St Johns College - Ozanam Yearbook (Toledo, OH)

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THE OZANAM 39 better next time. If you have been deceived and hurt by one whom you have looked upon as a true friend, if you have been slandered and abused. do not dwell upon it, do not brood over it: don't harbor it in your thoughts. Forget itl Do not make yourself unhappy by keeping in your mind memories of past failures and dead hopes. When gloom assails you count the blessings that God has bestowed upon you. We must be tolerant. It is necessary for others, and all the more for ourselves. For- get the little troubles others may cause you: cherish no resentment for the inconsiderate words that may have been said about you: excuse the mistakes and awkward blunders of which you are the victim: in a word smile at everything: show a pleasant face on all occasions. A weary heart goes all the day, A sad tires in a mile. E. B. Are Wg Not so very long ago two Awake? brothers began working on a so-called impossibility. Un- doubtedly they knew that if perfected it would revolutionize transportation. They may have even foreseen its effects on methods of warfare. But had they known the extreme deadliness of this latter effect, they might have desisted from their efforts. This, though, is hardly plausible, for they were more in- terested in the success of their invention than in its drastic results. So the Wright brothers brought out their air-plane. A public gave this invention its keen in- terest, but withheld its faith. This lack of faith did not discourage the inventors, how- ever, who well knew that public opinion had ever received great achievement with mis- giving. Aviation has since gone forward in leaps and bounds, until at present we find it com- paratively perfect. Proofs of this are pat- ent: our government transports mail by plane: regular passenger service has been established in many parts of the world: a round-the- world flight has been accomplished, under the most trying conditions, by our government. Aviation is stable: the airplane has come to stay: its achievement is fact, its place in modern civilization undisputed. And yet our officials at Washington fail to see its import- ance. France, Great'Britain, Japan, and even Red Russia, with all its misgovernment -each of these has carefully and amply pro- vided for an efficient air force. All realize that air force alone will protect the nation of the future. Not one of the nations just mentioned is as able Enancially to maintain an air fleet as the United States. Armies have become second- ary, and millions are wasted annually on navies that are obsolete before they are launched. In respect for human intelligence I hesitate to think that our officials at Wash- ington can not realize that a superior air force could destroy our whole fleet in a few hours. Are they unaware that any of the larger European powers could send ships across the sea equipped with air-planes, an- chor them within a few hundred miles of our shores, dot our skies with their planes and raze or snuff our principal cities out of exist- ence, their air-guarded base-ships standing by, ready with reenforcement. Consider a relay of these ships keeping up a constant bombardment of our principal cities, from coast to coast and from Canada to the Gulf. That this should take place may seem, at present, impossible to some, but it is not only not impossible, it is quite possible, and more probable than our smug pacifist concedes. Great Britain now has air-plane carriers as regular naval equipment. Our navy boasts but a few of these. America was caught unprepared in the late war. Gigantic tardy preparations were made after hostilities had gotten under way. Such tardy preparations will be difficult in the next conflict. The nation that is caught unprepared in the next war will be lost.

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38 THE 'OZANAM Latin or Greek. What good will it do you? they ask. It won't make you a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer, or any- thing else for that matter. Such people should be informed that a person with in- tellectuality, with skill in conversation which results from a knowledge of his language when coupled with intellectuality, with char- acter and morality. with culture and refine- ment, will make an infinitely better doctor, engineer, baker, lawyer, or Candlestick maker. L. W. K. Cheerfulness The quality Of being cheerful exists in every normal person. That is to say that each and every one of us can whistle to the tune of lt Ain't Gonna Rain No More even though a cloudburst is turning our streets into rivers. In our every day intercourse we have, no doubt, run across many different kinds of peopleg some normal, others peculiar. There is Mr. Crabb, fault-finder, growler, pessimist -call him what you will: and we loathe him, we detest him. Have we not the right to avoid such a person when we see his unwel- come countenance peering from around a cor- ner, or spy him darting from a nearby place of business? As an opposite example, take Mr. Pleas- ant, a cheerful sort of person whose agreeable character makes him a likeable chap. Every time we come across this Mr. Pleasant he seems to be smiling, with an inexhaustible supply of wit and humor. This may explain why we are willing to include the Pleasants among our intimates while we rigorously ex- clude the Crabbs. This brings up the question: How do others receive us? We prefer our friends to be cheerful, but do we make the effort to be amiable ourselves? But are we, ourselves, Crabbs or Pleasants? We are the directors of our own lives, for the class to which others assign us depends largely on how we act. Let us learn then, to discount the miseries and discomforts of our lives and at the same time to appreciate the goodness, gladness and beauty. A certain doctor, a specialist in nervous diseases, is said to have found a new remedy for the blues. His prescription may be summarized thus: Keep the corners of your mouth turned up: then you can't feel 'Blue'. However, a more simple direction for this is: Smile: keep on smiling, don't stop smiling. It may sound ridiculous, but it isn't. Just try it. Moreover our cheerfulness and amiability is a help to others as well as ourselves. A cheerful person creates, as it were, a whole- some moral atmosphere in his vicinity which exerts an invigorating influence on those around him. We'll admit that it requires self-control and self-denial to maintain a cheery exterior under all circumstances--in sickness, in pain, in sorrow, in poverty, in unpleasant sur- misunderstanding, and .in roundings, but real, sincere cheerfulness im- plies something more than natural tempera- mentg it means self-denial It is no secret that we are and self-control. all refreshed by the presence of cheerful persons: so why not make earnest efforts to be helpful to others by our own cheerfulness and amiability. We can all acquire greater cheerfulness by assuming the right mental attitude toward our environment and circumstance, by look- ing habitually at the bright side of things, by training ourselves persistently to see the good and the pleasant things in our common, daily lifes Some persons seem to have eyes only for the disagreeable things. Overlooking their blessings, they brood over their trials and misfortunes. A good suggestion in regard to any past trouble or set-back is this: Let it go! For- get itl If you had an unfortunate expe- rience yesterday, forget it. If you have failed in one or more of your studies, forget, and do

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40 THE OZANAM The first blow will be so brutally effective it will render the country practically helpless. The only efficacious means of combatting an aerial attack is by air-plane. Surface guns are inefficient. A nation's war strength is no longer measured by man-power, but by air-power. Recently in Washington Brigadier Gen- eral Mitchell strongly advocated that our Air Force be improved and increased. He was at once deprived of his rank and shorn of his powers as head of the Air Service. Higher officials claimed he was too out- spoken. Startling example this, of petty jealousies existing between our Army, Navy and Air Service. Our jeopardy lies in just such disunion. It is important that this state of affairs be rectified at once. Unity in our departments of defense is paramount. Amer- ica, if we would remain supreme among the nations-we must look to the air. J. T. R. When we speak of the moral effect of the drama we must take for granted that man is naturally imi- tative. It follows that he will imitate what he sees in the drama, or at least in that part of it which appeals to him and lingers in his mind. If this is so then the movie, since it is nothing but silent drama, has had no small share in shaping the morals of the present generation, and has been in a large measure responsible for the 'crimes of this generation. The Moral Effect of The Drama Unquestionably we must also attribute a part of this evil to the fact that children are no longer kept close to their mother's apron stringsg and that, in consequence, the child is to a great extent left to its own resources in the matter of amusements. Naturally the young person does not turn to the Art Mu- seum, the Zoo, or the Aquarium, for all these soon lose their noveltyg but, craving for thrills and excitement, the child ordinarily turns to fields anew, -that is, to the movie. But 'why the movie? Primarily because this source of either innocent enjoyment or moral delinquency is found in every neigh- borhood. Now in the desire for the movie we hnd the first incentive to evil. The child must have money for the show. If the par- ents are strict they will often refuse the child the fee of admission: yet, if the child is very intent on, or wrapped up in, the show it will not hesitate to obtain the money by some means or other. Then there is the bad example of the mod- ern movie, which is especially dangerous be- cause children are more apt to imitate than are their elders. This is no pessimistic view-point: we must take things as we see them, and draw our own conclusions. I do not say that every movie is bad for the child nor that children should be kept away from them, but in this matter a modicum of discretion should be used. So much for the child. When a man goes to a play, movie, vaude- ville, or other, he may have one of many pur- poses in his mind. He may simply be after amusement, as is the general case. Possibly he has read the book from which the play is produced, and desires to see how the thing would look when enacted on the stage. Or, if he be a man who cares little for the wel- fare of his soul, he may be on his way to the theatre for the reason that the play showing at that place has been derided as immoral and unfit to be seen by a decent man. Be that as it may, he is on his way to the show. Arrived there, he takes his place. The curtain risesg the play has begun. After a time there comes a part of the play wherein the villain is in a tight corner. He is sur- rounded and has either to kill or be killed. The audience hopes for him to be killed, yet at the same time in their subconscious selves they are considering ways of escape, if they were in the villain's place. The trait is al- most universal. How many times have we not heard people of the most varying temper-