Manchester High School - Somanhis Yearbook (Manchester, CT)

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SOMANHIS EVENTS : 31 ficient to supply the demand. Land lies plentiful and all that is needed is the modern method of tillage. The foreign trade is immense, being about fifteen dollars per capita. This amounts to something when we consider that there are about twenty- three million people in the country. The greatest setback is the lack of transportation facilities. A few more railroads in the country would bring it out among the great financial nations of the world. Argentina, the second in size, lies almost entirely in the temperate zone. The cattle and leather industry is the most important. Already “Argentina Beef” is known the world over. The foreign trade is about fifty dollars per capita, the country has a population of eight million. What the people of this country and in fact the whole continent de- mand in the line of automobiles is a rugged inexpensive light built car which will stand the wear of the country roads. The United States is well equipped to supply such a demand. The countries on the western coast of the continent must not be. overlooked. Here we have Peru with its extensive grazing and agriculture plateaux, and Chile with her great nitrate fields. There are numerous other smaller republics in which the same condi- tions, which have been illustrated, exist, only on a smaller scale. South America will always be in the market for foreign goods because the fuel for manufacturing purposes is not to be found. All that is needed is for- eign capital and investment, and the whole land will shine forth in prosper- ity. It will be some years before Europe can supply this capital, because of the great war indemnities. America should step forward, conquer the foreign trade, and develop the natural resources of South America before it is too late. MARTIN E. ALVORD, ’20. WAR’S EFFECT ON LITERATURE Can war really affect literature? Is not that the first question which springs up in our minds when we hear literature and the war discussed? Up to the present time warfare has inspired many writers, but if we look back to history we see that it proves that the supremely great literature of any war has never come until the final “battle’s lost and won.” One great war which served the poetic art most handsomely was the “Trojan War.” This furnished the subject for Homer's “Iliad,” and unless a person were wholly illiterate he could not regret this war. In France ai- ter the seige of Sedan, the Commune and the loss of Alsace and Lorraine, there sprang up a host of young writers, many of whom must have drawn their first inspiration from the smoke of battle. And did not the French Revolution give us that “transcendant group of writers,” whom it is not necessary to name? Then, in connection with our own Civil War, the Uncle Remus Stories and Marsa Chan are masterpieces, whose loss would have left a permanent gap in the literature of the South; indeed the last named has been held by more than one critic to be the best of all stories dealing with war between states. These are but three instances, out of many, in which warfare has been an inspiration to writers.

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30 SOMANHTLIS EVENTS keeping she readily secured a position with an electric light company. Her uncle, after hearing that she was bent upon becoming a business wo- man, sent her to one of the best business colleges in New York. Ajfter being graduated she accepted a position as bookeeper with the firm by which she is now employed. By becoming familiar with all office details, whether they happened to have any particular bearing on her specified la- bors or not, she showed an interest in the firm and each day meant a forward step toward personal improvement. Mrs. Helen Kenny Holmes or the ticker girl of Wall Street is earning over $10,000 a year. She began her career as telephone operator at $12 per week, but because of her determination to learn the business and her loy- alty to the firm’s interest, she has now become one of the firm. Nowadays, there are not only women doctors, lawyers, lecturers, den- tists, and policewomen, but there are bankers, farmers, milk brokers, man- agers of railroad administrations, mine presidents, and voters. It is a splendid thing to live in the twentieth century. We who enter life these days are going out into a world busier than it has ever been, and no genuine twentieth century girl can feel that she is “every inch a woman” unless she is prepared to “amount to something” in some line of business. MABEL ROBB, ’20. SOUTH AMERICA, THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITY The war as we all know, has had a great effect upon the world in gen- eral. Not only the social and political, but the financial and commercial! situation is far different from what it was before. The United States has found that the time has passed when only problems at home are to be dealt with; world-wide conditions must now be considered. This country, although a great commercial nation, had never entered into the foreign trade of the world to any great extent up until the time of the war. It then became necessary for us to do so, because the great commercial nations, that is England and Germany, were both at war and had no time to devote to their foreign trade, Both of these countries had a great hold on the trade of the Latin American Republics. At the beginning of the war, this country was called upon to promote the trade of these republics. Then we began to open our eyes and see what a great opportunity we had overlooked. People never realized that our sister continent held any place in the world whatever. This country during the war increased production in all lines in order to meet the needs of the warring nations. At present most of the factories are rushed as they were in war time, but the time will come, and it is not far distant, when the United States will have an over production of goods. Then we will look for some foreign market. South America is the field, and now is the time to establish such a market. srazil, the largest of all South American countries,, is often called the, “Storehouse of the World.” Here we have a country larger than the United States with about one fifth the population. Everything can be raised there that grows in both the tropical and temperate zones. Brazil abounds in natural resources. In the northern part we find the great lum- ber and rubber forests for which she has been noted through all ages. In the central and southern part agriculture is the principle industry. Coffee, the most important of all, is raised on a large scale, but now it is not suf-

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32 SOMANHIS EVENTS If these periods of struggling, just mentioned, have produced such a host of writers, what are we to expect from this “Great World War” which has just ended, in which there was “such terrible unexampled violence and such unparalleled life waste.” Has the “World War” affected the literature of Germany? Yes, it has decidedly. “The German novel is dead.” As Germany has always been a nation of militaristic ideals, naturally we would expect, that the whole country would neglect everything else while struggling in a war like the “Great World War.” That is just what happened, and then, of course, the chief idea of everyone in the country of Germany was war. Because of this the “imagination” of the German people has been stifled. If the people of Russia are just as militaristic as the people of Ger- many, why is it that they have produced so many novels during the past century? It is because the Russian people themselves seem to keep their simplicity, no matter what the intention of the ruling class may be. And therefore the “imagination” of these simple people has not been stifled dur- ing this war, and their intellectual and spiritual gifts still find expression in their novels and plays. The American, French and English writers seem to have been wot derfully inspired by this “Great War.” Many war stories were written, but not during the first few months of this great struggle, because then, there seemed to be a complete break in the literary productions of these three countries. This was because the attention of the people was naturally concentrated on military tactics and political necessities, But when the earliest strain was relaxed there seemed to be a very distinct tendency to revise the literary values of the past generation, Not until after the battle of the Marne was there any sustained literary work done in France; America had also been in the struggle many months before any war books were put forth by American authors. This shows that all the men, during the first few months of the struggle, were too conscious of the contingencies of the struggle to settle down to brain work. But when the first shock of the terrible struggle was over, many war stories, typical of such horrible warfare as our men went through, were written and published. It is thought that most romantic writers will probably use the war either as the theme or background of their novels for many years to come. The books written and published cannot be compared to the numer- ous poems of the “Great World War.” It seemed as if this war stirred the world into poetry. One can hardly believe that so much poetry could have been written during the struggle, because up to this time most of our war poetry had been produced from the inner consciousness in the calm of the library or studio. The young men of America, France and England who answered the call of their country have themselves been through the horrors of modern warfare, and because of this they will not be able to handle anything “with gloves.” They will know human nature down to the ground. Most of the war poems which were written show this. They give us the true description of warfare and suffering. The poets wish to have us hear and feel all: the nerve racking roar of the great guns, the crack of the rifle, the sleepless nights, the hunger and thirst, the dreary food, the hideous wind, and the unburied dead, also the filth, the heat and cold. One who has read any of the war poems knows that the poets have suc- ceeded in giving us vivid pictures of the struggle. Some of these poems are not pleasant reading for many of us, but we are bound to listen, for these