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

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'wffsjv' -iv A :fig I , 'V fi- - , TQ.: .3 . LJ.,-,-- A League ofNations Y, OUR years of bitter struggle are ended. Human blood has been shed until the fields of battle teem with streams red. All knowledge and science has been bent toward one goal, destruction. Millions of the defenders of liberty have U paid the supreme price. Now the world at last has decided that the foundations of a lasting peace must be laid, that some other means of settling international controversies must be adopted. The greatest question that confronts the members of the peace conference is how to secure an honorable, lasting peace, and yet provide for just settlement of all controversies. They are considering a league of nations to prevent aggression, encroachment, and offense, a league to enforce arbitration, a league to assure justice to all. This league is to consist of a union of all the self-determined and ethnically constituted nations. It is to have a supreme court of arbitration. The weapons of international boycott or military power are to be used against an offending nation. The eyes of the whole world are fixed upon this peace conferenceg the eyes of the weak, the oppressed, the wronged, all look forward to the formation of this league of nations which is to insure freedom, peace, and justice to a stricken world. All the nations are deeply interested. Americans are vitally con- cerned. Heretofore, America has kept herself isolated from European affairs. The formation of such a league may mean death to the Mon- roe Doctrine. Besides, America has never before fought a war outside this continent. Our membership in this league may mean the lives of our youths to enforce decisions of the international court. There 'are leading Americans who are strongly in favor of a league of nations, these are led by our beloved president. There are opponents, however, and among them is a senator from this sovereign state of Missouri. This man offers certain academic objections. He does not want America to take a part in European affairs. He does not want Ameri- can youths to give their lives to settle European disputes. He fears men are not perfect enough to carry into practice their signed cove- nants. These are his objections. Now let us give some of these points the acid test. Let us consider these objections from two points of view, namely, the selfish point of view and the generous or the humani- tarian point of view. From the selfish point of view: Are we concerned by the outcome of the European disputes? I wonder whether it would have mattered to us if Germany had defeated England, Italy, and France? I wonder 13

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'. .. T -5 ff: AW- 1--T LY -L -f f .:L-,fa-f ri - :- his materials. He will be a better father, for he will do more for the souls of his children. He will be a better citizen for he will hoard and make usable to all the resources of his state. The doors of pros- perity may be open to such a man, but it will not tempt him to turn this prosperity to selfish ends. It is not what you save, but what you do with your treasure: This is the new light on the word thrift. Did you ever think it your duty to be thrifty? It is one of the strongest calls of duty. It is a duty not only to those that may be dependent upon you, but also to your country and to your higher self. You need hardly be told the methods of thrift. The beasts and the insects lay aside for a period of want. They are taught by instinct. But, with us, it must be a matter of thought and education. It does not mean that we are to be miserly or that we must forego the pleasures of life. As a young American Lieutenant, just returned from overseas service, said: We are learning that many things deemed indispensable before this war can now be readily dispensed with. We are not going back to where we were before the war. We are going to have a new world, a better managed world, a rescued world of beauty, contrib- uted to and shared by all. We are a nation of spendthrifts. Out of every thousand people in this country, so our statistician tells us, only one hundred and eight have grasped the wisdom of thrift. It is said: To save is to know wisdom, to know wisdom is to live well, to live well is to enjoy life. Our great method of thrift is our national conservation. Bills on conservation already passed, show that we are moving in the right direction. But the idea of conserving our human and spiritual forces is yet undeveloped. There are, indeed, obstacles to thrift, the love of luxury, the im- pulse to buy whatever pleases the fancy, and the habit of gambling and intemperance in the precious things of life. But thrift is really com- paratively easy and may soon become a habit. War is the greatest spendthrift. It is then necessary to call for all that thrift implies to offset this great waste. Surely, there can be no greater foundation for democracy than thrift -thrift means to save and to share. It means a square deal from man to man. Self-abnegation is one of the assets of the war and the complement of thrift. There is a new world about us. The rich woman who scrubbed and served at the canteensg the boy who lived gloriously in the trenchg the woman who at grey dawn giving up all comforts, cared for the French re-patriatesg these know the meaning of self-abnegation and of thrift. War, then, has given new dignity to this old Benjamin Franklin word. Never again can it drop' to its old materialistic mean- ing, this new, inspiring, word Thrift -Gertrude Kehl. 12

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-'--.-.4--1 -1 T -'fi ee iff 2- f - ,fi how it would have felt, had the then victorious Germany turned her engines of war in our direction ?-So you see, we are concerned. Now let us take the other point of view, the generous or humani- tarian: The opponents of a league of nations say that we are not con- cerned, we are not hurt, we should not be moved by the actions of states of Europe toward one another. Do you remember how your blood boiled when you read of Germany's invasion of Belgium? Do you remember how you ground your teeth when you learned of the German atrocities in invaded France? Do you recall your feelings when you heard of the German destruction of Louvain and Rheims? Do you remember the hot rage aroused when you heard of the sinking of the Lusitania?-Now, after recalling your feelings, it is impossible for any American to say that we should not abandon our old policy of isolation. Our spiritual outposts have already been moved forward uncounted miles. Let us now take up the second objection: American youths should have to give up their lives to settle European disputes. Certainly most of these disputes shall be settled by arbitration. But if there is any offending nation, then the offender shall face a boycott by all the other nations of the league. A boycott failing-then it's war. When it comes to war, our boys are willing to pay the price! We feel that you cannot hurt or wrong an Englishman, you cannot wrong a Frenchman or an Italian without hurting us. We love our country but we love mankind also. We have learned that there exists some supreme power that connects the lives and the destinies of one person or nation with all the rest. This feeling was fundamental to our entrance into the war. It is because of this new humanitarianism, it is because of this great love for our fellowmen that our boys answered the calls of devas- tated Belgium, exhausted France and gallant Britain. But, alas! in spite of our response to these calls, in spite of the fact that our youths are willing to defend justice at any price, we are being misrepre- sented in Congress. We young Americans demand a league of nations. We uphold this league, for even if there be any wars after the formation of this league, these shall not be wars of aggression, but wars to en- force justice and to punish an offender, who, in offending one, offends all. We now have answered the second objection of the senator. The Senator's third objection is specious and impossible to reply to, for it ends just where the arguments of our great representative at Versailles begins. Our worthy Senator says that some of the nations are not perfect enough to carry in practice their signed covenants, hence a league of nations is impossible. Our President says that since the nations are not perfect a league of nations is necessary. Now it is your duty to support this league, that the children of the peaceful generations to come may read- Woodrow Wilson, the twenty- 14