Plainfield High School - Milestone Yearbook (Plainfield, NJ)

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THE ORACLE. 15 his army training. Through the army he went step by step, from second lieutenant of the gigantic Potsdam Guards to commander of the largest and best trained army in the world. It was not only fitting, but highly remark- able, that Mr. Roosevelt received such a preparation for his present office as he has had. Crown Princes are tutored and trained from birth for their special office in life. Mr. Roosevelt, although not a crown prince, could scarcely have been more superbly prepared for the presidency. Theodore Roosevelt’s four years at Harvard certainly did not have a tendency to make him conventional. Harvard is scarcely the college to do that. A course in Columbia Law School, a year’s study in Germany, and mountain climbing in Switzerland, made him neither narrower nor more timid. Mr. Roosevelt’s election to the New. York Legislature at the im- pressionable age of twenty-three years did not leave him undeceived as to the iniquities of state politics. His six years’ term on the Civil Service Com- mission was not a political, salary-drawing, plum. Through his influence the number of those holding office under civil service regulations jumped from 14,000 to 40,000. Next as president of the New York police force board he was not thrown into the arena to combat with square business men but rather with some thousands of municipal grafters. His office as assistant secretary of the navy was not a primary education in the lack of red tape in things martial. Of the far reaching effect of this same baneful influence, he was not kept unaware, when colonel of a regiment in service. As governor of the Empire State he was not kept in a secluded nook away from political bullies. Surely all these several employments are steps of a ladder of pre- paration up which not one of the twenty-five presidents before Mr. Roose- velt has climbed. The real test of strength is not so much the power a ruler has with his own country as it is the power he has with the world. In Mr. Roosevelt’s case we were strongly impressed with this quite recently when we read from our morning papers: ‘““The President urges the Russian and Japanese gov- ernments. . . . . to open direct negotiations for peace with one another.” Seemingly President Roosevelt has done what Togo could not do, namely, make the Russians acknowledge that they were beaten. Such an acknowl- edgment is an unparalleled compliment to Mr. Roosevelt’s strength. Tennyson says: “never yet Was noble man, but made ignoble tallk.”’ Especially in this age of rapid fire journalism, men who make self enter into their work are harshly, often scandalously, criticised on variously colored charges. These newspaper attacks affect both the Kaiser and the President

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I4 THE ORACKE, was. Every poor little hut was gleaming with white-wash and surrounded by a rude white-washed fence. There was the usual group of loungers around the store, but behind one of the cabins there was a man hoeing, another mending a plough, and best of all there were a half a dozen women washing in the yard of the largest cabin. She stepped across the road and stood an unseen listener at the window of one of the cabins. She says: “The pathetic little room went to my heart. There was not a sign of furniture in it, save a row of upturned boxes and pails for seats. Even these had given out, and were supplemented with a huge log rolled in from the woods, whereon were perched fifteen or twenty colored children. Every eye was solmnly fixed on the teacher, and the teacher was Cunningham.” “By their fruits ye shall know them.” If this is what one of Hampton’s failures did, think what its successful graduates are able to accomplish. For this spirit of enthusism, of unfailing cheerfulness in the midst of discourage- ment, of incomparable thoroughness in everything undertaken, Hampton is indebted to its great founder. And if the American nation can be said to be solving to any degree the problem that was put into its hands by the Emancipation Proclamation, the credit for it is due to Samuel Chapman Armstrong. ANNA LoulIse Runyon. ORATION MASTER WORKMEN. HOWARD G. LAPSLEY. N this age of energetic, powerful men, who in different branches of indus- ] try are achieving miracles, two men stand out boldly. [For the high of- fices which they fill, they are both extremely young ; one is forty-six, the other is forty-five years old. They are both statesmen of the highest caliber. They both are masterful rulers of men; one is a constitutional monarch whose power is quadrupled by his personality ; the other is, even without his virile personality, the most powerful constitutional ruler of to-day. They both are overworked heads of nations; one rules sixty, the other eighty, mil- lions of people; one is Emperor William II. of Germany; the other is Theo- dore Roosevelt. Scholarly, strong, strenuous, versatile, fearless, the similarity between them is remarkable. The education and preparation of these men for their life’s work was superb in the case of Emperor William and absolutely re- markable in that of Mr. Roosevelt. It was fitting that Crown Prince Wil- liam should be finely educated at the University of Bonn before beginning

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16 THE-ORACLE. in the way which stones thrown into a lake affect the lake. If it is raging no quantity of stones thrown into it will stop its raging. Of this fearlessness of attack and individuality of action, both the Kaiser and the President nave recently shown evidence; the Kaiser in Morocco and the President in Panama. Upsetting the Anglo-French idea of lordship over Morocco, Em- peror William, in his visit to Tangiers, told the Sultan that Germany regard- ed Morocco as a free country. France fumed, but France remembered. Similarly in Panama, President Roosevelt saw trouble if Colombian troops got near the canal, so he recognized Panama’s independence. News- papers talked about limits of a -President’s power, but in both cases the results have been achieved. In pursuing their courses both the Emperor and the President saw great possibilities of trouble. Unintimidat- ed, however, they both did their duty as they saw it. They not only have done things, but they keep doing. The Kaiser has chosen a motto applicable to both himself and Mr. Roosevelt, “If I rest, I Cust o What then has William done to keep from rusting? On assuming the throne he discharged Bismarck. He wished to be his own chancellor. On assuming the throne he found Germany without any battleships. She now has nineteen. The Kaiser’s ideas dove-tail exactly with Mr. Roosevelt's where navies are concerned. Their mutual idea is that “‘to be prepared for war is the most effectual means to promote peace.” Every ruling member of the Hohenzollern family has added territory to Germany. The Em- peror has proved his right to the name of Hohenzollern by adding an un- pronounceable island in the North Sea and a province in China. It is a safe assumption that he will not be content with this. Kaiser William has a powerful hold in the Turkish army, and if dilapidated Turkey falls apart Germany will get the lion’s share and, moreover, she will keep it. During the next twenty years Germany will be an interesting country to watch. With its internal tendencies to anarchy, with its borders fringed with military powers, with its enormous army and rapidly developing navy, it is sure to be a country in which many political, social, and industrial prob- lems must be faced and solved; and they will be wisely solved, we cannot doubt, under the directing genius of Emperor William. Mr. Roosevelt has not had half the chance for such strenuousness on a large scale that Emperor William has had, In the last few years what has he done? As President, his administration is made memorable by many acts outside of the routine of the office ; acts by which a courageous President has used the whole mighty influence of his office for the welfare of his people. He appointed the coal strike commission and thus by his own power and in-