Oakfield High School - Oak Leaves Yearbook (Oakfield, WI)

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And say to all the world: ‘This was a man.’ ” Can anyone review the lives of these four great men and consider the services which they have rendered to the nation and the noble spirit with which they were rendered and then say that they are not Our Nation’s Idols? ' Flora Morgan. THE EVOLUTION OF MAN. The question regarding the origin and development of man is one of great moment and has greatly attracted the attention of scientific investigators during the past century. Some of our greatest scientists have spent their lives in the attempt at solving this great question. For hundreds of years science and religion had been so accustomed to see the origin of species and especially the appearance of man on the face of the earth hidden in impenetrable and unapproachable mystery that every attempt at clearing up this mystery naturally appeared to both as an attack upon the creative activity of God. The investigators of the past years have proven that the theories regarding the origin and evolution of man are not only in accordance with the Bible but can be used as proof of the validity of that work. The theory of Evolution, as given by Darwin, contains nearly the same ideas that all succeeding him have tried to prove and to show that it is in friendly relation to the Bible. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace were the first scientists to bring a theory of evolution before the minds of the people. They arrived at their conclusions at the same time and separately proposed them. Darwin’s theory as published then and later was composed of five principles:—first, the survival of the fittest of plants an animals; second, their increase in complexity; third, their struggle for existence; fourth, the process of heredity; and fifth, the development of man from lower animals. All plants and animals do not live forever, for, if they did, the earth would be soon over-crowded with them. It is only the strongest and the healthiest that do live. Thus when a plant produces three seeds, one of these seeds may be better adapted to the environment than the other two. The weakness of the two may be such that the plant produced will be unable to adapt itself to the unfavorable environment. The resulting structure will then be either exceedingly weak and inefficient or will quickly perish. The inability of these plants to live illustrates the principle of the survival of the fittest. Every plant or animal has its own individual differences from others of its own species. Every plant structure is the steady accumulation thru natural selection of those characteristics which are beneficial to the individual and give rise to all the more important modifications of structure by which the innumerable beings on the earth areablc to struggle with each other ami by which they are better enabled to survive. Nature uses the

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M hy not this man who was incapable of animosity or revenge be called an idol { William McKinley, our twenty-fifth president was born in Niles, Ohio in 1843. 11 is parents were far from well-to-do and his education was not the best which the times afforded. When he was six years old, he went to the village school at Niles. When he was nine years old his father moved the family to Poland, Ohio. Here William soon became very popular; lie took great interest in debates and when a debating society was formed, he was elected president of it. He became a teacher and a iittle later a clerk in a Post Office. His mother speaking of him said: “I could always depend upon him. He never gave me a crossword and I don't believe he ever told me a lie.’’ Fires of the great Civil M ar had been smouldering for some time. When the call for volunteers came McKinley was among the first to enlist. He went into the army a mere boy of eighteen, knowing absolutely iOth-ing of service. He took part in some thirty engagements and served as Commissary Sergeant, Second and First Lieutaenants, Captain, Staff Officer and finally Major. He had but one furlough and was never absent from duty on account of sickness. General Hayes said, ” The night was never too dark, the weather never too cold, there was no sleet, or storm or snow or rain that stood in the way of his prompt and efficient performance of every duty.” Altho, while in his youth he was intended for the ministry, his ambitions led him toward the professions and he soon became a lawyer. When he was elected prosecuting attorney, he said: “I have been supported by many Democrats. I shall try to administer the office of prosecuting attorney with justice to all, and administer it with justice he did, as the records of the country show. Never was there a fairer prosecuting attorney than William McKinley. Every criminal prosecuted by him received what the law intended he should have, no more and no less. Because of his great integrity he was elected to Congress were he served for fourteen years and took an active part on the Tariff question. He was defeated for re-election a little later and was then elected governor of Ohio. He was elected President in 1896 and successfully piloted the nation thru the Spanish-American war. No one rejoiced more than he when the war was ended. He was so idolized by the American people that he was elected for a second term and while receiving his friends one day at the Buffalo Exposition, his life was boldly taken by an anarchist. He lingered only a few days and was carried to Canton, Ohio. As they laid him in that last resting place, a whole nation still in silent prayer and in tears. One thing worthy of notice about McKinley was that he made friends of his enemies with astounding rapidity. How well the words Mark Anthony said of Brutus may be applied to McKinley: His life was gentle, and the elements So mixed in him that Nature might stand up

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same rules in natural selection that man uses in his artificial and intentionla selection. As the farmer from year to year selects his best and healthiest looking coi n for his seed, so the plant develops those qualities which can produce a stronger structure and better enable it to perform its life’s work. The seedless orange is a good illustration of what man can do by selecting every year certain plants containing the characteristics desired. Therefore the increase in complexity of a plant or animal over its parents is due to natural selection. The struggle for existance in plants and the lower animals is very much the same as it is in the life of man. They meet with many obstacles and foes which may be overcome or avoided. They have to withstand many changes in their environment; thus some plants can adapt themselves to a changing in environment. On the other hand there are those who cannot thus meet the problems of life caused by a change of conditions. The former will thrive while the latter must perish in the struggle. This stug-gle for existence also develops many characteristics in plants and animals which enable them to protect themselves against their foes, as the deer’s horns, the lion’s claws, or the sword of the sword-fish. During the life of every organic being changes will occur because of its environment etc. If these characteristics are useful and necessary in the struggle for life, then thru the principle of inheritance these necessary traits will be given to its offspring. Each plant receives the characteristics of its parent together with the qualities they obtained during their life and it endows its offspring with its inherited features and those gained during its life; thus each plant receives the sum total of the characteristics of all its ancestors. A duck may be made to acquire nearly all the traits of a chicken if kept from the water and in the environment of the chicken but if after a number of generations, a duck is taken to the water, it would swim as its ancestors had. Thus a quality may lie dormant for years but can be awakened if put into the right environment. This is the law of heredity. From all these principles it can readily be seen that there must have been some original being from which all our different divisions of plants or animals have arisen. Darwin says that man has developed thru a number of different species from the monkey. This does not necessarily mean from what we know now as the monkey because the species may have been greatly changed thru the thousands of years it has taken for the development of man. This theory of Darwin’s may be merely a solution by hypothesis but it is substantiated by thousands of facts and by numerous illustrations found in the past and present natural history. One of the arguments that is commonly used against the theory of evolution is that, if this theory be true, then the Bible is not. Darwin’s expressions about religion are very general but since in his works we do not find and utterance contrary and hostile to religion we have a right to rank him among those who are convinced of a harmony between the realms of the religious and natural worlds. Alex Braun, a botonist has well said, “Some say that the descent theory of man denies creation and it is true. The Darwinians themselves cause this opinion by contrasting creation and development as irreconcilable ideas. But this contrast does not really exist. for as soon as we look upon creation as a divine effect, not merely be-