University of Santa Clara - Redwood Yearbook (Santa Clara, CA)

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THK REDWOOD 17 reasons to make it expedient and neces- sary; therefore the constitutional amendment proposed is not justifiable. This great government of ours is rep- resented by our constitution. She has conquered all the difficulties that ob- struct, all the temptations that assail the rise of nations as Caesar conquered the provinces and tribes of Gaul. And like Caesar in Rome, she stands today preeminent among the nations of the earth. But a trial has come. We see her attacked by the destructive sword of innovation, in the hands of the very men to whom she gave their sacred liberty. I know not how others may feel. But for myself, when I see our constitution surrounded, like Caesar in the Senate House, by those who re- iterate the stabs of treachery, I would not, for this right hand, have her turn to me and say, Kt tu quoque, fili mi, — And thou too, my son! JAMKS Francis Twohy, ' 07. A THOUGHT OF DEATH! 01 vain, vain, Is hope when pain Has made me slave! (Despair, despair. Is ever there, It is the child of woe — I cannot hra.ve An agony Which cannot hut he sol Anthony (3. (Diepenhrock, ' 08.

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i6 THE REDWOOD gerated or not, we will simply aflBrm that concrete cases of abuse, do not spoil the excellence of the system. Over and above the fact that the evils of the proposed amendment are im- measurably greater than the present system, two facts remain which effec- tually show the impotence of this argu- ment. These are, first that theoretic- ally the philosophy of the present system is superb; and second that prac- tically this system has given us a won- derful Senate for a century. But that system which is in theory consistent and ej0fective, and in practice immensely successful, is possessed of intrinsic use- fulness. Therefore the argument of abuse is a boomerang unless our opponents dare to advance such an absurd, illogical, and pernicious theory as the sophism that the abuse of a thing destroys its use. And now allow me to recall briefly to your minds the three points which I have tried to portray. First, I showed how the constitution by its nature and associations imposes on every citizen the solemn duty to resist perversion of its clauses or spirit. I tried to show you how our government has escaped the fate of all other repub- lics simply because of the excellence of this constitution. I told how it was the instrument which welded a few scat- tered colonies into a great government, and fanned a feeble spark into a beacon light among the nations of the earth. And I showed how the change proposed would be the first departure from both the letter and the spirit of this consti- tution. My second point proved the evils of the system. Firstly I showed that inasmuch as the Senate had been successful and supereminently so for one hundred years, and the new method was based merely on hypothesis, in deserting the present mode, we are forsaking the certain for the uncertain, which is wrong. I showed that the change would lead to and precipitate three grave evils. First, a demand for proportionate suffragism and thereby destroy state sovereignty. Second, I demonstrated the philosophy, the iri- dispensibility of the idea of check and countercheck in a government and how by the amendment the Senate would no longer be in a position to act as a check on the popular house, as it would be a popular house itself. Third, I proved the natural conclusion that the reasons for so radical a change in order to offset and balance the inviolability of the con- stitution and the dangerous evils of the proposed system should be very grave, apparent and weighty. And I showed that the principal reasons for such a change are absolutely insufficient and nebular. In fine, I have proved this thesis: In order to be justifiable, that change which is possessed of intrinsic evils and which works evil by its act, from the nature of the thing changed, must be actuated by grave reasons which make it expedient and necessary; but the constitutional amendment pro- posed, which is possessed of intrinsic evils and which works evil by its act, from the nature of the constitution, is not actuated by sufiSciently grave

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i8 THE REDWOOD A MONUMENT MISPLACED Rendered sullen by despair, his heart bursting with grief, spirits galled and sore at the ignominy of his crime, young Raymond Bernard was indeed a picture of utter dejection as he entered his father ' s house and sought his own room. The lamp was burning low, having been lit by a servant earlier in the evening. He threw his hat on a chair and flung himself on the bed. Then as he tossed and turned, he thought it out with him- self. Face it like a man, the good angel whispered to him again and again. It ' s awful, but don ' t make it worse. Live it down. That ' s the most heroic thing. No— I can ' t do that. It is too late. Oh, I can ' t bear my disgrace. I have lost, lost all — the cursed horses, my name, my honor, all! The track — my Heaven, what tempted me? Why did I take the filthy money? Oh, yes, the horses, the track, the throng, the ex- citement! And then it all flashed back before him into vacancy. There they are in the paddock. They ' re warming up. The crowd lustily cheer as Claude, shapes up to the wire. Gee, she is a beauty! I ' ll risk it. Claude with Miller up can ' t lose. One thousand, I ' ll put it back — my employers will never know. They ' re off. A mighty cheer. Mil- ler, with white cap, yellow sleeves! Miller, Miller, O you Claude, come on, come on, go, go, go, you Claude. That ' s it, Mill old boy, lay it on. They are in the stretch. Now, Walter, talk to her, give her the whip; come on, come on, the wire! the wire! My God, what ' s that? The caller shrilly bellowed, Mo- dicum wins. What I — I, Raymond Bernard has lost? Impossible. No, no. Yes, I am disgraced, oh God! God! I can ' t bear it. Oh death rather a thousand times than such a disgrace. A wild stare in his eyes, his face livid, then white, his muscles writhing, Ber- nard rose unsteadily, ' mid the dismal glare of the oil lamp fearful shapes and shadows beset his path as he paced the room. What shall I do, he muttered, and the spirit of evil whispered, You are disgraced, no hope, suicide and death. Put an end to it. What will your friends think of you? A loud hysterical laugh, an incoherent utterance like that of a crazy man. I give it up, I ' ll die. But my father? Yes, yes, I suppose he will get over it. I ' ll write — No, I will leave — nothing. Tomorrow at noon all will be over. Death anywhere, any- way. The loud clanking of fire bells, a dull roar, from without brought the half crazed man to his senses. For the first time he became aware of the odor of burning. He opened the door — a tor- rent of smoke flooded the room — a whirl of flame forced him back, back to the wall. Escape was cut ofi. He gazed for a moment at the ravenous flame eating its way through the opposite