Lincoln High School - Lincolnian Yearbook (Kansas City, MO)

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THE LINCOLNIAN 25 ed by a desire for the stout maintenance of treaties and principles of civilized life, or has arisen in defense of one’s own or other’s legitimate interests and boundaries; whatever the subsequent horrors and trials of war, the combatants can in no way feel dishonored or degraded, but instead auite the reverse, by their participation in what, may be naturally repugnant— as all the lower passions are to their higher and bet- ter self. As civilization stands today, composed in the main of average citizens, and men of peaceful and productive occupations, who is there who individually wants to fight and— be it noted— amid the most awful controversies that the refined ingenuity of the modern scientist and mechanician can devise ? One is almost sorry for the dullness of certain pacifists and theory cranks who go about bleating about how savage men are and how wicked it is to fight — who uphold the value of sitting around a big green covered table with a tumbler and bottle of water, indulging in a fine flow of academic talk as the panacea and solution of all international problems, even when treaties have been torn up and hostile armies are pillaging and plundering their neighbors who trusted in the protection of a “scrap of paper.” No one wants to fight, not even Von Bernhardi or the fire- eating Kaiser himself — with his clique of misguided Prussians in uniform. Certain- ly no sane hard-working, industrious Ger- man of the more intelligent classes, could have faced, with equanimity the idea of a war against his best customers, had it not been for the lure carefully nur- tured and ingrained throughout the coun- try for the last forty years that “Deutch- land” was after all “uber alles” and that the Germans were predestined from on high to be a chosen race, and could by stealthy preparation, one day seize all for themselves, occupy “a place in the sun” and become arbiters of Europe and the world. This acute form of “swollen head” pro- duced by degrees that required state of mental perversion which has since the outbreak characterized the German atti- tude in word and deed, and has revealed the abyss that lies between them anld all civilized nations. All the forces and demons of evil under various alluring masks have been rising to the surface and encroaching upon the circle of men’s lives. Power was everything; money was every- thing; material prosperity, intellectual pride, comfort, luxury, physical wellbeing , — these were the ideals alike for men as for nations. All that represented spirit- uality, all the ideals that spring from love and altruism— these were all very well in themselves as theories or hobbies, but im- mensely impractical in actual, positive life. So the powers who for the everlasting salvation of mankind; preside over the destinies of mortals, in their compassion- ate wisdom saw that the struggle must come; precept and warning had been of no avail. Messengers bearing their words had passed unheeded. All that could be done had been done, we may be sure, to avert so great a catastrophe bringing un- told pain and suffering to millions of men and their families. But at last the in- scrutable purposes of destiny had to take their course and in the breaking up of forms the soul will grow and have new birth. While the world of matter is un- dergoing upheaval, principles will take on a fuller meaning and spirit set free will endow all men with the inspiration of a better life. This is why the war with all its horrors has its use. What was evil in humanity had to come to a head and all that represented the working of the powers of Darkness had to be faced and met on the road of Life at this particu- lar mile stone and be fought and defeat- ed by the powers of Light for the good and future of humanity. Consider for a moment our own Civil war. Who is there among us who will say that it was a useless shedding of blood? The time had come when the shackles of slavery had to be broken. Per- suasion, propaganda by Abolitionists in the form of speeches and writings which aroused the sympathy of the civilized world; morality, Christianity itself were alike powerless to move a peo ple who perverted that same Christianity and using it as a shield defied the world. What was the final remedy? Armed force in which the South was compelled to place as a sacrifice upon the altar of war the flower of its manhood, its material prosperity and everything which made life worth living for them. But it had to be, when once the preservation of the Union and the free-

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24 THE LINCOLNIAN times a week. Although a white man, he treated us just as well as he did the boys of his own race. We were all pleased with him. Lieutenant R. C. Baird, the supervisor of this military training, sent notice to our principal telling him of the color and kind o‘f uniform that we were supposed to wear, which was cadet blue, as most of you have already seen us in. We had a little difficulty in securing our suits, but through the goodness of our principal we secured them and received guns that were furnished by the government. We were not long learning to use the guns. We learned several sets of exercises with these guns which in military training are known as Butts Manual. So, after all, the boys were glad that they stuck with the train- ing. I hope that the boys next year will have as much success as the boys had this year. LIEUT. WILLIAM IRMA ANDERSON. THE USE OF WAR X OOKING back upon the mysteri- ous history of the human race, we see that Providence has made use of fearful revolutions as the means of sweeping away the abuses of ages and of bringing mankind to its present im- provement. Frightful cataclysms have marked the ending of the old and the be- ginning of the new. The signs of the times have abundantly intimated to the thoughtful that we are approaching such an era. Life is an eternal struggle between the right and wrong; a conflict between good and evil. The regeneration of the race must ever be worked out through earnest and desperate struggle. The cause of hu- manity has always to wrestle with foes. All impr Dvement is a victory won by struggle. It is especially true of those great periiodfe which have been idistin- guished by revolutions in government and religion and from which we date the most rapid movement of the human mind that they have signalized by conflict. Thus the birth of Christianity convulsed the world and it grew up amid storm and stress. The reformation of Luther was a signal to universal war, and liberty over all the world has encountered opposition over which she has triumphed only through her own irrepressible energies. We are agreed that war is deplorable, horrible, terrible in every way and at all times and the more civilized and advanced the na- tions involved, the more brutal it seems to be. Whatever a nation’s reluctance to war, however progressive ideas and ideals may be, that all else must be tried before arms are resorted to, failing all else, honor, na- tional and individual, may require this supreme arbitrament, and leave no other course to follow. In other words, when treaties, signatures and promises have no further binding force in the process of living side by side, must not life itself be put up as the stake? When a half dozen men light in a moment the fires of war throughout the world, causing Europe to bristle with bayonets, convulsing all civil- ized nations, sweeping earth and sea with an armed host, spreading desolation through field, and bankruptcy through cities, and making themselves felt through some form of suffering • throughout every household in Christendom, what is there left but war? And in such cases, where nations and individuals are staking their lives for a principle and throwing into the balance their all and making their ut- most sacrifice for their ideals, the word war is enobled and though grim as ever in aspect, bears on its physiogonomy the stern imprint of a sacrifice to duty and to a higher and inscrutable destiny. All will depend upon the motive. As in all else the decision between a right war and a wrong war will lie as to whether it was selfish or unselfish in origin ; whether it was aggressive or defensive in purpose, whether it arose from a desire to get and to have, or to defend and uphold. When the motive leading to war has been clearly a right motive, and not one of aggrandizement or rapacity at the ex- pense of others; when it has been prompt- d

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26 THE LINCOLNIAN in g of the slaves could be accomplished in no other way. Who will say the strug- gle was not worth it? Will the Russian people call this a useless war when in the twinkling of an eye it has brought about reforms which in their optimistic mo- ments the people could hardly conceive possible in less than a generation? What else but this war could have toppled from his throne a monarch who considered himself their ruler by the “grace of God” and “divine right?” Could have de- livered the Jews from an age old oppres- sion more frightful than that of the Ameri- can Negro? What else could have abol- ished grog from England, vodka from Rus- sia and absinthe from France, those mighty millstones around the neck of a nation? Even the much fought suffrage question has come within the domain of practical politics to a greater degree and in a far more agreeable manner than the most ardent suffragette leaders could have dared anticipate before August, 1914. Not in England alone, but in all the coun- tries, women have done and are doing so much in so many ways that are useful and vital that their claims not only can not in future be put aside, but are even now being consolidated and made sure of taking a suitable place in the future energies of a nation’s life. And the war will be worth much to human beings in many other ways when Time, the great Healer, allows of balanced reflection and calm introspection of events that today we can only observe in part and in their most terrible aspects. How many prejudices and anacronistic ideas that have grown into empty habits of mind are in the course of being shat- tered and crumbled up as obsolete? Which one of them can ever again lay stress on the distinction of race and race, of color an 1 color, of religion and religion, when F. c and West, North and South, nation and nation, colony and motherland, have fought, ffered and sacrificed side by side for the common cause? In proportion as Eastern nation or African colonies have given of their best to assist the mother country with the same liberality and loy- alty with which Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders, who are closer to them by race, have come forward to help in every way, so have they earned the right to every consideration and a debt of grati- tude will entitle them to fair treatment in all that may constitute their legitimate aspirations in the future, and may this also be true of the Negro. His unswerv- ing loyalty to the country of his birth with the memory of wrongs, oppressions and injustices heavy upon him, bespeak a nature richly endowed with high ideals, and we can not doubt that out of this war will come acknowledgements and ap- preciation which shall be manifested in justice and equity for us. Above all this struggle, this present hor- ribele intliccion of pain, loss, anguish and death on millions of people and their fami- lies, the stout hope must grow up in us that this great upheaval will renew all standards of life and ideas of what fun- damental society and national existence are based upon ; that it must and will lead to a simpler condition of existence and a more natural and less complex way of living, and that out of the burning fire of these present trials humanity as a whole will emerge chastened and purified and readier in the calm that follows storm to hear the still small voice of the Spirit. It is early to foreshadow the conclusion or the outcome of this world-wide war. but calamity, nor trial ever comes with- out producing ultimate good and serving the purpose of the All-Wise. Mighty powers are at work in the world; who can stay them? God’s word has gone forth and it shall not return to him void. A new comprehension of the Christian spirit, a new reverence for hu- manity, a new feeling of brotherhood, and of all men’s relations to the common Fath- er — this is among the signs of our times. We see it. Can we not feel it? Society, silently pervaded by this, is to change its aspect of universal warfare for peace. The power of selfishness, all grasping and seemingly invincible, is to yield to this divine energy. The song of angels — “On earth peace,” will not always sound as fic- tion, for what is the highest secret of vic- tory and peace? “To will what God wills, and strike a league with destiny.” Much will have to be rebuilt when the war is over; much thought out again in the light of all that has happened. And new gen- erations will profit by the lessons learned and the sacrifices made and the lives laid down by those of the present day. To those whose business it is to bear and