Mondovi High School - Mirror Yearbook (Mondovi, WI)

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THE HIGH SCHOOL M I R It O It Italian Government was four days behind with food and supplies. He also suid that the fi od Kit nut on in England and France is critical; and that If the English and French armies are crushed, it will be due to the fact that we have failed to get to them in sufficient quantities the food which they so sorely needed to keep up their morale and to enable them to do their best. He further pointed out the fact that wheat is very scarce and that it is now the duty of every one to give up all wheat and Ho ir v. hicli can possibly be spared, and to cause it to be shipped to France at the earliest possible moment. We have reason to congratulate ourselves upon the fact that Buffalo County is beginning to show evidence of a realization of her obligation and duty. At the call of a committee, practically all excess wheat and flour in the county was started for the At-lant c seaboard. Buffalo County, too, has an enviable record in the last Liberty Loan drive. In this drive Mondovi subscribed more than three times her quota. Altho we are justly proud ot our record in these things, we must do more, much more. Does the government suggest the use of less wheat? Let us then take bread from our own tables. Does the Red Cross Society or Young Men's Christian Association ask for help? Let us then give to the point of sacrifice. We must back our boys at the front. We must obey the call of our nation. We mat cultivate all available land We mii.it not make it a question of hew much grain to sow, nor what to sow in o-der to secure the greatest returns for selfish uses; but one of how much we can sow and what we should sow in order to keep an abundant stream of the necessary food stuffs and supplies pouting .nto France and England to support our men ad their brave allies. Our task is to win the victory. All classes of people must work together for that end, and in thus doing we are not only maintaining our national honor but are maintaining democracy. General Leonard Wood says: “We are only at the beginning now. My word to you is save everything you can, p; oduce everything you can, do everything you can. deny yourselves everything you can, and we will make the world safe for Democ;acy.” A peace must reign, in which no nation can march to po er and supremacy over right, and not until then can civilization unite the peoples of all the world in bonds of fellowship. Classmates, the time has come for a last and Anal farewell. We are gathered here tonight for the last t.me as students of the Mondovi High School. And to-morrow we go forward to build our life histories. We are entering this career at a time when our nation is in a critical position, critical because “Right is fighting against M.ght”, so let us as departing seniors start our careers right by “Fighting for the Right.” To our principal. te chers, board of education. and citizens of this school community, we owe a deep debt of gratitude for the opportunities they have given us. Some of us had planned to continue our education, some lo take up our life's work at once. But whatever plans e have entertained in the past for our future, let us dedicate ourselves and our lives to the great task which confronts us and our country, and render such aid as we are cap. ble of giving. And may it please God to allow us very soon to make our life plans anew, in a world ridded once and forever of a nation or a power capable of bring ng disaster tc its peace SAUTATORY. The American Red Cross Bv Mina Fleiscliauer. Citizens of the community, memod.r. of the faculty, and students of the Mondovi high school. In behalf of the class of 1918 I wc'come you most cordially to our Com-ni' nejment Exercises. We wish to express o iv sincere gratitude to the parents and teachers of the school, to our school board, and to the community who. by their ready and valuable suppo:t and kind sympathy, have made it poss ble for us to celebrate this occasion of the graduating class of 1917-18. At this time 1 have chosen to

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THE HIGH SC HOOF- M IRROR has Germany done in Poland? Systematically starved the population as the easiest and cheapest way of getting rid of a people whose lands she coveted. What has Germany done in little Belgium? Plundered her fields, burned her buildings, destroyed her property, tortured and murdered her women and children, deported and enslaved her men. The stories of Belgium, Servia. Russia. Poland and Armenia show the extremes to which Germany is willing to go to attain her ends. And can we expect less? By what strange metamorphosis of the Hun warlo ds would you expect treatment more humane? Could you expect justice for a people that has dared to stand between civilization and the lust of war-mad German Autocracy? Do you imagine that Germany would hesitate at coming into Mondovi and systematically starving our people, ravaging our women and children and destroying our property, if practice of such deeds would serve her purpose in ever so slight a degree? Truly. America is fighting because “The Right is More Precious than Peace” and indeed America could not do otherwise and be true to the ideals of national honor. But America has an immediate issue at stake and it behooves us to realize at once that right now. “Safety First”, is a potent slogan for us and one to which w e must feel as honor-bound to answer the call of duty as “The Right is More Precious than Peace.” Until now we have looked upon this wrar as something far aw ay and a thing apart; something that did not concern us very materially. True, our boys have been leaving. but wre have comforted ourselves with the thought that they w ere only gone to Fort Sheridan or to Camp Grant for training. that it wrould not be necessary to put into practice; that our allies' greatest need was food and supplies and that—well, many things could happen before the boys w ere actually sent to France, and that the battle fields were far, far away. But now, the great armies of France and England are meeting those of Germany in the titanic struggle of all history. Our sons and our brothers are either in France or are being hurried there with the utmost speed. American divisions are over there fighting bravely in the struggle. Hang ng upon the wrall in the assembly room of our high school is a service flag with twenty-seven stars. Upon this flag are represented the graduates of our school who are now in the service of our country. In some communities some of these stars a e beginning to change to gold as a symbol oJ the fact that some noble American boy has made his last supreme sacrifice for America and for us. There are those here tonight, whose son or brother is in France Friends, is it altogether impossible that we of Mondovi may be called upon to change some of our stars to stars of gold? The American boy who goes to war gives up his position which means so much to his future, or leaves his little business which probably has just begun to show promise of success. He severs home ties; turns aw'ay from home comforts; leaves behind parents, wife and friends. He faces the difficulty of being obliged to begin life anew when he returns; of losing all the advantages which years of hard work would have won for him. He faces the possibility of coming back incapacitated from earning a living, and of being dependent upon his friends or upon charity. He meets bravely the fact that he may never come home. Facing these things he goes to France to fight for us. who remain safely at home—and when the moment comes for him to go “over the top ’ he GOES. What will he think? How will he feel? if we complain because we are asked to make a few sacrifices for him—sacrifices so insignificant when compared with what he is doing. What can we do to justify ourselves? What are we doing9 We are told by those who know, that the dark days of the war are upon us. Premier Lloyd George of England admits very frankly that the situation is most critical and calls it “the darkest hour of the war.” In mild language but language which hurts our national pride, he pointed out that America had not yet come up to the fullest expectations. Dean Davenport of Illinois University coming directly from the authorities at Wash-ngton. and speaking for them, recently told a representative Buffalo County audience at Alma, that the cause of German success in the great Italian drive in nineteen- hundred-seventeen. was that the Italian soldiers were hungry, due to the fact that the

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THE HIGH SCHOOL MIRROR speak to you on the subject of one of our mo3t vital and absorbing interests, the Red C.oss. It may seem that there is no connect on between the school and the Red Cross, but President Wilson, who is also President of the Red Cross has deemed the school so vitally connected with this work as to have issued a proclamation to the school children of America, telling what it me.:ns, what it does, and how they can help. What would the war be like if there were no nurses to go into the hospitals to care for the wounded? It is not very long ago that we had no nurses. The name of Florence Nightingale is dear to every soldier and every sailor, because she founded nursing as a profession for women. She spent all her life in the protecting of the lives of others. However her work did not end with her death. Others had become interested, among them a young Swiss. Henri Dunant. As a result of the work of Florence Nightingale, the idea of an international organization came to him. The object of this organization was to prepare for war in times of peace. Dunant wrote a book giving an account of the horrors which he had witnessed on a Solferino battlefield in Europe. His book was widely read and many became interested. He called a meeting of fourteen nations at Geneva Switzerland. The result was the adoption, in 1864, of an international treaty which gave to the world the organization of the Red Cross. Two of its most important provisions were that each nation pledged itself to work with the other nations in caring for the wounded of all countries alike, and never to fire on a doctor or nurse, or an ambulance bearing the sign of the Red Cross. The banner of the organization, a red cross on a white field, was chosen as tribute to Switzerland, whose flag is a white cross on a red field. The two words. “Humanity” and Neutrality” are the watch words of the Red Cross; its aim is to take care for those who used it, regardless of race or creed. All this was in Europe. Few in America had heard of the Red Cross or of Florence Nightingale. During the Civil War there were many women who devoted their entire life to the care of the wounded. Among them were Dorothy Dix and Mother Bicker-dyke. They did much to lessen the suffering of the soldiers. A third worker was Clara Barton. She saw that the soldiers were well cared for in every way. She went behind the lines and nursed Northerners and Southerners alike. When the Civil War was over, Clara Barton went to Europe where she first heard of the Red Cross She saw how the medical staffs of two opposing armies, working together, did so much in a short time. Thus she became inspired with the idea to introduce the Red Cross in America. She found that the ideals of the Red Cross were the same as those for which the Civil War women had worked “Humanity” and “Neutrality.” Largely through the influence and the efforts of Clara Barton, the United States signed the Geneva treaty, and in 1882 the American Red Cross was established with Clara Barton as its first President. The best thing about the Red Cross work is that it includes all humanity, peoples of all races and creeds. It is the only relief organization that receives special protection from Congress or can give it special aid. It has the confidence and support of the United States in every way. The last evidence of this is a beautiful marble building erected by the United States government and dedicated to the Red Cross as a memorial to the heroic women of the Civil War. The reason for the wonderful work of the Red Cross lies not in its organization and wealth, but in its spirit of unselfish cooperation and sacrifice. This can best be expressed in the poem. “The Red Cross Spirit Speaks.” Wherever war with its red woes Or flood or fire or famine goes There, too, do I. If earth in any quarter quakes Or pestilence its ravage makes Thither, I fly. I am your pennies, and your pound I am your bodies on their rounds Of pain afar; I am you, doing what you would If you were only where you could Your avatar.