Siskiyou Union High School - White and Gold Yearbook (Weed, CA)

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1 1 , TM: -K -.1 .-ii. - ' ' - , - wb'm'i55 .9W 31 ' 1'-2: - 1- A , , - , ,pJf:'.f ','.,.fr:7., . - , . .. . V l --1-'1lyQifQ:5Qpg,.,f'.:.'f5 - ' .rfr .I .,: r..-. .vL, ' rl , ,fl - 'T5'T :1': , , , A - 'ST - t ggf4f:-ve.-1--.tvs-'A-' 1.1. ' fjif.. . . - ...- nf V ' ,ff....,,,,WV .,,, , - ' , Q5imnv....--fv'5'l I ' , , ' ' ' , . 7 'ff ' --. . ,, MAXINE SMITH, Weed High School. with a greedy mind and very cunning ways, and allow themselves to follow him until he becomes their leader and they are his slaves. Then he leads them through a series of Wars and violence, to keep up their interest and to make them think that other nations are always ready to invade their country. Thus, by incit- ing them against other nations, and even great classes of people as a whole, he figuratively speaking, seizes a great deal of power behind their backs. lt is the purpose of the American government to prevent such tragedies in our own land, and thus far we have managed to preserve our freedom to a large extent. But what of the other nations who are being destroyed by larger nations? Should we not help them? Should not a man, when he sees a small child being whipped by a bully, rush to the child's aid? Yes, but among nations, there are too many children, too many men, too many lives altogether involved. One hears constantly of the glory of those who died upon the battlefields. It is glorious to die for one's country, perhaps, and yet we cannot help thinking that their blood did little good for the general state of affairs in the World today. True, these men helped to put down an over-ambitious emperor, but only to make room for an obscure painter with still more egotistical schemes. Whoever said, some twenty years ago, that we were fighting a War for peace couldn't have had a grain of sense in such matters. War and peace are two extremes, and one can never be gained through the use of the other. Thus America, in world affairs, seems to be in rather a sad plight. She must ? it ,J ' 2-L. if :rf J be ,, r if Aj? L, , . w in '37 QS 20 LITERARY

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' gli. wmld ' First Prize Essay It is a natural instinct in men to wish to progress. Always, man has been going torwardg but it is hard to go forward in rapid strides when one is hampered by a tyrannical ruler. F or this reason, the United States, which is a nation of free peo- ple, boasts constantly of the ability of its citizens to progress: to invent, to build, and to perfect. Today on every side we hear the cries of Advance Americans must ad- vance. We must build new machines, invent new time-saving devices. Never be satisfied with things as they are. And these things are being done to a Very great extent: yet, we ask, how can we go forward in civilization when all about us there are war, bloodshed and oppression? The desire to kill should be the first thing to disappear as civilization grows. And yet, it appears as it it were to be the last. ln the days of prehistoric man, men killed one another because they thought it a necessity: they were afraid of being killed themselves. They found they must kill what they could and run from what they could not. When people began to discover new things for their own comfort and use, this instinct, instead of disappearing, took on greater aspects. People joined together in battle, thinking for various reasons that it was their duty to defeat the enemy, and invented new things with which to kill others. Still, only a comparatively small number of men, and women, too, could be killed at one time. So they invented more and more powerful and deadly weapons. As new kinds of forces and machines were made for our comfort, new war machines were also invented and improved Cor made worse, which is it?J. Now thousands of lives can be destroyed within a few minutes' time, by the use of bombs and gas. Thus we can see that as civilization progresses further and further in one di- rection, it backslides equally tar in the other. tFor the invention of new ways to kill people can hardly be called civilizationj And yet, much ot the wrongs that are now being done on such a large scale are not carried on through the will of the people of the world in general. lt is only because people are foolish enough to believe all the promises made them by one gl e- LJ S vs -I V' LITERARY

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either isolate herself and shut out the cries and pleas of the oppressed nations or go out and help them. The former would ruin her trade and commerce: the latter would lead her into a War. And what of constant armament? We hear it said that America must arm herself because the other nations are arming themselves, and if America should become weaker than one or two of the others, she would immediately be at- tacked. Thus every nation is madly arming itself to the very teeth simply because every nation is afraid of every other nation. If only they could all meet together peaceably, and come to the conclusion that nothing is gained by war, and-but that were impossible. It would therefore seem that America must resort to more armament to keep up with the other nations. The general belief now is that all nations must be equally strong, to prevent war. In my opinion, all nations should be equally weak. for when there are no arms there cannot be War, and when a nation pos- sesses an unlimited supply of arms, she is apt to use it. Thus with all the nations arming themselves against one another, it seems at times that a war is inevitable -there is bound to be a breaking point soon. And a breaking point there will be, if human beings cannot be reasonable and see that as long as there are wars, there can never be any peace, or happi- ness, or true progress, or even a true America. RICHARD COLVlG'40, , 1 tm., ' I Weed High School. f1 f13' - A ' T nel!! .A , vvll -A 1 , 1 I tug- 3-leaf, J if -- N N'1tii7' 3, it 'ggilflg i - -t ,: iff . -f S f if ' .P 2' ag ' , li- 5 t g f' , , rm . in 5, 8 T Q 1 31 i is-Q 4: . Lui -i 5 a gf!! ,JN 1 ,Lg ,if , ' fl 'm x ' . fm 1 ' fl u x -V54 ' --A w .fi if'- ' by kj , N- .I cj' gif. xg ,, ' T' Lv-1-' 1 'fu'-.a E- Q' V I. E' l H MT ' 3' sil t t- N , A I 1 3 L' w ,pjw fp ,f'l, i,1j f i.. 4' ,Li ' t ' cf i ii N ga' ar .IQ SF, ,ff:ff-flf.' 1, lvl ., f - i N Lg'-5 ' . ' V' 1 e A4 . :et QQQLQ BARNEY GLENN, , Q W A g, F, et.: M 'lf' A Mt. Shasta High School. fi 7 is as V -,i 'Jn ' hr' Y SM V ,::l ' jr J 'J LITERARY