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

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re-educate ourselves, that we may keep pace with these men. They have climbed a mountain we can never climb. They have experienced things we shall never experience. This country must level up to their ideals. These most precious men of ours have a new vision. They will appraise us not in dollars but in terms of souls, in terms of chivalry toward their needs. But we speak of the soldiers who come back whole, what of the disabled ones? It is the high privilege of a grateful country to nurse the stricken soldier back to health, to love him and to teach him. They sorrowfully witness the stalwart going back to life, and they ponder deeply. The war has crippled their bodies. 'Tis we alone who can cripple their souls. We must make them proud and independent. The greatest wrong is to offer him money he does not earn. It would be an insult to the very cause for which he gave his arm, his leg or perhaps his eyes. We owe him a chance for life, for a life of action and usefulness and content. We owe him an honored place in our national life. And we means you and I. If you are an employer, are you going to consider him? Are you going to be patient with him? He fought your light. Now help him Fight his own battles. Teach the new idea of the crippleg the man without legs will walk, the man without arms will reach, the man without eyes will see. Adopt as your slogan, There are no cripplesf' We can remember the deep emotion we felt, they felt, when they joined the colors, when they sailed from their native land. And now, they are coming back, coming home! Behold them! Our heroes! Vic- torious, proud, happy! Are we going to disappoint them? We cannot do that. Let us kindle our patriotism into an undying flame. Let us make good our promise to the returning soldier. -Helen A. Wood. The Man With a Vision ROM the time history began here and there has sprung nfl up through the ages some one man with a great vision. I N Perhaps it has been a great conqueror who has wrapped himself in a dream of glory and sought to build an empire on the clash of arms. Or again it may have been some great philosopher, some colossal intellect, who strove to build his empire through th-e might of mind. And yet again it may have been the gentle dreamer, a follower of the Christ, perhaps without the unearthly purity of Sir Galahad, but one who sought to teach the Great Love and to build the empire of universal brotherhood. And so they have come and so they have gone, each in his own way, the conqueror with his sword, the philosopher with his mind, and the dreamer with his dreams. But through some twist of fate, some unseen 16

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eighth president of these United States and 'Father of a League of Nations. ' -Milton Yawitz. The Returning Soldier iii HEN a nation undertakes war, the people are called upon to endure, as individuals and as nations, an interruption in industry and in daily habits. They are called upon to 1. sacrifice money, food and men. Hard as these sacrifices i ' are, out of them is born a high patriotism. Consolation grows out of the hope that conditions requiring sacrifice are but temporary. But when peace comes, the emotional spur which enables men to bear losses dies down. The bitter part is over. But what of the returning soldier? We must not, now, allow our patriotism to die down, our material and spirit- ual aid to cease. Far greater and more vital than any other duty is the making of this land a fit home for heroes. First of all, we must consider the state of mind of the returning soldiers. They have fought for an ideal entirely new to war-not for their own country, but for the ideals of humanity. They have fought side by side with their English, French and Italian brothers. They are no longer citizens of any clearly bounded country, they are citizens of the world. They will think in world terms, they will live on world heights, and we must think with them and stand beside them. Our business, our politics, our social life must be organized to lit the wider views of our crusaders. The government ideally plans to take care of these problems. But is not the government you? No interest can be placed above the interests of those who fought our battles, those who carried the torch of light and hope to the stricken world. You are suggesting many ways of caring for them, such as opening up swamp lands. What a cheap offer! It costs you nothing! If they want swamp lands, well and good. But we want these men to take up what they are now fitted for. Are you an employer? You released this worker in high chivalry, you sent him over there with Libertyls beacon. Now in spirit of this same chivalry, take him back. If you cannot pay the value of his enhanced power, share with him your bounty-and it will be re- turned to you in spiritual joy. Make good your mighty promises. He will work as he has fought. Now, it is your duty to fight as you have worked. Fight the spirit of greed, of gain, make your democracy demo- cratic, your chivalry chivalrous. Much has been said about re-educating the soldier. It will be necessary in many cases where the soldiers find new industries and new ideas developed. But, take a closer look. It is we, who must s vfii 'H 15

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J.-,X-y: ' -R ' Y ' -j L -if ,EA 5-:' ' ' f .25-ji law of nature, it has been the conqueror who has filled the pages of history. Made history, yes! but where are their empires now? Where through the ages can you find one great conqueror who lived to enjoy the fruits of his victory, or who upon his deathbed could say, I die in peace, my empire is still mine? There's not one to be found. Yet time has produced man after man, who, in spite of all reason, in spite of the wrecks and ruins of previous empires, has thought, I can conquer, where all others have failed. The mighty Caesar with his Roman legions, with all the pomp and power of Rome behind him, sought to possess the world, to force it to his will. He came close, closer than any conqueror has ever come, yet, after all, he was only mortal, and it's not ordained by God that a mortal is to rule this world. Next of the great conquerors came the beast Attila with his hunnish hordes. Out of the barbaric East he swept through Europe, wiping out all civilization before him and leaving a path of ruin and desolation. He called himself The Scourge of God Q what god he served he only knew. Where is his god now and where is his empire? Then came the great Napoleon. With a master mind, a terrible ambition, the wealth of France at his command, he, too, set his foot on the conqueror's path and all the world trembled, all Europe bowed to his sword. He followed this path to the end, an end of sorrow, lone- liness, and despair. - And now again the world has been swept with blood and strife. Millions have died, whole nations have suffered. Beautiful cities lie in ruins. Once blooming fields now lie burnt, scarred, and blasted. Armies have swept back and forth, great victories have been wong but for every victory won there has appeared a new field of little wooden crosses, for death can't lose when a great conqueror comes. Wreck and ruin, famine and pestilence have come that one mad, ruthless sover- eign might realize his dream of conquest. Down in his callous, scheming mind he conceived this vision, a vision of a throne from which he might look to the four corners of the earth and call it his own. Back of him he had a nation drunk with the victories of previous wars, steeped in the teachings that might was right, and that they were the supermen. With such a people behind him, he built his hopes one by one, waiting, waiting for the dayf' It was he and his kind that combined the savagery and barbarism of the Huns with all the arts of modern science depraved to uses repugnant to civilized people. Attila called himself The Scourge of God 3 Wil- helm said, I am chosen of God, woe to him who denies my mission. But amidst all this chaos there has slowly stood forth a kindly, earnest-hearted man, the real man chosen of God, the man with a mis- sion, the man with the true vision. He is only a schoolmaster, so some 17