Ellsworth Community College - Web Yearbook (Iowa Falls, IA)

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?' I-1l '--.,,x'.2 Q . A 7 l N E' Z E ,,1 . K2 WEE: .,,,.. J A ,,X, ummm' -'va iq' aMnp ,.yulmuul www Z5 X Afllllw --'- 9 MA... .... - En the illilen nf Zillawnrth Qlnllege in the Sveruire nf the Hniteil Staten nf America in the present min-lh mar PRESIDENT IDO FRANKLIN MEYER Today, even more, if possible, than ever before, you are in the heart and mind of every loyal Ellsworthian! For a long time the writer has wondered what should be the controlling motives and principles in human life and conduct. And it is clear that you are now giving a r.ea1 demonstration, in a most vital way, of some of those things that should be found in any true life. ' How distinctly are the ideals of sincerity, truth, honor, loyalty and service, now brought home to the heart of hearts of each of us who think of your present consecration and high devotion to a great cause! You reveal those qualities of personality, little thought of by you or others, in times of ordinary peace, but, in emergency and need these virtues are the very substance of the soul itself. They fill you with valor. In the quenchless fires of love, they make you fearless in the performance of every duty whether at the quiet fireside of the home-hearth in the army camp, or upon the field of battle. In great crises is the testing of manhood. Now must the man be summoned forth To discover himself, his dual reality, His world, ten thousand fathoms deep, His star-vault, ten thousand spaces high, And come to his own like a king. Over, and over again one reads that the men in the trenches under the stress of imminent danger feel that God is with them and understands all about it. This gives an indescribable sense of peace, and fearlessness. One who has never experienced such hours of great testing can hardly understand such testimony. However, one thing you may be assured of: your Alma Mater, and all those who love the work it is doing, do fervently pray and fondly hope that your great adventure may see the overthrow and destruction of that thing in human society, which would exploit the natural rights of the many in order to confer special privileges on the few. Doubtless. you will have need for all the reserve power that you gathered during the years spent in study and preparation for life and its rapidly changing situations. May you know, also, how daily to draw upon the Infinite Source of power that gives vital and permanent victory. May you be able to realize this, not alone'in trial and distress, but, also, in the quiet hour, in peace, and in vic- tory. Dr. Josiah Strong says, God is not going to be beaten in the great conflict of the ages. The very stars in their courses fight with him against the world's evils, which have their day, but have their doom, uttered alike by reason and revelation, by science and faith. May your faith never falter even in the darkest hours. One of our best beloved poets makes us see that only of a universe that pre- serves its moral gains, and resolves to harmony the dissonance of its inequalities can justice be asserted. How often have these lines put courage into men's hearts: ' - f Right forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne, But that scaffold sways the future, And behind the dim unknown Standeth God within the shadow, Keeping watch above His own. Because right, in the long run of the years, must always overcome wrong, right must prevail. Never has the issue been more sharply and clearly set forth than in the present world struggle. You have the immortal honor to put your bodies, minds and spirits between the oppressor and the oppressed, to thwart the sword and the iron heel of tyranny in their work of cruelty, injustice ,and griev-' ous wrong! May you have the victory! You must have the victory! You will have the victory! '

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are if WEB a a I? , ! -I ,,,,,, , lpaqfffiixxiiii- t 1 0w lq' .1naraa ...urnuuumx 1 f .----...- A ..,,, -.-. , WMS ' 65112 man Behinil HAROLD C- BlNGl-IAM FIRST LIEUTENANT SANITARY CORPS, N. A. Following the Spanish-American war there appeared a popular song featur- ing The man behind the gun. The picture which this song aroused in my young mind may have been a poor representation of the real theme, yet there was an irresistible suggestion of men feverishly operating in battle an old two- wheeled cannon of the sort used in past wars. A limited knowledge of present day tactics has caused another idea partially to replace that earlier picture. The man behind the gun now belongs to a different army than the fighting man. He is only one of thousands in the back- ground who are quite essential to an efficient army but very properly overlooked by the non-participants. He may have great visions of the importance of his own particular kind of service but he can have no assurance that his work will ever be recognized either in or outside the army. He is truly the man behind, obscured, out of sight, yes, out-of-luck because he is out of range. The nature of my present work at once classes me with this group of super- numeraries. ' Just now all of the psychologists are miles behind with little pros- pect of getting a close-up of the battle line. With the information at hand that articles are to appear in this section of the Web from men in the front lines of the service, I hesitate to write about an inconspicuous branch like military psychology. The limited sphere of my work is pointedly suggested by the term squirrel cage which the enlisted men have widely applied to the psychological quarters. The same idea has been appropriately expressed in the classification of the mental examiners as nut pickers. By some of the more sophisticated, however, we are more professionally designated as bug doctors. Despite the perfunctory role suggested by the preceding categories, military psychology is actually rendering vital and distinctive service. A single incident will illustrate one phase of this service. It occurred at Camp Devens when a steam fitter called on me for professional consultation. He had evidently heard the term bug doctor applied to us who wore the insignia of the sanitary corps for he was confident of my ability to give him relief. With unusual directness he presented the facts without effort to hide anything. Further questioning was unnecessary when he had finished. In his own words, he said: Say, doc. what can you do to get rid of crumbs? They're thick as the dickens on the bunch I sleep with down there. Even though my experience in the profession at that time was limited, I had no hesitation in prescribing an old home made and thoroughly tried remedy, the fine comb, to be used regularly at night and any time during the day that the nervous system specifically called for it. Now it would be unfortunate to give the impression that military psychology has no serious bearing. It is indeed a vital part of a life or death fight. Through it there is a scientific expression of those human factors which are struggling against militarism and Kaiserism. America has seen in war, as in peace, the human problem involved. This human element, for the first time in the history of warfare, is receiving consideration that is based on strictly scien- tific procedure. For our army to be the mightiest possible force, it must not only be intelligently directed but intelligently acting. If more intelligence can be util- ized in the American forces than the enemy can muster, he will, though our present military machine only approximates his, in the end be outwitted and defeated. In the hands of the psychologists there is a balance of power that has the possibility of turning back those waves of invaders which are opposing liberty and democracy. Perceiving this opportunity the psychologists, in the beginning, took up the self appointed task of convincing the proper authorities that they had a valuable contribution to offer in this crisis. It was necessary for them to demonstrate their ability to identify the mentally unfit in the military personnel. Four separate staffs in as many National Army cantonments took up this task of