Plymouth High School - Mayflower Yearbook (Plymouth, IN)

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ethics. Internal commotion is as certain therein as the underlying: principle itself. Popular uprisings and dissensions become frequent, discontent prevails, and dissolution is hailed with delight and enthusiasm. Idealists are continually evolving abstract theories and fanatics are attempt- ing to put these theories into practice. They seek to revolutionize society. They want to better social conditions but their theories presuppose an ideal state of mankind, unattainable because society is grounded upon the natural tendencies of men. Prejudiced in their views, they do not weigh cause and effect in the balance but unceremoniously strike at the fundamental principles of our social system. Preying upon the jealous nature of discontented human- ity they always enlist a following. In the past the ranks of social revolutionists have swelled as the rivers from continuous rains. The rebellions growing out of their fanaticism have in the past brought patrician to face peasantry in the horrors of war. Many nations count battlefields of unnumbered dead and rivers running crimson to the sea because of efforts to lead the discontented against established social law. Is it not probable that we are on the threshold of such a discontent today? There is the same discontent and the same causes for discontent that have marshalled armies in the past and have led to carnage and to death. How solve the problem? Shall we implore an equality of wealth? Then everyone would want to be an employer and none would want to be workers. The wheels of industry would cease, the earth would refuse to give forth its fruits and everything would retrograde. The solution of the problem is not equality; it is no radical reformation. Legislation can not now accomplish what is most desired. Something must prepare the way for law can play only a secondary part in contemporary society. The evil is in the hearts of men and must be educated out of them. Humanity must be impressed with a feeling of duty; human actions must be governed by that sacred teaching evoking us to do unto others as we would be done by. What the world needs is moral education. There should be a different feeling among classes. The man who has a cart must see that he owes his friendship to the man who has no cart. He that has power must befriend the weak. Those fortunate by birth, by accident or otherwise must help to avert the im- pending dangers of those less fortunate. It is not that we need a radical social reform but proper regulation of the system that we have. It is unison of hearts first and unison in social life becomes a natural consequent. Let us spread such teachings that the rich may come to feel that the great end of power is not the gratification of selfish aims but the uplifting of those below them. Missionaries at home and abroad are today taking steps to show that true greatness does not lie in being power- ful except that power is rightly used. In many of our cities the activity of anarchists is awakening a sense of duty; and that worse foe to civilization —wealth united, wealth combined to hold our poor eternally in subjection. Every assemblage of anarchists, every strike, every trust or combine is an open call to duty. Peace and harmony to establish and maintain is our great task. It behooves all to join hand in hand around a common altar, trusting in him who doeth all things best. With but one purpose and that for the good of humanity, let our foremost thought so shine upon posterity as the stars of the firmament shine o’erhead—“Peace upon earth, good will among men.” Fellow classmates, we have come to the end of the journey, so far as the Plymouth High School can take us in preparation for life’s duties. Our asso- 31

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'HalefttrUtry THE INEQUALITY OF WEALTH ROLAND B. MKTS KICK WE live in a world of inequalities. To live is to exist under an inequality of conditions. Domineered by the nature of all matter, this law is universal. Consider the various magnitudes of the constellations, the gentle breezes as compared with sweeping hurricanes, the productive soil of the Soudan as compared with the bogus sands of the Sahara-all these are mani- festations of the supreme idea portraying in nature the semblance of God and man. Equality is unnatural and nature will not tolerate it. Fundamentally, there is a wide disparity in mental freedom. The strong and the feeble minded exist everywhere. Human possibilities are not the same. Human destinies are at variance. Some are to evolve truth to guide the weak as the heavens evolve stars to guide the sailor on unknown seas. There exist by nature those to lead and those to be led. The faculties of one mind are not to the same degree developed as are those of every other. One man is a finan- cier. He knows just how to invest his money that it may return twofold or more. Another does not possess the abilty to maintain possession of the prin- cipal, much less to invest it profitably. How then are we to maintain an equality in wealth? With the corresponding faculties of different minds differ- ently developed, with man’s nature unchanged, equality is impossible. To sustain a material equalization, all must necessarily be spendthrifts or econom- ical men; nature must undergo radical changes; the laws of God must be remodeled; the power that shaped and is still shaping the world, that is forming and ever reforming, evolving and ever re-evolving the uni- verse, must acknowledge a superiority in mortal power and mortal ingenuity. On'the contrary, our competitive system is one grounded upon nature and governed by natural laws. It is a common strife for the same object. As every gravitating particle upon the earth gravitates toward the very same point in the center of the globe, so do men strive together tinder our chosen system. We call it competition. Now competition is strife and strife is the outgrowth of the immutable natures of men. It appears in the savage state as a sanguinary warfare but in civilized society during times of peace as competition. We do not hope for its abolition but for its humanitiza- tion. Life is a struggle and we love to live on account of it. As great the inexpediency to battle against the forces which regulate society and govern the relations of men as to oppose the laws of the human body or to contend against the forces governing the universe. Blind and narrow minded theorists seek to counteract the present con- formity but they cannot succeed. The creatures of natural law live on and oil and opposing theories totter and fade away. Cummunism grew but withered in a day. Russian nihilism and American anarchy are dying embers of social- istic practices withering before nature and established justice. These institu- tions fall short of their intended purpose. They cannot establish and perpet- uate a united brotherhood. Jealousy grows and takes the place of a better 30

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ciations have been pleasant from the beginning and our interest in each other will be manifest through life as we note the achievements that will be ours— achievements that come to few in the great struggle. We go out into the world with varied purposes. Some will continue their studies in higher institutions of learning, some will take up professional or bus- iness responsibilities at once. We can not foretell what the future has in store for us but our class is a fair average and it can be taken as assured that some of us will be married and living happily ever afterward just as soon as our parents are willing to see us through. No doubt some of us will be doctors, some lawyers, some editors, some preachers, some farmers, some beautiful wives of handsome men,—and, per haps, some will lx tramps; but even if the worst be our station, we have in U8 the spirit to be the “Big Push” with the element where our lot is cast. We expect to come back in twenty years from now to visit and to renew our affection for the present Junior Class, most of whom will still be going through High School. Seriously, we want our teachers and the school officials to know that we appreciate what they have done for us. We can never repay them for the great interest they have taken in us. In our cases we are confident that they have done a rattling good job, con- sidering the crude material they have had to work upon. Whether or not we all become distinguished in after life. I am certain that I am seconded by all my classmates when I say that those who have guided us have sought to in- spire in us an ambition to take a place among the leaders in the affairs of life. Though we fall by the wayside, wc shall ever be conscious of the fact that tin- years of our lives spent in the Plymouth High School were guarded aright and that the hearts and souls of our instructors were -centered in efforts to prepare us for the hardest battles and for the storms that rage fiercest. 32