Norfolk High School - Milestone Yearbook (Norfolk, NE)

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18 THE MILESTONE. An ideal government must be one for the people, one that protects and educates its citizens, that keeps church and state separate, and that is founded upon principles of civilization. It must be one for the best interest of all of the people. Men filling the offices must be educated, moral, and have the courage of their convictions. Governors must be responsible to the governed, and corruption speedily punished. Higher education will lead men to a greater respect for Christian principles. Individual rights will be respected. Wrong will be quickly and vigorously suppressed. Trusts and monopolies will be restricted. Our influence for good in humanity’s name will not be confined to our own borders. The people of mouarchial countries will be led to realize that the purest democracy is the only just government. Just as a boisterous youth thrills an older man, the hapless millions of other lands already imbued with the spirit of liberty, will arise, throw off the thraldom of unholy despotism, and, under the glorious banner of freedom and political equality, will march forward toward higher ideals and grander achievements. God said: “I am tired of kings, I suffer them no more; For to my ears each morning brings The outrage of the poor Think you, I made this ball A field of havoc aud war, Where tyrants small Shall harry the weak and poor?” These then, are the problems which confront us, and in introducing to you the Class of ’99, we pledge you to meet them bravely, honestly and thoughtfully. Ladies and gentlemen, I take pleasure in introducing to you the Class of ’99.

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THE MILESTONE. 17 privileged, and the people were ground down by burdensome and unjust taxation. Judah was a theocracy. Her rulers were responsible to God alone. Having no tangible responsibility for their actions her kings ruled for their own aggrandizement and neglected the needs of the people. In Greece we find the first government in which the principle of liberty had a part. Athens, under the Peri-clean Republic became the foremost state of her time. Yet this Republic was founded upon an institution of slavery. A wise and patriotic statesman, such as Pericles, could not always be kept at the helm. Factional discord and political corruption grew to be common and the government became a tool in the hands of designing politicians. Rome gave to the world its grandest lesson of practical politics. Realizing that the different nations of the empire could not be governed by the laws of any one, there grew up that magnificent Roman jurisprudence that has ever been the admiration of the world. Her government was the grandest political system up to her time. She failed because she did not solve the problem of a representative government for a people scattered over a wide geographical area. Among the nations of today, in which these conditions are found, may be mentioned the United States, France, England, Switzerland and the Central American Republics. Of these, our own government stands out as being the most nearly ideal. Among the improvements that might benefit our government are that it should own and control all the large corporations and municipal franchises, create an educational standard for citizenship and enact and enforce more restrictive immigration laws.

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School doors were unlocked; vacation was over; A jangling of bells invaded our ears. Children rushed down the streets and scrambled for seats— Once again there was school with its laughter and tears! Launched, but Whither Bound. AGNES MAY THOMPSON. “We are ever wishing, wishing— Wishing we were far at sea— We are ever hoping, hoping— Hoping that the wind will shift That success will crown our ventures, That the morning fog may lift.” We, the Class of ’99, have been anticipating the time when, having finished onr happy school days, we shall realize onr hopes and wishes and find as much pleasure in realization as in anticipation. This sea upon which we are about to launch our barks, is the boundless ocean of life. Our past has been for the purpose of gaining knowledge to aid us in the spring-time of this new life. Our pleasures together have been many; but, as we are about to unfurl our sails to the breeze, one by one we will glide out into the deep. Behind us lie the scenes and memories of earlier days, each with its store of learning gained. Before us stretches the new’ horizon with