Randolph High School - Vergisz Mein Nicht Yearbook (Randolph, OH)

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VERGISZ-MEIN-NICHT In continental countries generally the best years of all able-bodied men 'are demanded for military duty. The Germans must-be seven years inthe army and give three of them to active service. The French nine years in the army and five years in active service. This robbery of a man's life. together with the expectation that war must come sooner or later, will con- tinue to be a powerful stimulus. and the blood tax which is required to support these millions of men during the unproductive years is steadily increasing. We find. there- fore, the fear of war, the thumb- screw of taxation given a frequent turn. and a dense population be- coming more crowded. all uniting their influence to swell European immigration for years to come. As a result the stream flows toward America. where there are no bur- dening taxes, and where steady work and high wages seem assured. The mighty magnet is the attract- iveness of America, real or pic- tured. America is the magic word throughout all Europe. No hamlet so remote that the name has not penetrated its peasant obscurity. America means two things-money and liberty-the two things which the European peasant lacks and wants. Necessity at home pushes, opportunity in America pulls. Commissioner Robert Watchorn, of the port of New York, packs the explanation into an epigram. American wages are the honey pot that brings the alien flies. He says further, if a steel mill were to start in a Mississippi swamp paying wages of 32.00 a day, the news would hum through foreign lands in a month and that swamp would become a bee hive of humanity and industry in an incredibly short space of time.. Dr. A. F. Schaiiier says with equal pith, that the great cause of immigration is, after all, that the immigrants propose to better themselves in this country. They come here not because they love us, orbecause we love them. They come here because they can, do themselves good, not because they can do us good. That is natural and true. and furnishes excellent reason why we must do them good, in order that they may not do us evil. To make their good ours, and our good theirs, is both Christian and safe. . 1 Q. Immigration rises and falls with ourprosperity. A financial crisis here operates at once as a check, but numbers increase again with the revival, of business and the brightening blaze of our riches will attract increased immigration. Equal rights also and free schools are operative. We expend for edu- cation nearly six times as much ner capita as Europe. Parents know that their children will have a better chance here, and come for their sake. Their ambition is to go to higher seats of learning, but in Europe the cost, as well as their social status, are prohibitive. They hear in the old country of America and its democratic institutions, and turning their faces to the West they hope to realize their ambition, and to the glory of America be it said that its colleges and universi- ties have thrown open their doors to thousands of men from foreign countries who are zealously im- proving the opportunities offered them. A young foreigner on be- ing asked why he came to this country, replied, I wanted more education. Every fall tens of thousands of foreign speaking young men attend night schools to learn the English language, and the instruction is for the most part free. Is there any wonder that they admire our public schools and praise America's institutions? These facts are becoming more widely known in other lands.

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' VERGISZ-MEIN-NIGHT tional figures are college graduates. True, in some respects, but many of our most prominent and success- ful Amen and women engaged in various pursuits never had the ad- vantages of a college education. I do not wish to leave the impression that a college course is not needed. It is, and everyone should go who has the time and financial means to do so. The high school curriculums are now so arranged that students are taught many of the subjects which formerly could be obtained only in the colleges. .Agriculture, for in- stance, prior to the last few years, was taught as a modern,.science, but limited exclusively to the State Agricultural Colleges. It now ap- pears in addition as a regular sub- ject in both 'our high and grade schools. For a school situated as Randolph Township High School, in a rich farming community, it certainly is one of the strongest subjects which can be applied to a high school training. Wishing the-future of Randolph High as successful as the past, I remain Yours very truly, G. E. O'BRIEN. If I .lf THE BROKEN WALL fMildred Gilbert, '17J , There is a popular faith that God takes care of children, fools, and the United States. We deem our- selves a chosen people and incline to the belief that the Almighty stands pledged to our prosperity. America, as the land of promise to all the world, is the destination of the most remarkable migration of 1 which We have any record. Like a mighty stream, it finds its source in a hundred rivulets. The huts of the mountain and the hovels of the plain are the springs which feed. The over-population of the coun- tries of the Old World is the force which moves. It is a steady flow, the like of which the world has never seen, and the immigrating masses are animated by but one idea. that of escaping from evils which have made existence intol- erable and of reaching the free air of countries where conditions are better shaped to the masses of the people. In this country every man is an American who has American ideals, the American spirit. Ameri- can conceptions of life, and Ameri- can habits. A man is foreign not because he was born in a foreign country, but because he clings to foreign customs and ideas. The causes of immigration are variously stated, but compressed into three words they are-attrac- tion, expulsion, solicitation. The attraction comes from the United States, the expulsion from the Old World, and the solicitation from the great transportation lines and their emissaries. Sometimes one cause is more potent, sometimes another. Of late, racial and religious persecu- tion has been active in Europe, and America gets the results. In Rus- sia there is an outbreak hideous and savage against the Jew, and an impulse is started whose end is not reached until it strikes Rivington street, in New York. Among the new immigrants there are individ- uals who are moved to come to this democracy by as lofty motives as ever moved the Puritan Fathers. They seek a better country, where the struggle for subsistence is not as hard and the fruits of one's toil are more secure. Cause and effect are manifest.

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1 VERGISZ-MEIN-NICHT . - Every foreigner who comes to us and wins success. as most of them do under favorable conditions. be- comes an advertiser of our land. He strongly attracts his relatives and friends. and very likely sends them money for their passage. The testimony before the indus- trial commissioner showed that from 40 to 4572: of the immigrants have their passage prepaid by friends or relatives in this country. and from 20 to 25fZw more buy their tickets abroad with money sent from the United States. There are great multitudes in Europe who look westward with longing eyes. but who do not come only because they cannot gather the passage and keep soul and bodv together. The reduction of rates even a few dollars makes America possible to added thousands. The three-fold influences. there- fore, which regulate immigration all co-operate to increase it and to indicate that for years to come this great gulf stream of human- ity. with here and there an eddv. will flow on with a rising flood. May the principles of the American nation ever appeal to the heart of humanity, and may we mold these foreign-speaking peoples who find a home on this continent into a common American nation. Chris- tian, united, free and great. A .MII IMAGINE- Mr. Campbell without a rasor. Paul Evans in Bernard Norris' clothes. Treva Waymire without a smil- ing countenance. Emerson Brumbaugh and Mil- dred Gilbert coming home from Brookville-but after they were home. What MildredALee Kinsey does when summers CSomers5 come. Amber Baker saying A B in Ge- ometry instead of E B fEbyj. Miss Kalter with nothing to do. Frederick Berry at school on time. Dewey Woolery reciting with his Chemistry book closed. Mary Gilbert awake in fourth period on Monday. Arta Boyer flunking. Lossen Bard flirting. Prof.- What three words are used most among High School stu- dents ? Hibbard- I don't know. Prof.- Correct ' Mr. Traber- What is meant bv Tlenrv Clay? Alva-- Whv. I guess Henry Clay is the mud which sticks to a Ford. .A Freshman wrote an essay on cats. The following information was supplied in the chapter on dif- ferent breeds: Cats that's made for little boys and girls to maul A and tease is called Maltease cats. Some cats is known bv their queer purrs-these are called Pursian cats. Cats with very bad tempers is called Angor- rie cats. Cats with deep feelin's is called Feline cats. Now, Dewey, said the teacher. suppose you wanted to build a S1000 house and had only 5700, what would you do? Dewey-- S'pose I'd have to marry a girl worth S300. 52 i