eighteen