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

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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

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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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,Arg - f f ,L .?, 1, T, 527 Y V - 14, -.- f,,.,-- people say. Yes, but a schoolmaster of the world, a builder of republics, the foe of autocracy, and let us hope, a father of democracies. He dreamed no dreams of conquest, he craved no blood-bought empire. He had the faith in human nature, in the love of his fellow- men. Patiently he bore their sluts, with a smile he acknowledged his mistakesg and when all else failed, and only until then, did he resort to war. But once in it, he has never faltered, but has led straight through to a swift and victorious conclusion. Through it all, however, he has always looked forward to peace, an unseliish peace, a just peace. Not such a peace as the Kaiser described when he said, God is with us. If the enemy does not want peace, then we must bring peace to the world by battering in with iron fist and shining sword, the doors of those who will not have peace. This was a German peaceg but Wilson dreamed of a true peace, a lasting peace. In his famous fourteen points he said, A general association of na- tions must be formed, under specific covenants, for the purpose of afford- ing mutual guaranties of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike. To-day, with Wilson's far-seeing vision to guide them, the nations are binding up their wounds and looking forward into the dawning of a new day, a day in which reason, truth, freedom, and justice shall rule. -Elwood D. Adams. A Message to Americans With a Foreword VER Sagamore Hill, on january the seventh, appeared a great fleet of air ships. They circled and dipped. Occa- - ' il sionally, they came close to the earth, dropping wreaths f . 1 of laurel. ,Q A- These fearless bird men were announcing to the sky, to the air, to the earth, to the sea, that Theodore Roosevelt had completed the great adventure-Life, and had gone on to the greater adventure--Death. Some three months ago, following the death of a heroic son in battle, he sang his swan song, called by him the Great Adventure. We cull from this prose poem his last great message to Americans. Let us for a moment consider it together: Only those are Ht to live who do not fear to dieg and none are Ht to die who have shrunk from the joy of life and the duty of life. Both life and death are parts of the same Great Adventure. Never yet was worthy adventure worthily carried through by the man who put his personal safety Hrst. Never yet was a country worth living in unless its sons and daughters were of that stern stuff which bade 18