Downingtown High School - Our Year Cuckoo Yearbook (Downingtown, PA)

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20 THE CUCKOO true. Instead of being a type he is rather a composite of all the best American types. We are proud of him as typifying America and we want to produce more individuals like him if we can. Early in life he became distinguished as an author and until he became Governor of New York he thought that writing was to he his life work. When lie found that he could have better success in the political field he gave up the idea that he was to be exclusively a writer but kept adding to his works through his whole career and became a writer of great repute.. It is surprising that in the midst of his busy life, all through the years, he found time, or made time, to write so many important hooks. Few men who deserve to be considered men of action as Theodore Roosevelt was, have written as much as he, and still fewer have written as well. His writings were in amazingly numerous fields for one constantly engaged in things about which others might write. And just as it is hard to tell what were his vocations and what his avocations, so it is not easy to decide whether it was as an historian, a statesman or a naturalist, that he excelled. Most persons, however, regard his historical work, “The Winning of the West,” as his masterpiece. He was one of our greatest Presidents. He earned his wreathes not merely by being content to sit in the White House and sign his name “President.” Instead of the White House being an object to him, his great work only began when he was given the White House. He took the example of the mighty presidents who had gone before him. Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln and Grant were his exemplars. With such as his guides-and because he was true and bold and wise, and no man owned him—it is not strange that he gained entrance to Valhalla. If there he any worth while thing in experience, if reading and travel and the study of men be of great avail, Roosevelt had the making of a great President. Before he went to the White House he was taught how State laws were made as a member of the Assembly at Albany and subse-cpiently took lessons in executing those laws as Governor. He was shown the inner workings of a great city as a Commissioner of Police; as Chief of Civil service. Assistant Secretary of the Navy, soldier in the field, and Vice-President it was given him to look into every nook and corner of our national government. Even as deputy sheriff in the West it may be assumed that he was learning. His travels had been wide, also, and he knew from practical touch and observation every phase of American existence. He wandered East and West, and North and South, he ate and drank and talked and slept with the peoples of those regions. He knew what they thought and felt and desired; he could gauge their needs, and anticipate their drift of sentiment. It was well for the world while Mr. Roosevelt abode in Washington. He was not duped abroad nor deluded at home. The government M'as neither a plutocracy nor a mobocracy but a democracy while he prevailed. He was the friend of Capital and the friend of Labor but the fool and tool of neither. He did inestimable good for our country by starting the conservation of our natural resources while he was in office. He realized that the forest and water problems are the most vital internal questions of the United States. Another achievement and probably the most important one of his regime was the construction of the Panama Canal. He was resolved that American ships should be able to go from one ocean

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19 THE CUCKOO However, the day came too soon when they had to look for employment. Before they had gone away many employers had promised them that their positions would be waiting for them when they returned. However, these same soldiers were sadly disappointed, for when they came to take hack their positions the employers informed them that their services were no longer needed. Thousands of soldiers were out of employment and as they were not dressed in uniform the people did not even respect them nor did they try to help them. Many of our boys while in service were disabled. This has caused them great suffering and they realized that they would never he able to earn a living without aid. Many hospitals and schools have been created to help teach the hoys a trade which would tit them for after life. But these same schools are not provided for. When our wonded, suffering soldiers ask for a few comforts, the powers that he, take months to discuss this matter, which in themselves are small, hut would add so much comfort to our boys. Many who were disabled while in service could have been helped if they had been given proper care. We grant, that this fact is due to the shortage of doctors and nurses. However, many of the soldiers need medical care to-day and as it is not war time no one is interested nor do they seem to care about helping the unfortunate suffers. Thus my friends, I hope that I have shown you how empty the word welcome is, if not followed bv action. In this case as in so many others “Actions speak louder than words Does the word welcome mean anymore to you after this explanation or my interpretation of this phase of it, in other words the greatest welcome is “To do and say the kindest things in the kindest way.” We ask you, dear friends, to be glad with 11s as we enter upon the programme of the hour, as we are all earnest in assuring you of our joy at having youw ith us, and that I, in the inspiration of your presence am sincere in telling you, in the name of my classmates, how truly glad we are that you are here Let 11s, then, he up and speaking, For our programme lies in wait; Welcome, friends, some pleasure seeking; Come and see 11s graduate! —•••IUI.S. -— ROOSEVELT Willard W. Rindlaub It would he impossible for anv one person to tell the complete »life of Roosevelt. Roosevelt was so many sided; his interests and activities covered f uch a large range of subjects and places; he was so many men compressed into one; such a marvelous combination of mental, physical and spiritual characteristics that no single person, even one of his closest friends could he expected to understand all of him. He has been called “the typical American” hut this statement is not accurate. If he were a typical American there would he enough others like him to justify pointing to him as the type. Happy indeed would be the nation if this were

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THE CUCKOO 21 to the other without troubling Cape Horn. He defied the opinions of all foreign countries and pushed the Panama Canal through with all the zeal that was characteristic of him. His way of doing things is well expressed in the advice that he gave to the Rough Riders when they were mustered out. I le told them : “(Jet action; do things; be sane, don’t fritter away your time; create, act; take a place wherever you are and be somebody; get action but don’t get gay.” His work as President, however, was not his only work. Many thought that when he went out of office he would pass into oblivion but the ten years following his presidency were the greatest years of his life. Every one knows of Roosevelt’s trip into the jungles of Africa as soon as he left the Presidential Office. On this trip he obtained many specimans of jungle life and much information valuable to naturalists and geographers. When he emerged from the jungles he went through the most important countries of Europe. He was received everywhere with ovations. Whom were the people honoring? The President of the United States? They were not. Roosevelt was no longer President. It was not the office but the man to whom they paid homage. When the world war broke out he urged 11s to enter it to save our honor and when we eventually did enter he sent his sons into the service and tried his best to go himself but he was needed more at home where he had as much if not more influence than any other American in keeping up our patriotic spirit. He wrote many books of a patriotic nature and was contributing editor of “The Outlook’’ for many years. He filled engagements to speak with unbelievable frequency. He dieated a message to the American Defense Society the day before his death. This message was read in the Hippodrome before the Society on the same night that he retired, never to awake again in this world, but instead, in that world whose rewards he had so well earned. In this message he phrased anew the thoughts that had been filling his mind. The following extract from it rings with patriotism from beginning to end. “There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says that he is an American but something else also isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and that excludes the Red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as it exludes any foreign flag to whom we are hostle. “We have room for but one language here, that is the American language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, of American nationality, and not dwellers in a polyglot boarding house, and we have room for but one lovalty and that is lovalty p 7 » . to the American people.” This last epistle of his is a good example of the thought that was always uppermost in his mind, namely the welfare of America. Roosevelt was a man who could not fail. He had in himself that which made him very largely independent of circumstances or of fortune. A “laborer with God” can never be without work nor fail to draw his sure wages. Roosevelt surely was a “laborer with God.” He was a man who would stand for justice though the whole world were in arms against him.