Atwood Hammond High School - Post Yearbook (Atwood, IL)

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ns onr sacred guardian of peace between nations? As the Prince of Peace? May we not look on war in the future as something incongruous with Christianity and in the end reach a time when war will exist no more? ‘‘ BILLV-”

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commission of men to investigate the matter; hut, though they were not able to place the blame, the people settled it upon the Spaniards and war soon followed. Against all of these causes of war are working many very strong forces which are bringing the movement for peace into great prominence. One of these is the feeling of international dependence due to commerce; another is the better knowledge of one country of another, since the telegraph and steamship have rendered time and distance no hindrance to direct communication. Modern inventions in war ships and guns have made warfare so costly that it leaves great debts upon nations. Take for instance tin modern warship, whose lift of usefulness is only thirteen years, but which costs more than all the grounds and buildings (if Harvard University. Books and lectures put before the people have shown them the real cost of war in the misery-and poverty in the homes where husband, father or son have been killed; and tin great sin in allowing the poor and sick to live in crowded tenements while millions of dollars are used for making machines whose only purpose is to kill the most men in the 'east time. But these forces which I have just mentioned that are working for permanent peace in the future are not so strong as one which owes its development to the expansion of civilization to all parts of the world. Tn the earliest times the tribes lived in a very small portion of the country. As their numbers increased and they came in closer contact with each other they united. This eliminated war to a great extent in their part of the country. Each time the different bands united, the territory over which peace was to extend became larger and lai-ger, until now we have great nations whose millions of people are under the same government. Each time the people united, it looked as if war for them would be blotted out, yet the extensoin of their lands only brought them new trouble. But now when the people have united together as nations, in all parts of the world, we may look forward t(» the end of war. Tartle has : aid, “What characterizes especially our own epoch and differentiates it widely, in a sense, from the entire past, although the laws of history apply to it no less than to its predecessors, is this; that now for the first time in history, the international polity of the great state of civilization, embraces within its purview, not merely a single continent, or two at most, but the whole globe, so that the last stage of evolution of war is at length discovering itself in a vista so dazzling that we can scarcely believe our own eyes; the end of this vista is certainly difficult to obtain, but it is a real end, and no deception this time, and it can no longer move away as we approach it.” The influence of these great forces has resulted in bringing the peace movement before tin minds of the people. This has been shown in many ways. The greatest formal step toward the abolishment of war has been the organization of The Hague Court. The manner bv which peace is secured though it is exactly the same as the manner by which domestic peace in the United States is secured through the system of courts. In 1903 Chile and Argentina settled a serious boundary controversy which might easily have led to war, by arihtration. They agreed to settle in tin future all matters of dispute by arbitration and to reduce their military and naval armaments for a certain length of time. As the sacred guardian of peace between them they erected a statute, “The Christ of the Andes,” on one of the highest peaks of the dividing mountains. We are living in a time where Christianity and the feeling of brotherhood has spread to practically all parts of the world May we not look on the living Christ

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THE MODERN CRUSADE. MAUDE BLACKWELL. '10. During the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries occurred the expeditions we call Crusades. Two principal objects inspired the promoters of the Crusades. The primary motive was no doubt the restoration of the Holy Places to Christian rule; the secondary object was the defense of the Eastern Empire against tin dangers of Turkish Conquest. The first was based on a sentiment, the second on an urgent necessity. Is the time not ripe for a modern Crusade, for a Crusade which, like those of old, may be based perhaps on a sentiment and an urgent necessity? There is inherent in the American people a desire that their ideals of fairness, equal opportunity and civic righteousness shall be maintained at any cost. These ideals, as any observer may notice, have been menaced by the conditions of our new industrial order. Our Modern Crusade then, in so far as it shall he based on a sentiment, will have for its object the driving back of the new forces of sin which threaten the frontiers of our National ideals. To one who has traced our industrial history, it must be evident that there have grown up a set of evils incidental to the development of huge monopolies and trusts, which bv their impersonal nature and their failure to come within purview of established legal principles threaten the very existence of our government itself. An urgent necessity demands a Crusade. The need of this Crusade was recognized bv President Roosevelt and through his efforts a good beginning, but onlv a beginning, was made. Let ns analyze a little more carefully the conditions which make a Modern Crusade an absolute necessity. “The darling sins that are blackening the face of our time,” says Prof. E. A. Ross, “are incidental to the ruthless pursuit of private ends and hence quite without prejudice. Among these are: Doodling, blackmail, tax dodging, embezzlement, stock manipulation, child labor, criminal negligence in the adoption of safety devices, and adulteration of foods. These destructive evils being veiled by comeliness, do not reveal their hideous nature and are without tin offensive semblance of primitive sin; hence it becomes possible for vice to progress undisturbed even while people in general are adopting higher moral standards. The perpetrator of modern iniquity is often the sham philanthropist of his country; the regular attendant at church and, as lie is judged by old standards of domestic virtue, he is rated high in the esteem of his fellow countrymen. Impel , on il ty adds a distinguishing characteristic to modern sin. In the present day the perpetrator .is seldom known to us as In is usually hidden behind a board of directors or acts indirectlv hr ugh a sc; re of more or less prominent subordinates. The effect of hi vr ng doing passes into what has been called that vague mass “tin public and of it we know nothing specific. So subtle are the practices of the modern sinner that people fa’l to r a’ize that boodling is actually treason: that b'ackmail is piracy disguised: that embezzlement is downright theft; that tax dodging is real larceny; that faetorv labor of children is slavcrv d:ssembled: that deleterious adulteration of food is genuine murder. We n»'ed more insight and discrimination. Tf we possessed these, we should instantly perceive the in-inpitv of spoil practices and condemn them forthwith. The fundamental significance of thpsp practices has long been overlooked because we have lacked the pene- rati.ye insight to peroeive it. We have been exhausting our energv on mere surface immoralities and petty