Nappanee High School - Napanet Yearbook (Nappanee, IN)

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races as the Yellow Peril. Admitting that immigration is proving a menace to our government they now invite our intelligence to a subject of greater importance. When we consider that nations have fallen and that nations may fall, we breathe out with a recent poet: “Lord (lod of hosts, be with us yet. Lest we forget, lest we forget. It has been admitted by men for twenty years that freedom’s cause is suffering and demands attention. Other nations have had similar conditions and they fell. Persia perished when one per cent of the people owned all the land. Kgypt went down when two per cent owned ninety-seven hundredth of their wealth. Babylon died when two per cent owned the wealth and Rome fell when one thousand eight hundred men possessed the then known world. England underwent a complete reformation because of like circumstances. History proves that issues which now confront us are perilous. Hence some facts. One eighth of the families of America receive more than one-half the aggregate income, and the richest one percent receives more than the poorest fifty percent. Seventy American estates average thirty-five millions, and yet more than one-third of our population live on 3.88 per week for food. $2.91 per month for clothing. $7.’ 0 per year for furniture and $7 per month rent in some wretched hovel, basement or dark room of a tenement. Without entertaining any socialistic ideas, who can evade the stilling in-iluence of an atmosphere where love of money displaces all human sympathy and love of a government for the people. Some may say: The poor ye have always with you.” There are many poor financiers who lack every quality of a good citizen. Others have been under oppressors’ rods. Had the money kings of our country acquired their wealth while giving their fellowmen equal chances the four per cent of our population who are paupers would not be so. Our wealth is increasing at the rate of eight millions per day and two-thirds of It goes to increase already large fortunes. John 1). Rockefeller has a fortune estimated atone billion, an amount difficult to conceive. A dollar for every minute of time since the birth of Christ would not make tlie amount, or if Mr. Rockefeller would have solid walls of his dollars made on either side of him as high as his head it would oblige him to walk two and one-half miles to get to the other end of his money prison. The startling idea is not the fortune but the enormous yearly increase of $1.70,000,000. Experts have considered every possible obstruction and state that if he lives to a comparatively old age he will lie worth eight billions. These moneyed men are not wrongly called kings. The railroads of our country valued at twelve billions are practically owned by nine men. The various trusts valued at twenty billions are governed by twenty men, of which nine are the above mentioned railroadmen. Is monopolizing ended? What influence do such men have on our government? Of what consequence are legislative bodies against such men. it is with this score of men that congress has been dealing for several years. They have for years been dictating to congress decisions on questions concerning their affairs. Many senators and representatives are men of inferior fortunes Invested in Interests dependent on the attitude of the moneyed men. hence many chosen and sent there by the people, vote for their own Interests. For this reason packers make a wider margin titan ever before. The poor railroad accomodations for delivery of coal have been traced to their proper source. Rate bills have continually been evaded. The prices of agricultural products are also fixed, as they, too, must passthrough hands controlled by wealth. Why has the fight by the women against polygamy been requiring such immense expenditures of time, energy and money? Is it other than a possible draining of some ample fortune? Numerous illustrations might U mentioned whereeapital detained intelligent, humane legislation. Why then not money kings? The spirit which Kurke recognized in Parliament as being the very life of our nation and which Franklin represented when he said: “We must now hang together or hang separate,” sucli spirit has been made a variable approaching zero as a limit. Sucli degeneracy of spirit has become a contagious germ and lias caused men foolishly to prize wealth far above principle. Hence the child slavery laws enacted and in some states repealed. Men must urge food bills for their stomachs’ sakes. Life insurance officials are becoming rich. The medical profession in which remarkable progress has been made Is not free from stains of the life blood of our nations. A lady was recently found dead in a New York home, whom the coroner declared had starved to deatii. when she might have written a check for 100,-ooo and it would have lieen cashed. Is it wealtli that Is so ponderously and firmly crouching down upon us or is It the love of wealth? Wealtli has always played an important part in the making of a nation, but when men forget all else and boil up with emotion at the sight of a coin, then massive pillars are being spalled from under our temple of fame. The American commonwealth must stand against this real “Yellow Peril’ or in painful silence endure tiie inevitable.

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of American Literature of today are poets. Perhaps fame is not now won so rapidly in any other line as it is by a striking short story. For that reason the young author is less tempted to confine himself to verse than he was half a century ago. Fiction is the form of Literature in which many of the leading American authors of today find their natural medium of expression. Both the novel and the short story flourish as never before. Two of the more recent developments of fiction are especially noteworthy. The first of these is called the “international novel. This name is given to a study of American character seen against a foreign background. In these we are forced to see ourselves as others see us. and to recognize some of our own peculiarities to which we had chosen to be blind. The purpose of the greatest writers of fiction lias not been simply to delight and amuse by fanciful and fantastic tales, but to interpret the life they themselves best knew. This is what has been done with great success by authors who have taken part in the second of the two recent developments of American fiction. As interesting as the “international novel” is the “local short story. We mean by this a story in which we find set forth the people and the scenery and the dialect of a particular locality. Our first great short stories while they dealt with American life, turned aside from those commonplace and prosaic phases of it with which they were daily brought In contact: and selected those more romantic themes which borrowed some charm from remoteness and unfamiliarity. Let us take for example the works of the four great masters of the earlier period. Irving recreated the vanished life of Manhatten: Cooper found his romantic coloring in the Indian: Hawthorne contrived to envelope even his stories of American life, with a magical moonlight atmosphere which withdrew them from the light of day: while l’oe, the master of the terrible and the grotesque, was as IIK I'nlted States as a nation has seemingly from Its birth been regarded by Deity as a nation of His chosen people. Blessings have been ! -stowed upon tier as upon no other nation. At the late National Stock Exhibition at the Chicago yards, an animal was brought there and because of tlie fact that its weight so far exceeded other specimens on the grounds it was not taken into the exhibition for want of something w ith which to compare it. It is in such a position as this that one is obliged to view the achievements of our nation when opposed to those of The Yell( By CURTIS remote as Hawthorne from the bustling money seeking world that surrounds us. Hut when we recall the best known novels and short stories written in America today, we Immediately see that by far the greater number of them differ from the romantic stories of the four great writers just mentioned. Mal»y of the Southern and Western tales, even more than tlie New York and New England on which they are modeled, abound in humor. Franklin was the earliest humorist, after him came Irving and Lowell. Today they have many followers not unworthy of them. The earliest historians, Prescott. Motley, and l'arkman have also many not unworthy followers working now as earnestly asdld their predecessors. At no time since the I'nlted States became an inde( endent nation has there been greater interest in historical works. At no time have more able writers devoted themselves to tlie history of our own country. We have now no essayists of the stimulating force of Emerson and no critic with the insight of Lowell, yet there is no lack of delightful essayists and of great critics. American criticism has advanced since tlie day of Poe. Tire American critics of today are more independent and self-reliant than they were fifty years ago. An American poet or novelist or historian is not now unduly praised or unduly condemned because he Is an American. He is Judged on his own merits, and compared with the leading writers of Kngland. of France, of Germany and of Spain. In conclusion we may say that our present day Literature is nothing more than an earnest of a better yet to come and that Its shun- in our higher life must depend on our faithfulness as American people to our highest ideals. We believe that a great future lies l efore us as a nation, we should believe that the same is true of our Literature. We have great native ability, our possibilities are limitless. Let us see to it that our Literature becomes one of the greatest possessions of the race. )W Pkrij. MILLER other nations. The rapidity of her progress has exceeded that of every other nation. Her greatest blessing has been a constant line of men and women who have considered the welfare of the nation a thing for which years, and If need be, lives of study might be spent. Such people have given their all to their respective causes and have our nation as she now stands. It is to such magnanimous beings that we owe the continual discrimination of the impending evils of the day. They have considered immigration and have legislated ilia manner not lobe questioned. They have warned us against the Oriental

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The Right of sfffraoe By JOY WHITEMAN IIK right of .suffrage Is not one of the universal and inalienable rights of V r Individuals. It i a right given to certain persons coming under the required restriction for the benefit of all. It Is for our country’s laws and constitution to define to whom this right or privilege should be given. He who would set aside our laws and constitution is a traitor. It is evident that facilities of fraud are increased by the great number of immigrants which come to our country annually. The foreigners are taught to disregard their laws at home so they do not think much about our laws and they expect to vote and take part in the government as soon as they land in New York City. One cannot tell a naturalized immigrant from an unnaturalized one. Many of them are poor, ignorant men and of evil passions. Our states boast of self government. Our executives are not officers who can or are doing Just as they like, irresponsible to anybody but God. They are servants appointed either directly or indirectly. A monarch however absolute, can rule only through Ids people. It is Ids duty to choose or collect the best, wisest and most faithful subjects for his council. The great Interests of every democratic nation are directed and controlled by the majority of its voters, so the government is just in proportion to the number of intelligent and qualified voters. Then If we would have a good government we must have good, intelligent, honest, and conscientious voters to make it such. In some of our great cities self government has not proved a success, but so far as our nation has not been successful, it Is due to the fact that some of them were not qualified or tit to rule and were elected by voters who lacked Intelligence or moral principle. It is true that he who holds the ballot controls the government. What the good of the state requires in reference to the negro is Just what It requires in reference to all other persons. It Is the admission of those who are Intelligently and morally qualified, and the exclusion of the rest. The time has certainly come for the passage of laws restricting the suffrage to citizens of the I'nited States who read their ncwspa|M rs intelligently and can write a correct chirography. These qualifications are very easily acquired and would do away with those men who are a burden on the government. It would l e an inducement or incentive for them to Ik educated and so they would try to give their children more education and thus as they advance their different privileges and rights would be given them. It would dispose at once of the greatest race questions and admit foreigners gradually as they prepare themselves to positions they have won. It would give strength to those classes who should rule in every state. Whatever makes men wiser or better will always advance the interests of a state under a democratic rule. I believe the time will soon come when these qualifications shall be required of each voter. JC SOMK OF AMERICA’S NaTCUAL WOM KRS By MERLE GWIN 7TTllK world is full of wonders and the more of nature’s secrets a man dis-VI covers, the more he appreciates his former Ignorance, and those wonders which are yet hidden. There are no two travelers will chance upon the same thing, therefore many different descriptions are given. The wonders of America are exceedingly great. Travelers often claim it to have the most U autiful in the world. Niagara Falls is the greatest of American wonders, and many thousands of |K ople go then every year. The Falls are about three-fourths of a mile wide and one hundred and fifty feet high. Below the Falls, the river rushes through its long gorge, making rapids of great size and grandeur. The Falls have great power and men are anxious to secure power for generating electricity. This will certainly cause the destruction of them in a short time. The only way to preserve them will Ik- by some agreement between I'nited States and Canada or England: for there Is no use protecting the Falls on one side if they are not protected on the other. A way should Ik , and no doubt will be found to keep them. The whole world is interested in them and it would be wrong to sacrifice them for the advantage of a few persons. Next to Niagara Falls, is the Yusemlte Valley ami Falls of California. The