New Harmony High School - Jester Yearbook (New Harmony, IN)

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T H E J E S T E R New Harmony, Inclzaina El --------'--------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------'---------------'-'---, El his fellows, by shaping public opiniong by showing office-holders how they can be citizens rather than politiciansg by willingly sacrificing when duty demands: by using the wealth or powers that God has given him for the benefit, the advantage, the bettering, or the salvation of his fellow-men. The true American citizen has since the foundation of the republic given endurance and permanence to the national fabric. We must remember what citizenship really means to us. It is two- fold. It means allegiance and protection. We give our allegiance and the country in return grants us full protection. It is for us to see that our allegiance is freely and gladly giveng for the privileges of citizenship are great beyond calculation. There are four different kinds of allegiance: 1. Natural allegiance-that which arises by nature and birth. 2. Acquired allegiance-that arising by denizenation or naturaliza- tion. 3. Local allegiance-that arising from temporary residence, however short, in a country. 4. Legal allegiance-that arising from oath. American citizenship gives us civil and religious liberty: it gives us freedom of speech, freedom of press, and freedom of mailsg it makes every man's home his castle into which no one may enter uninvited: it gives us the rights of citizens and voters into whatever state in the Union we may remove, seeking a new home, it secures to us the protection of the United States wherever in the wide world our feet may wander. How precious, then, should be this birthright. How low and mean and base is it for any one of us to barter that heritage, that is to place personal wants, personal safety, personal comfort and personal pride above this right of freedom, which our fathers fought to secure, to establish and to maintain. Our naturalized citizens have the same rights as a native citizen. Naturalization is the act of adopting a foreigner and clothing him with the privileges of a native citizen. The power of naturalization is vested exclusively in Congress by the Constitution and cannot be exercised by the State. A foreigner after living here hve years can take the oath to be true and loyal to the government of the United States and this makes him a citizen and makes citizens of his wife and all his children, who are not yet twenty-one years of age, giving them all privileges that a natural born American has, save one, that is he can never be the president of the United States. ln a free democracy like the United States the units composing the political body are properly designated as citizens, while in a constitutional monarchy like Great Britain are referred to indifferently as citizens or subjects. Patriotism means doing one's best toward making his country worth E1nummmnnnmnm ,,,,,,,,,E lm ge Thin ty-two

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gil E' J E' S T E R New Harmony, Indiana ' ' 'l 'lIll ' IIIIHHIIIIIIlmllInIIIInlmulluulumununumlunnung The mental Zl'1Il'C'lI is presented each year by the Daughters of the A'nzerzca.n Re-iiolufion was airclrded this year to Winifrecl Pf'isz'er, '23. what lt Means To Bc An Arncrcian Citizen E, the American people, may justly feel proud that we are Ameri- cans, who are types of loyal citizens. All the friends that have been raised in these latter days will reveal the spirit of our good people. American people are not debtors of the world or of any nation in itg the world owes us. The world owes America because this country for a century and a third has given to the world a working model of popular government which if it had been adopted by other nations would have spared them the necessity of fighting the great war we have just concluded and many other wars besides. The world owes America because we have welcomed to this country millions of the poverty stricken people of other lands and given them here a home and country they could call their own, and America has divided with generous hand its wealth with their poverty. The world owes America because this is the one powerful nation in the world that has not used its strength to rob or oppress its neighbors or distant peoples and that has not been looking with jealous and designing eyes upon the property and territory of other nations. The world owes America because America poured out her blood and treasure without limit until the tide of conquest had been stopped and turned back and when other nations were dividing up the rich spoils of victory, America asked nothing in territory or indemnity, asked nothing but a peace of justice and of right. The debt we owe our country is a real obligation. The discharge of that debt to the great republic, born of the dreams and maintained by the sacrifices of our fathers is the first duty of Americans. How can we then become citizens of America? 'tAll persons born or naturalized in the United States subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. There- fore they havethe rights of citizenship, but they do not exercise the duties of citizenship. Only the voters exercise the duties. The idea of voting sprang from fighting. In the old days of blood and blows, the smaller or weaker party would sometimes decide by voice-in other words, by vote-whether to tight or not to tight. It is our duty to build a barrier against evil in all its forms and dis- honesty. It is this silent service and practical patriotism that makes our republic endure. Is it only the man who lights on the battle front who has a duty to perform? Oh, no. The citizen has as great a duty and as much demand for courage laid upon him as any soldier or sailor who has ever faced the foes of the republic on land and sea. By practical work among El,,,,,,,., .................................E1 Page 'I'l1irty-one

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gf! E J E S T E R New Harmony, Inclfiaim ''' 'l'H' nuuInI1I1mI1ununnn11nnnnnI1111I1I1lmmnmnmmun E the loving and worth the living in, by helping it to become better in every way-broad, noble, Christian, imperial, progressive and free. Patriotism, pure and undeiiled, is the handmaid of religion. Love of country is twin to the love of God. The instinct of love of country, of patriotism, dwelling in every human breast, is the abiding and unchange- able source of every nation's strength and safety. The spirit in the citizens, that originating in love of country results in obedience to its laws, the support and defense of its existence, rights and institutions, and promotion of its welfare is called patriotism. The government of the United States is based upon the equality of all men before the law. It is our chief duty as American citizens to prevent this equality from being turned to wrong ends by designing men or lost through dissension and ignorance. Americanism means to America, America always iirst: America, not above all, but before all in the minds and hearts of those who profess al- legiance to America. lt means the first thought of the rights, interests and ideals of America, that America shall not, without some better reason for doing than has yet been advanced, bankrupt herself in order that some insolvent nation may be saved from financial disaster, the protection of the lives and the property of American citizens abroad as well as at homeg means the preservation of an obedience to the American Constitution and form of government: means a return to well settled precedents and policies, which made this nation the richest and the greatest and the happiest on earth long before the new freedom was thought ofg means return to the more economical and common sense methods of conducting the national government: means the protection and development of American indus- tries and American resources. Our task as Americans is to strive for social and industrial justice, achieved through the genuine rule of the people. Although America, like other countries, is made up of many different kinds of people, she is the only one to have a government whose national motto is Out of many, one. Out of many races, religions, classes, na- tionalities, groups-one people, out of many states-one union, indivisible, now and forever. we mmm: IllIIrlI1IIlxllunlllnlllluuulE Page Tliirty-tlirce