Ranchester High School - Rustler Yearbook (Ranchester, WY)

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“COULD IT HAPPEN HERE?” At this time in the history of our county it behooves us to review its settlement and consider its future. There are still a few here who can remember the pioneer days, the weary struggle across the prairies and the mountains, as told to them by their parents who experienced the terrible hardships. They suffered that we might enjoy, they struggled that life might be easier and more pleasant for us. Let us take stock of what they have bequeathed to us and examine our own conduct, realizing that we are but custodians of the wealth that they have left us. That wealth, in its manifold forms, we must pass on, unimpaired and increased, to those who are to follow us. When we look east or west across the oceans that so mercifully separate America from older civilizations, the shudder of horror at what we see is tempered with a welling flood of thankfulness that there is at least three thousand miles of water between us and Europe or Asia. The dispatches in a recent newspaper illustrate this effectively. One day recently the bombing planes of three nations were in the air, bent on serious business. Those of Spain were on their way to bomb and machine-gun fleeing men, women, and children, those of Japan were seeking out defenseless Chinese civilians to murder them. But the largest plane of all carried the colors of the United States. It was winging its way three thousnad miles to the south, not to drop bombs on defenseless cities, not to machine-gun helpless women and fleeing children, but to carry medical sup- plies to the stricken cities of earthquake-wrecked Chilean provinces, to bring serums to injured people and to carry them out of the devastated areas to hospital beds. At the same time our President was calling upon the people of the United States to deny themselves some luxury and donate the money thus saved to relief work in Chile, not to buy another war bond or support another bombing Yet the civilization of Spain antedates the settlement of the United States. That of Rome, whose flyers are destroying human lives in Spain, as far ante- dates that of our country as that of China and Japan antedates Rome. Our population is composed of elements from Italy, from Spain and from Germany our people are essentially the same. Wherein lies this difference? It must be something that our ancestors created for us here, some priceless possession, the value of which we have not appreciated, its worth unknown to us, its very existence practically forgotten. Our ancestors left us an inheritance of tolerance, of freedom of thought of speech and of action, that is lacking in the older civilizations. We owe it to America to preserve that gift inviolate, even against ourselves. They left us a spirit of self-reliance that has banished fear of other nations, they left us a love of independence that has kept us clear of foreign entanglements. We owe it to those generations which are to come after us to hand down those gifts as untarnished, as clear and dominant in the American spirit as they were when we received them. Yet those gifts are threatened, not from without but from within our nation We are urged to hate the Germans for their beastial treatment of racial minor- ities, when perhaps the majority of the German people are as horrified at such actions as we are. We may well refuse to support the German government by not buying the goods that government exports, we may boycott Japanese eoods because of atrocities in China—but we must not hate the German people or those of Japan. Instead we must feel sorry for them, sorry that they did not have the moral stamina to create a democratic form of government under which such crimes against humanity would be impossible. And we must guard against permitting our own government to fall into the hands of elements who would lead us to similar extremes. u,u i :'VianIyT„Re°pl t,hink impossible that any such government should ever rule the Lnited States, yet it was but a few years ago that there were race riots in our nation s eapitol! There are men and women in this country tJday who would like nothing better than to see a fascist or a communist form of government in the United States, with all that either of them entails- destruc- tion of freedom of speech and the press, conscription of men. money and materials in the name of the state, destruction of private capital and of labor union it the same time. When the people begin to believe ?hat the govertment can do things for them better than they can do them for themselves, thenThtfirst steo fakert 0 B 0 e’ tOWard “ dlctatorship' bc it communist or fascist, hw been (Continued on Page 42)

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CLASS OF ’39 I am no Homer To write an Iliad But I can write poetry With hopes it’ll be read. So I will open the bag And let out the cat About the R. H. S. Class of ’39 And every this and that. Here we have a handsome boy As Bob he is better known He gets into all the mischief But is never alone. Then there is Wilbur Who wants to be a surgeon But I think he oughta be Another McCarthy for Bergen. Let me present “Winnie” Pretty gray-eyed blonde Sorry fellahs, you’re outa luck She’s in the marriage bond. Here we have another chump Whose name is “Art” He is usually the victim Of Cupid and his golden dart. And last but not least is Blonde little Lawrence Also Ranchester High’s Very sleepy ’ornery Prince. And here is yours truly An ardent C C C fan None other than--------- Brown-eyed Edythe Ann. Page 21

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