Evening High School - Owl Yearbook (Reading, PA)

Page 128 text:

116 THE OWL union which may be harassing him. He becomes as hard and sharp as a needle in doing his business and dealing with those who produce his wealth. The working mill- ions of America are all grouped by him into one organiz ation and tagged with a despised name. I-Ie has never thought of them as individuals, as young men and women starting out in life, getting married, rearing families, young men and women with ambition and a vision ofthe future He has never thought of them as aged men and women who have given of their strength to work for him and who now near their close of life are seeking for a meas- ure of rest and security. On the other hand the shoe will fit just as well on the other foot. There are laboring men and women who look upon their employer through the eyes of the cartoon- ist who pictures him as a beast of prey, as an over-grown person wielding a big stick. They can never see in their employer the one who through his superiority has risen to a place where he can provide a job for them. They can never see in him one who can, if he will, provide for old age peace and security. They can never fully under- stand that loving service will beget love. We forget too easily that great groups are not only Chinese, Japanese, Germans, Americans, Capitalists Unionists, Jews, Gentiles, black, brown, yellow, red, or white, but that all are individuals with a desire to gain out of life the utmost happiness. To this end you have been attending classes, to this end you have given much time and effort in studies, that you might better run in the race of lifeg that you might achieve greater happiness and secure for yourselves a more firm feeling of security. You desire to get ahead in life. Beware then of these vices which will only drag you down, which will only hang as great Weights about your body and in the end will tire and dissipate your best efforts. The gist of the whole matter is this: love is the funda- mental need of the whole world, love for God, love for our fellowmen. Most people realize this and are perfectly

Page 127 text:

THE OWL 115 for philanthropy. These places in which men are to serve unselflshly and out of true devotion to the Master find that there are those who have a touch of the green eyed demon within them. There are those who will give ten dollars because someone else gave ten dollars and they want to be equal with them. What fools we are to let this vice steal away, as it slways does, our independence, our happiness, our indi- viduality, our usefulness! WE MAKE OURSELVES THE SLAVES OF ALL WI-IOM WE ENVY. Their superiority does not do us harm, but our jealousy does. Goethe was right: Against the great superiority of another there is no remedy but love. We ought to love the superiority by which others surpass us as though it were a free banquet to which every one could go and eat and drink deeply. We ought to learn to love even our enemies for we build great strength of character thereby. There is another, may we call it a vice, which creeps into our lives and keeps us from fulfilling this greatest of all commandments and thereby destroys in a measure our fullest joy in life. Perhaps it is the most universal of all these vices, it is prejudice. This man hates the J ewsg that man has a deep feeling against the Romanistsg and this other one cannot stand a protestant. Here is a man who is quite sure that all Japanese should be wiped from the face of the earth because they are treacherous. Another man thinks the Chinese are the future menace of the world because some great man said, beware of the yellow peril . Many people are thoroughly convinced that all Germans are possessed with a demon for power. Others hate the so called sneaky Frenchman. We lump groups of human beings into one indis- criminate mass of confusion and make sweeping classi- fication of them without full understanding. We tag the groups with nicknames and then think that we are real smart. In fact we have displayed a moronic insight when we do this. The employer of today is apt to look upon all of his employees in the same light as he looks upon a labor

Page 129 text:

THE OWL 117 Willing to have it Work out Within a certain radius, With- in a certain circle of friends. But remember, if you would achieve true greatness you must have a Inagnanimous spirit toward all men. Fosdick says, No man isi the Whole of himself, his friends are the rest of him. Too often We live our lives in the spirit which is ex- pressed in the little verse. I thought the house across the way Wfxs empty, but since yesterday CJ-ape on the door makes me aware That some one has been living there. Love is the fundamental need of the World. But love is never adequately understood if it is made merely to ex- tend to congenial intimacies. Love is an expansive spirit that overthrows all those ugly vices such as jealousy and prejudice and will rather take in all enemies as friends. Love embraces in a friendly Way all rivals. It seeks the good of all. It erases all barriers of class and race distinction. Love rises triumphant over all. God is Love, and they who would be like Him, they Who Would dwell with Hina must emulate that love. May God grant that your efforts which you have ex- pended, in securing this better chance in life may not be Wasted but that you too through love, may find, peace, security and happiness.