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

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. .ZF -A-? cf, A--,L .ff A - -1-.Y .,-,R -.-f:f- ' - purposely avoid, were they not presented to us in this arresting manner. We can only mean Donald Hankey's Student in Arms. In the book Carry On, Coningsby Dawson makes known to the world, as he has the opportunity to observe, the hopes, the fears, the desires, and even the thoughts of simple, unaffected men, fighting to save the ideals of mankind. We are heralding a new era in literature. We are learning to appre- ciate through meditation and inspiration world emotions never before fully realized. The struggle of men for that which is so highly spiritual, as well as their right to pursue happiness, is beginning to play a mighty part in the drama of literary change. We are in a new Renaissance. Literature is not only purified, but made so splendidly true that it appeals to the most sluggish thinker. We never tire of honoring our heroes who battle for us-in drama, in poetry, in song, and in story. Rupert Brooke will live forever in the tale of his splendid dual heroism :-soldier, poet, almost demigod. As his dust will make the hallowed land where he sleeps forever England, his song places him in the choir of earth's immortals. Our own Alan Seegar, too, has kept his rendezvous with death, but the voice of his singing has not been stilled, cannot be stilled. Literature, heretofore, has spoken in terms of tribes, of nations, yes, of mighty nations. Now world ideas must be absorbed and digested and clothed in the language intelligible to the man in the street. Is it not wonderful that the clearest voice of all who strive to educate the world through literature comes from our own land? His sentences have become our aphorisms, our proverbs. All other political utterances beside his sound shallow and trivial. His state papers pass into our consciousness and pervade the soul of our American thinking. Woodrow Wilson has made literature the very breath of our American life. -Mary Dougherty. The Price of Liberty 'S N answer to the groans and cries of suffering Cubans, President McKinley issued a call for a hundred and twenty- five thousand men. In less than forty-eight hours, a quar- ter of a million young men rushed to arms. This was the most magnificent illustration of unselfish patriotism the world ever witnessed. Then, men went forth, not to defend their own hearthstones, but to deliver a million suffering Cubans from the enslaving rule of the Spaniard. Once again the head of our great nation has sounded the tocsin. He calls every loyal citizen, whether man, woman, boy or girl, to join hands with our brothers and sisters across the sea, with all who are fighting for the cause of human liberty. This is a louder and a far more insistent call than that which President McKinley uttered and which 11 'QT53 X 55 7

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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

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-, '-'Pia e-Cif A v Wi ' -r'G'J '4 '- -Y -- W -qg-?,':3 Tf- x.3,- r eins -w . was so loyally responded to. Then, only the destinies of a million people were involvedg now the welfare and the liberties of the human race are at stake. A national crisis! No, a world crisis calling on every lover of liberty of whatever race or color to throw fortune, life, all,-in behalf of the cause of human freedom that in the present crisis is threatened with annihilation. Sacrifice and suffering have ever been the price the race has paid for liberty. But history reveals the indisputable fact that, although the sacrifice has been severe, and the sorrows and suffering may have been heavy, the resultant reward has not only far surpassed the sacrifice, but has more than fully repaid any resultant sorrow or suffering. What though the sufferings of Valley Forge were severe, and though the patriots of the little continental army wore rags and left bloody foot- prints on the frozen snowy all this suffering, this sacrifice resulted in the birth of a great nation. And ever since this nation has been a haven for the oppressed, a day-star for the downtroddeng it is to-day a pattern for liberty-loving peoples throughout the world. What though sixty-one saw Bull Run and sixty-three Antietam, what though three hundred thousand men were sacrificed on Southern battlefields, the greatest democracy was kept intact, and the shackles of bondage struck from four million slaves. Once again the cause of human liberty is threatened. The beast of militarism already has crushed under its ruthless heel the self-respecting, liberty-loving, little principalities. Now it threatens to place this yoke of autocracy on the whole civilized world. Shall we not then rally as did our fathers to fight the battle of freedom, to preserve the cause of human liberty, to make the world safe for the generations to come? The supreme hour is at hand. The nation is called upon to rise as one man to the support of our president. Whatever the sacrifice demanded, of time, of wealth, of life, all should be freely paid that those to come may possess liberty. Where is the soul so narrow and the heart so selfish, that in this greatest of human crises it continues to turn a deaf ear to the cries of suffering humanity? Our fathers counted no sacrifice too great for the cause of freedom. If they gladly gave their blood that we might be free, shall we be so selfish at this hour as to withhold ours? If they joyfully sacrificed their home and goods, shall we do less? In this momentous hour of human history personal feelings and self-seek- ings should be buried. We fight for a cause that affects the future, not of one nation, but the world. If we are to continue to hold our place among nations, every man, woman and child should stand ready to answer our leader's call. Far better that a few of us die in this glorious cause, than that the nation itself should cease to be a protector of free- dom and a defender of liberty, a pattern to a waiting world. -Howell Evans. 12