Mondovi High School - Mirror Yearbook (Mondovi, WI)

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we know that the less attention that we pay to them, the less active they become and the less mischief they do. ‘ If it be possible for a family to live happily together, if it be possible for a community to be at peace, there is no kind t reason why the sum of the communities that make up the nations that make up the world should not live happily together and be at peace. By what means can international peace and amity be secured? The only way is for the nations to get together. Th i old bad dictum of imperial Rome. “Si vis pacem. para bellum,” If you wish for peace, prepare for war. must be disregarded for the new and true dictum. “If you wish for peace, you must prepare for peace.’ It is not beyond the resources of civilization to devise a plan by which duly accredited representatives of the different nations of the world can be brought together for the friendly settlement of common differences and the establishment of common interests. Modern invention has made the peoples of the world mo-e than ever interdependent. and modern invention has made it more than ever necessary that the whole world should be kin. One- let the representatives of different nations get the hab’t of meetin- together, talking together. eating together, the spirit of mutu 1 standing will be created and misunderstandings will cease. If i were left to the rank and file of the peoples of the world, such a solution of the problem would soon be brought about. It is only held back by the actions of petty politicians who in every country are cursed with an exaggerated belief in the importance of thei- own existence. The same plan is feasible with regard to intranational disputes which are ma’nly industrial. Capitalists and labo-ers alike make the mistake that disputes between them concern only tlmmaelves. whereas then concern, even more, the public. Let this fact only be propei lv realized and. whenever industrial diffe ences aris°. representative of the three parUes affected will meet together, knowing that a reasonable settlement is imperative in the interests of all. It will not be lone before thp sharp divisions of capital and labor will disappear and industry will be placed on a cooperat’ e b sis. We dare not despair of the world. All statements to the contrary notwithstanding, despite the blackn -s of tb o-esent outlook, men are matching on. Unless historv is a lie. t 0 law of life is th law of progress. With the poet we believe that “through the ages one unceasing purpose runs’’ and that “the thoughts of m°n are broad ened with the nroeess of the suns.” Tt esnemalW behooves us who are now leaving the little world which is called schoo1. for he 'argei world which lies before us. to catch the vision of the brighter da' that is com’ng and to labor hard to hasten Rs advent: that da “when the war drums will throb no longer «nd the battle flags will be furled in the narliament of man. the confederation of the world. ’ and when the ideals of human brotherhood will become accomplished facts.

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its only real solution? The world is cursed with a universal discontent, which threatens to convert civilization into chaos. This discontent finds its exp.ession not only in international jealousies and ilvalries, but also in intranational strifes which threaten the whole structure of society. In this country, propagandists are at work, one ■ et of them seeking to inflame us against one country, another set seeking to alienate us from another country, a third set urging us utterly to disregard the point of view of any other country but our own. In this country, too, the strife between capital and labor has reached such proport’ons as to be almost as bad as civil war. Every class in the community is apparently seeking only the interest of its own class and is selfishly disregardful of the existence of any other class. In fact, world-conditions today challenge the optimism of those who hold steadily to their faith in human progress. In one of his lines, the poet Tennyson says, “Certain if knowledge brings the sword, ’Tis knowledge takes the sword away.” Paradoxical as it may seem, it is the spread of knowledge that has produced the discontent which characterizes the whole of human kind and the only remedy is to continue to spread knowledge. In-ternat onal friendship will be the direct result of international understanding. It seems to have been the deliberate policy of the past to promote misunderstanding between the peoples of the earth in order that the governing classes might reap the advantage in military glory and in naval renown. Once let the common people of every country get to know the common people of every other country and there will be no war; because Americans. Englishmen, Germans. Frenchmen, Russians, and the rest will realize that they are “just folk ’ and not cannon fodder, and will swreep away all the artificial conditions wh ch at present keep them barking at each other’s heeb=. at the behest cf interested propagandists. The differences between Capital and Labor and between class and class will disappear if a pol cy of getting to know the exact facts be pursued. For then it will be realized that usually in every controversy bot i sides are wrong, wrhe eas both sides think they are right, simply because they do not know all the facts. I think I hear some one saying that these are high-sounding generalizations, but listen! I et us approach this subject from another avenue. The average American home today is happy not because every member of it thinks alike or feels alike or is constituted alike, but because every member of it realizes the differences end accommodates himself or herself to them »n a spirit of unselfish compromise. A commun’ty like onrs is hapny. because we do not go up and down it trying to pick flaws in each o her. but endeavor, bv balancing ou” own thoughts against those of others, to realize that we are all “pretty” good people. In every community there are busybodies and backbiters, but

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THE CLASS HISTORY By Joseph Pape In the early part of September of the year 190S the class of 1920 consisting of a multitude of small girls and boys, started its educational career by entering the first grade. Never in the history of the school was there a more active, brighter or keener band of children. Of those who enrolled at this time only the following are now graduating from Mondovi High: Samuel Ilium, Clarence Thompson, Sanford Ede, Edith Luetscner, Agnes Armour, Raymond Evans, James Brown, Foirest Hurtley, and Joseph Pape. While in the third grade with Miss Neale we left our studies long enough to have a group picture taken. Some of the students still have one of these preserved as a relic, that is to them, the greatest class that ever started making History. In the fifth grade we lost one of our beloved classmates, Raymond Helwig, who was taken from our midst by the stern Reaper. Under the supervision of Miss Nogle we took a leading part in the High School Circus which added to the credit of M. H. S. activities. We passed to the sixth grade in good lcpute and many students joined us for ttie seventh where we evi- denced the fact that we were champion spellers and won the beautiful pennant which still decorates the walls of this memorable room. In the eighth grade we listened to many splendid lectures from Miss Anna Smith, which perhaps we did not fully appreciate then, but the true value of which we have oftentimes since realized. During this period, we purchased class pins to set us apart from the common herd, and felt important enough to hold a Declamatory contest with the seventh grade in which Edith Luetscher and Samuel Blum carried away the honors of second and third places. From these worthy speakers we expect to add another chapter to our His tory at no far distant date. One balmy September morning away back in 1916, when the very atmosphere was filled with the hazy tang of burning wood some fifty-five learned individuals marched into the portals of Mondovi High. Here we were soon to be taken off our high pedestal on which we had felt so secure in the grades. We were to be subdued and dubbed as “Only Freshmen can, until we should come into a proper state of submissive servitude. By the time the sophomores had finished with us we were very, very humble indeed. Well do we remember the trying ordeal of passing from room “B into the main room before the august assemblage awaiting us there. A wicked gleam of mirth was in the eyes of our upper-classmen and if any one had laughed outright we would have perhaps grown faint with fright. Our greatest fear in those days was not that we might fail in Algebra, but that we might not be able to secure a seat in the main room. What if we