Soldan High School - Scrip Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

Page 11 text:

nations talk, the less likely they are to fight. President Wilson, ex-Presi- dent Taft, Viscount Grey, as well as both the great national political parties, endorsed this platform. In the discussions of the league, this great national question came up: Would the United States have the will and power, once the league was formed, to oppose aggression so firmly as to make it unprofitable? The answer came sooner than expected. Is not the United States at the present moment at war with a power that has pursued to its own sinister ends the policy of aggression? In the future, no power will resort to aggression if, by so doing, it will raise against itself invincible odds. When President Wilson addressed the league at Washington, he shattered forever the tradition of American isolation. He offered not only his services to assist Europe in forming such a leagueg he was empowered by the people to offer the united strength of the nation to back its authority. Here was, in fact, an American re-statement of the old motto of the Renaissance, What concerns mankind is inevitably our affair. A new principle now informs world politics. For the first time, a great power is prepared to stake its own peace, not merely to guarantee its own interest or to further the aim of its allies: it is determined to make an end forever to the possibility of profitable aggression. It aims to make the world safe for democracy. As Mr. Bonar Law, British Chancellor of the Exchequer, says, We are preparing for peace, for a peace which will bring back to us in safety those who are fighting our battles, and a peace which will mean that those who will not come back have not laid down their lives in vain. in fl' xx 1 nbygaf at Yff ' .Q if il-,QL N Q. -Harold S. Cook. Literature and the Wat HERE can be no greater change than in our latter day atti- tude toward history. History has, in the past, immortalized the great warriors, the great orators, the great statesmen, and the great teachers. Other things than deeds, however, make our modern history. Literature is, indeed, no act, but it inspires deeds, and the memory of these deeds literature as history makes permanent. Heroes die, acts cease, but literature makes remembrance more real than their own reality. War is the background of history. Whatever arouses the emotions, inspires creation, and nothing so appeals to the emotion as war. Nowhere is this more manifest than in its present effect upon literature. Every war has shown this essential truth. The fall of Troy immortalized Homer. The Roman occupancy of Britain infused some culture into the crude Anglo-Saxon writings. The Norman conquest produced Chaucer, and the Revolution in England under Oliver Cromwell gave us Milton. 9

Page 10 text:

The League to Enforce Peace present day hate and greed so says Mr Britlmg ' But let us read more closely There was a time when ' 4'A' people looked upon war as the business of a considerable part of the population. No one bothered if children starved and mothers' hearts were broken. It has been computed that, in the 3,412 years of recorded history, there have been only two hundred and twenty-seven years of peace. It should be the sacred duty of this gen- eration to guarantee to the future that peace, hereafter, should be the normal condition of civilized nations. g algj lp p AR is the killing off of the young, the massacre of boys! It is the spending of all the live material of the future upon What is our attitude toward this world war? Is the stake worth the lives, the suffering, the privation? At the end, do we expect merely to resume the exact status quo ante? But let us consider. If, at the end of this war, a new kind of peace is not made, a peace that shall be generous, genuine, guaranteed, war will follow war until such a peace is made. To attain this end many plans have been put forth, but among them all the most practical appears to be that advanced by the League to Enforce Peace. On june 17, 1915, in Independence Hall such a league was organized. It purposed to adopt a program of action to follow the present war. This plan looked towards the prevention of future wars. Four proposals were adopted: According to Articles I and II of the platform, two international bodies would be set up: a judicial Court to hear and decide those ques- tions based on accepted rules of international lawg second, a Council of Conciliation to dispose, by compromise, of all other questions which, unless settled, would be likely to lead to other wars. According to Article III, if any nation refuses to submit its claim to one of these tribunals, the other nations of the league will at once bring diplomatic and economic pressure to bear on the offender. If still that nation persists, the other nations will iight in defense of the nation attacked. Article IV proposes to have conferences from time to time between the Powers. These conferences will formulate and codify rules of inter- national law. These rules shall then govern in the decisions of the Judicial Tribunal. It is no part of the purpose of the league to separate the present combatants. It hopes to establish and maintain peace at the close of the war. It proposes to abolish secret diplomacy, that evil which has caused more wars than any other single exciting force. The league purposes to bring about delay through public discussions. The longer 8

Page 12 text:

In our own country, Harriet Beecher Stowe lighted the torch that blazed in our Civil War. And while this family feud raged, our inspired Julia Ward Howe chanted her Battle Hymn of the Republic. In turn, were these inspired writers created through their own acts of creation. Thus the influence of literature cannot be estimated either in its effect or its reaction. The literature of the early wars was purely a history of events, or a lauding of military prowess. That of the Revo- lutionary War exploited England's injustice to the colonies. The French Revolution produced many epics of the Reign of Terror. And the literature of the Civil War was based upon slavery and its influence: and when the brilliant South could not explain slavery-it remained voiceless. This present war is singular-in its origin, in its manifestation, and in its development along every line. It is of greater magnitude than any war the world has known. Living under epic skies, we are just beginning to reap its results in the field of literature. Involving, as it does, so many different nations, its fruition along every line will be the mightiestnever realized. We find awakened to these new interests the vivacious French, the deep-thinking English, the dreamy Italian, and the ever versatile American, each to the mighty expression of the litera- ture each is making. But while we are living literature, we cannot always perfectly shape literature. In the transplanting from home to the trenches, to the hospitals, or to other war service, there has developed in many men unsuspected, latent talent. The pressure of the mighty events gives them not only new visions, but the power to convey these visions to an awakened world. A new constellation has appeared in the firmament of literature. Out of intellectual obscurity these stars of genius have burst forth. Mental development, requiring years, is now accomplished in a few months. The outlook upon life is vastly broadened and the stimulated emotion gives rise to a clarity of thinking and a splendor of utterance never before realized. War develops variety in literature. Many are the poems-pathetic, solemn, humorous, merry, frivolous, beautiful, yes, and tragic. Imagine a boy-the youngest of his family, protected, petted, and spoiled. He likes to read and has read much. But for athletics and manly sports he cares nothing. This boy goes out to fight. From his experiences he produces a world book. It is humanistic, in that its language and its allusions show its author to be cultivated. It is humanitarian, also, in its love and delight in mankind. He creates a sketch-out of his narrow yet deep experience-that bears a marked resemblance to that great Barrie drama, Der Tag. This war has impelled this utterance. Per- haps Fate, under ordinary circumstances, would have kept this voice mute. But War gives to the world a book that changes literature, one that gives us the simple yet solemn truths, which we ourselves might 10