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

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Q WEE, gf et .Q 2 ez ,J -NNN-2 ,N - ? 13 -f l M' X lllmum 5... 1 It M is kaadpgad .,ulr1u11lNLv W ,, ' rf , , 4 f lin '-v- 4 i .. i .- ,ll love of fellowmen has been deemed an impracticable theory. Nations have never had the courage to accept the gift of the cross-brotherly love. By calling it impracticable they have called God a liar and sealed their own doom. Hitherto so-called practical policies have actuated the interests of nations. They have ad- mitted,God in their policies in so far as this would not interfere with their selfish ambitions. That means, they have not admitted Him at all.. Yet they have called themselves.Christian. Oh such inconsistency! For nineteen centuries nations have been challenged to accept the law of love. But they have been unwilling to pay the price. After every war they have reassumed the old policies of selfishness. After this war the nations will again be called upon to choose between love and hate, between life and death. Then the supreme test for democracy will come-the last battle.. Democracy will be safe from autocracy. Militarism will be crushed. Large armies will be un- necessary. But already there are forces operating to burden this the land of the free and the home of the brave with huge military establishments. Oh such folly! Do armies keep nations from War? No, certainly not. That which is superior to armies-the honor of other nations-alone can secure' them peace. What else is there to prevent any number of nations from overwhelming another nation but honor? No army is so great, no navy so strong as to defy the whole world. Fellow-Countrymen, may God forbid that this country become a huge military camp. If the world is to enjoy permanent peace and catastrophies like this war shall have no sequel then there must be a supreme court of interna- tional good Will to govern nations. There are two ways of settlement after this war. One is to exact indemnities from the vanquished as has been the custom in times past. The other is to for- give and to forget, the way of the great emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, Love toward all, malice toward none. The lives of the men who gallantly fought and died in this war are far too precious to admit of any petty bickering over bound- ary lines. They were freely given for a far nobler purpose, for the freedom of the world, for that which money or territory cannot, shall not buy. By the man- ner of settlement we shall secure either a lasting hate or a last peace. Unless there be mutual forgiveness, the sacrifices of these men will be desecrated. They will have died in vain. The last battle then is not on the battlefield, nor on the stormy sea, but in the hearts of men, between love and hate. Men must conquer themselves, their own selfishness. Courts are incapable, laws ineffective, treaties of no avail. The supreme court of man is his will. No power save love can conquer the will. Fellow-countrymen While we are waging the last battle for freedom, we are not merely paying a debt to France, but we are also paying a debt to our forefathers. Our fathers left the continent in search of the precious, priceless pearl of freedom. By the grace of God they found it. Ours is the task to take it back to the continent that its people too might be free. We must not selfishly hoard our freedom, for any special benefits adhering thereto but share it with all mankind. Not until then can we indeed be free. Freely we have received, freely let us give. Oh my country, you have ever been the laboratory for experiments in the interest of freedom. I implore you to launch forth upon a policy of disarma- ment. Put your trust in God. If there be no God then you cannot perish too soon. But if there be a God then He will sustain you. Win the last battle for freedomg between love and hate. Nations will follow your example. Then the time will soon be at hand when nations will say to nation: what is mine shall be thine, thy people shall be my people. and thy God shall be my God. Somewhere in France, on Every-Man's-Land, where the world is being woven into one, where Black and White, French and English, anadian and American have gallantly fought and died, there is an invisible imperishable monument for the commemoration of the World's emancipation from war's oppressive heel. There: The blood of many millions mingled freely in the mire, That freedom's sacred monument might rise the higher, higher, So high that all the world might see and stand aghast, Then kneel in gratitude that freedom's come at last.

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'HC' M nd 70w J 'gf VW completed its circuit. No longer is it possible for men to seek freedom in new uninhabited lands and there work out their destiny. They are compelled to live with their fellows, to love or to hate, to survive or to perish. The hour of crisis is at hand. The leaves of the judgment book lie unfolded and there, written by the hand of the irrefutable logic of events, we read these verdicts: When nations will not listen to the quiet wooings of the spirit of brotherhood, then they will be forced to listen to the roar of the cannon. Nations will be either their brother's keeper or his killer. Neutrality is impossible. United, nations are able to stand, but divided they are destined to fall. 'tGod has made of one blood all nations of men. But nations have not paid the price for peace. The judgment day has come. War has divided the family of nations. Prussian militarism has committed treason. Treason against humanity, treason against jus- tice, treason against God. These are moments fraught with great solemnity. Trea- son against a nation is terrible to contemplate. But treason against the world- who can fully grasp its despicable atrocity! Oh. the tragedy of it all! It is indeed a crucial moment in the affairs of the world when it becomes necessary for one group of nations to impeach another group for the pursuit of folly. To-day Prussian Militarism stands convicted before the court of humanity. It is teach- ing the world that national aggrandizement and prestige are empty when pur- chased with the blood of trampled millions. That such treason should be committed in an age so devoted to peace seems paradoxical. Hague courts were established. Chief Justice Marshall had declared that No principle of law is more universally recognized than the per- fect equality of all nations. John Spargo wrote: It is the great merit of socialism-grudingly conceded by its bitterest opponents-that it has implanted in the breast of millions of souls in all lands a passionate love for all mankind, a sense of international fraternity. All signs seemed indicative of peace. Every mother's heart yearned and longed for it. Pulpits preached, presses printed, people prayed-peace. Not without faith. Peace was bound to come. It is written in the destines of men that nations shall learn war no more. Peace had been the dream of men everywhere. Now it is coming to be a blessed reality. This war is proving that peace is not an empty dream. When some nations are imprisoned in the gloomy dungeon of national agrandizement, selfishness, domi- nation, and oppression, then war is the only door to peace. The forces' of iniquity challenger, defied the efforts of peace. The challenge was accepted and by the grace of God will be fought to a successful close. It has ever been the one saving virtue of great calamities that they bring nations ftemporarily at leastl to their senses. They force men to realize wherein they have failed. With all the precious blood that flowed in all previous wars that had been waged in the interests of freedom the world had failed to secure peace. The old policies of selfishness were always reassumed and have unfail- ingly led again and again to war. Men knocked at the portals of science and asked for the keys to the palace of peace, but they asked in vain. They search- ed in the halls of learning for freedom's formula, but futile was their search. At last they are forced to deal with the inevitable. Now they are kneeling at the door of heaven pleading for the truth that shall make them free. And the clarion voice of the angel sounds forth the old, old message-love, true brother- hood. There is no other way. The only complex thing about it is its simplicity. During nineteen centuries the nations have failed to learn this simple lesson. However, the inevitable has come-war against war. At first men conjectured whether this would be the last great war. Now they are demanding that it be the last. This is their one aim, to secure a lasting peace, a disarmed world. At last humanity is determined to be free from the shackles of war. Poor, suffering, struggling humanity! All nature is free. The mountains, the hills, the valleys. the seas. Man alone is enslaved. Ignorant in his wisdom, poor with his wealth, slave to his passions. Man like many other animals preys upon his own species. It is indeed sad to contemplate the fact that the only thing enslaving man is man himself. Nature he has subdued, himself he cannot con- quer. Endowed with the will to choose love or hate, he has chosen hate, because 'ig'-. 4 I ni , -- I s 5 I , M g? V . I M, Q 4 : E 5 1 ff on ff' 5 K. --.......z. ' ,H ' '-. Z an e - - , ? i '! -f - 5 H' lkxvflllnxuxu N W 4 K5 Q ff-ma y J L MMM? ..nllru:lrmmxxxyv W- MI ll it .s 1' S

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