Chester High School - Summit Yearbook (Chester, IL)

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Are we patriotic. In times of danger intensely so. but after the storm has passed our patriotism should not cease. Our instrument of government is like an enormous ocean liner, indistrub-edly riding the roughest waves, braving the fiercest storm, rising and railing with on. Our Constitution is the rock foundation upon which our governmental structure is built. “And the rain came, and wind blew, and the earth did shape, yet the house did not fall”. Evolution and the survival of the fittest is now a recognized fact. Man has been traced through the ages, from a single cell in the tropical ocean, through the various stages of develompent; the bird, the reptile, and animal stages, to the antripaid apes, always climbing, biting, clawing, his way upward, he stands today, trumphant. the most glorious speciman of nature's handiwork. Many species of life are now extinct, because they were unable to cape with their enemies, or could not adapt themselves to changing conditions. Only the fittest survive. A similar process of selection and rejection has been going in with governments. Government has evolved from the family and clan to glorious kingdoms and empires, which, however, took no notice of the governed, and which failed to keep apace of new ideas. The only government which can survive in the furious struggle, is one by the governed, in which public opinion rules. Ours is the ideal, it stands on the pinacle superb. The fittest survive. —Thomas Kennedy.

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THE CONSTITUTION ALIVE We are Americans. We are the greatest nation on earth. We live under the most liberal government and the most perfect and progressive Constitution. Yet how many Amerirans ever seriously . eflect on these facts? The only time most of us refer to the Constitution is during a period of agitation when some blue law experts is attempting to put through a measure, which we think will curtail our privileges. Then we make ourselves heard. They are taking away our Constitutional rights! Rome and Athens had their Constitutions; Nations through all age have had Constitutions. We have our Constitution; successful, because it keeps apace of the progressive tendency of humanity. They had their fundamental principles, failures, because they ignored the onward march of society. Thus the honor of formulating the world’s most perfect and most durable set or organic laws, is justly bestowed upon our aristocratic forefathers in their powdered wigs, knee breeches and silken hose. They receive the credit of creating the instrument that has served scores of nations as a model for their own governmental principles and has served us, the richest, most democratic and enlightened nation for one hundred and thirty-five years. The secret of success of American democracy and the key to the American governmental posterity lies in the magic tenets. Article 10 provides for the admission of new states and the addition of territory Article 5 stipulates the method'by which new amendments may be added. The Congress whenever two thirds of both houses deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution or upon application of two thirds of the several states legislatures, shall call a convention for proposing amendments which in either case shall be valid to all in all interests and purposes as part of this Constitution. This article shows clearly how the Constitution stands on the subject of change. Change! Everything changes. One hundred-fifty years ago. where were the great cities, throbbing with life and activity, where were the ocean liners, cutting the waves at thirty-five kno’s an hour, where were the luxurious motor cars, purring along the ribbons of transcontinental highways. Could Washington say “Bring around the Lincoln at 2:10. 1 must catch the 2:15 to Chicago”? No. Could Jefferson say. “There is a good picture at the Gem, call a taxi and we’ll be away”? These are only a few of the more apparent changes, but more subtle and powerful though less obvious alterations take place. Law and government have always been the straws to indicate the wind of public opinion; and a government not in accord with the general feeling will sooner or later fail. In Colonial days a feeling of abhorrence was expressed but the firm establishment of a government then uppermost in the people’s minds. A bloody civil war was necessary to up-root the curse of slavery to establish tue thirteenth, fourteen'h and ffiteenth amendments, which have held our un.on together and furthered our progress and civilization. The sixteenth amendment by providing for an income tax greatly increased the justice of our system of taxation. In keeping with the perpetual move of democracy, the seventeenth amendment provides for direct senatorial elections. The world is getting dry. but how slowly. Did not America anticipate this universal tendency? Woman suffrage! What picture that calls into one’s mind. Of woman’s struggle with man for an equal share in the determination of national destinies. In America she has more nearly won her victory than any where else, even in England she has not completely triumphed. We do not revere; we do not respect enough the magnificant instrument that has preserved us a nation, and pushed and guided us to the head of all nations.

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