Mount Vernon High School - Forum Yearbook (Mount Vernon, OH)

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8 THE FORUM and culture, so has the newspaper grown, in popularity and refinement, and it stands as an indicator, showing how much farther up the ladder of civilization the world has climbed during the preceding twenty-four hours. Social, economic, and political problems are constantly being discussed in every newspaper in the universe, and needless to say, a variety of opinions is the inevitable outcome. In this respect, the newspaper is beneficial in that it places the subject be- fore the eye of the eager public without imfringing upon the opinions of the reader. Especially is this true in the po- litical world. It might be argued that all papers do not set forth a sufficiently high standard of elevation, and unfortunately, this is true. The intelligence of the reading pub- lic is appealed to, and no matter how ob- jectionable the character of a newspaper may be, it is sure to be just a little better than the patrons who support it. Probably the greatest interest mani- fested in journalism by the American people and that which is of vital import- ance to the nation at large, concernes the latest reports from the congresses at Washington and the various state capi- tals. Here it is that the untiring alert correspondent shows his ability. Nothing is transacted in our Nation's capital but that can within a few hours be read in the thousands of newspapers thru- out the land. The citizen, altho in a far Western state, has practically no difficulty in obtaining the approximate facts regard- ing the latest national affairs, While so detailed are the accounts, that he may know just how the representative from his own state voted upon the question at hand. In this day of competition in the busi- ness world, advertising has become a great factor. The merchant must advertise! But how? Bill-boards, hand-bills and many other ways present themselves but foremost is the newspaper. Bill-boards and hand-bills have proved themselves a nuisance, as well as a loss of money to those who invest in them. But when the newspaper holds the ad- vertisement the consumer, as he, or more often she, glances over the evening paper and sees in glowing head-lines, the an- nouncement of a closing out sale, the in- stinctive love for a bargain presents itself, and the advertisement is not forgotten. Advertising in the newspapers then pays the consumer, the retailer and the paper itself. Few of us have stopped to consider the manifold beneits derived from that inex pensive article that connects yesterday's causes with tomorroW's effects, that great machine with its continuous Work before it, known to us as the daily newspaper. The nation takes it as regularly as it does its meals. And when we hear that monot- onous cry of Paper, we hasten to read it, with seldom ever a thought of the real place the daily newspaper fills in our lives today, and with ours, the pulsing life of this great, wide, world. Walter Englehardt.

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THE FORUM 7 fm , -- - vii If. 4 Aim 8 ' Y I ii in 41, 1 D 41' . .. . ft , . '22gn'0:g1 W ' L A MIM . ,-'lig'l:,Q2d': ,, f4 39V9h'2:'g7I l W ' 'L E l U l .7 Y - 'i h:1 'p'?a -a .itiiggpgpiz-E: 7 , W 'F' V lily -.,,g2Q31g2q59g:.g1, is u,,r,S-,a.,,-z -.f A nz-14,1 4 ' f - lv Q S, . gn-7, -1.6-'fs'-,r. 'zur 7-:' -9 b2'. 4?:,-1 M I 'P 4, Q - 4 c 'fl-qw. .vw-71.-a-L rzF1 'u?5-2 ,'s ',.- 3 f N . rr 'v -.M el -4-:ar in ., ..-e..- F .u ' +2wa9!-:- 'wY,.. QQ? '36-,v qi: -pang ,1ff1,y,!,1g'ingf1, Q , , it , uv gn- llfrv'-jay' . X i ', p , 1 X 'U V snug J . f'- l ' ' . Q F s ... f -5-we If -- - A gin 5 'L ' ' ..v' Importance of the - 1' APER -We hear the paper thrown in on our porch, and the monotonous cry is heard farther down the street as the carrier distributes the daily paper, We grasp it, we read it, we thrust it aside, with never a thot of its role on the stage of human aiairs. 'KA Newspaper-A sheet of paper printed and distributed at short in- tervals, conveying intelligence of passing events. This definition might be employed for a newspaper at the time of the Boston-News- Letter of 1704, one of the earliest of estab- lished Newspapers in America, but in this modern age, such a combination of words can hardly cover a description of an insti- tution which has reached a place of such importance, as has the newspaper. It is interesting to note the evolutionary process, which has led up to present day journalism. The modern newspaper is not the product of a day. To the ancients, in- deed, must we look for the original, and to Rome belongs the honor, tho her paper serv-ed the purpose merely of bea.ring to lf, he MA Daily Newspaper the imperial capital messages of peace and war. Germany was the founder of modern European journalism, while France, Eng- land and Russia followed closely in the new enterprise with indifferent results. But we of today are more concerned with the modern paper. What is found in the newspaper that makes it an important factor in the life of the world today? It procures us the news while it is hot, keeps up the interest at all costs: even, if it is necessary to send the reporter to a foi eign country to interview a beleagured general whom his own country is power- less to reach, or to hire a special detective to pursue the runaway thief, or if nothing new is to be had, to hunt up something too old to be remembered, and present it to us in a new garb. From an educational standpoint, modern journalism must handle items of interest, in the realms of science, art, morals, theol- ogy and politics, to say nothing of minor subjects too numerous to mention, until it has become the mirror of the times, re- flecting the activities of the whole world. As the world has grown in population

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THE FORUM 9 Armed F 'H' ' INCE the period of the Napol- eonic wars, which for a quar- ter of a century converted the whole of Europe into one vast battlefield, the acknowl- edged desire of nations has been for peace, and many theories have been advanced toward that end. Of these only two seem to get at the foundation of the problem. The first of these is, that in order to ob- tain a lasting peace all the armies, navies and machines of war must be abolished and destroyed, and as a matter of course when this is accomplished, universal peace will inevitably follow. This plan on the surface seems a very simple and easy way of remedying the matter, but on sec ond thought it proves, under existing con- ditions, to be highly impracticable, since, in case all but one or two nations should disarm, it would have the whole World at the mercy of th-e one or two who still main- tained their armies and navies. The second plan is that the nations en courage the invention and manufacture of annihilating ordnances of war and the re- cruiting and maintaining of formidable armies and navies, thus making even the idea of conflict so terrifying that none of the nations would even think of entering into war, save as a last resort. Such in short is the innovation which has been tacitly adopted by the civilized world. As a result of this policy we have been sub- jected to only five international wars in the last half century, all of which have been of short duration. The cost of war is appalling, both in the loss of human life and from a pecuni- ary standpoint. Our own Civil war of 1861 is a fiagrant example of this. One half a million lives were lost in that great 22 N 517 . uf - .1 -. ' - .T 12-S?-zwl Q 5 , 1 I Peace confiict. In the one battle of Gettysburg forty-three thousand men were either killed or Wounded, while the approximate expenditure of the whole was eight billions of dollars. Such an account was presented to our nation and we, lovers of peace, were in honor forced to pay it. However, in this day of public economy, one may easily find himself asking whether, even in the face of these awe-inspiring figures, war is not in the end cheaper than peace. This question can be easily and emphatically answered in the negative by referring to the yearly military expense report of the nations. The net cost of the British army and navy and their operations for the year 1908 was three hundred million dol- lars, for Germany, two hundred eighty- nine millions and for the United States, two hundred and seven millions. It is easily seen that the drain on the treasuries caused by the nations keeping well armed is almost nothing in comparison to what it would be during war, while in these ex- pense reports we see no glaring death col- umn, save that in which a few deaths are recorded each year, caused by some acci- dent. In putting war and peace upon the scales, we find that under no circum- stances can war be made so light as peace, even though that peace be armed. When a nation is at perfect harmony with its neighbors, then does that nation begin to live, for during peace is the only time a nation can turn its attention to the internal developments it is in duty bound to give its citizens, such as the perfecting of educational systems, the maintaining of good roads, the reclaiming of arid lands and, in short, all those things which we should have as civilized people. The commercial possibilities are greatly