University of San Francisco - USF Don Yearbook (San Francisco, CA)

Page 19 text:

The Eagle of the East Edward I. Kit .patrick, 21. YESTERDAY it was the Teuton; today it is the Jap. Yesterday it was Pan-Germanism; today it is the yellow peril of Nippon. Some years ago an eagle screamed in Europe and shattered the tranquility of two hemispheres. That eagle died. It had broken the peace. Its wings are crushed; its carcass has been stripped of its splendid plumage; its bones lie bleaching in the sun. That was yesterday. Today,—another eagle, powerful and proud, preens its feathered beauty.—this time in the East. Its talons are sharp and extended for the fight. It is restless; it is greedy; it is strong. Recently it lias occupied a new seat, despite tin protest of one of its strongest fellows. Will it too scream.— and break the peace.—and die? By some people, the context of the preceding paragraph will be branded as the hysterical outburst of a trouble-seeking, trouble-fomenting Jingoist. Their doctrine, they will tell you, is ‘‘moderation in all things”. Were it rigidly observed by all who proclaim adhesion to it, the world wouid have taken a long step forward. Temperance is a wonderful thing. Had it been always practiced our American liberties would today be untrammeled by the restrictions of certain constitutional amendments. But to carry temperance to excess is t transform virtue into vice. To deafen oneself to the timely warning of a friend, who senses the presence of a danger; to still the voice of judgment because it cries aloud for wariness and caution; to deny tin logic of one's reason because its conclusions may stimulate suspicion;— these are the acts of fools. Caesar turned unheeding ear to the warning of the soothsayer who bade him “Beware the Ides of March! That

Page 18 text:

The Poppies Hidden in the orchard path a meadow lark is trilling. Trilling to the morning light that breaks across the hill; The alder boughs are bending where a silver brook is rilling. And lily pads are showing where the pool is lying still. Spring, 0 lovely wanderer! comes with blossoms blowing. Pink azaleas dancing gay to melodies untold. Dainty bluebells bending bright where poppy petals glowing. (’over all the meadow lanes with chalices of gold. Holden are the poppy cups that hold the dews of morning. (tablets, spun of fairy gold, are strewn upon the lawn, Burnished gold at evening with sunset rims adorning. And softly golden, frescoed by the fingers of the dawn. Tell me, are they golden too, old pal, where you are sleeping.’ Has Flanders decked the fields that such a bitter space yor knew; As glorious as the day we gave you. silent, to its keeping Beside the hidden river-bank where golden poppies grew? Beside the golden bank where oft we strayed together dreaming. or ever dreamed those velvet lids should droop above your sleep; Your mantle e’er be woven of their tender fabric gleaming. As golden as that faith of yours—the faith they did not keep. Vincent W. Hallman, A. R. ’10. |

Page 20 text:

18 TUB USA T AS message was distasteful to the Roman because it demanded caution, Caesar was too great, too powerful to stoop to caution. And Caesar—died. In the fake security which the knowledge of his greatness built about him he fell—an easy victim to the schemes of lesser men. As with men—so with nations! What, we wonder—will be the decision of mankind when it looks back on this living. breathing present to determine the wisdom of our general attitude toward Japan today? Will its judgment be. that this great nation in its pride of place, at the pinnacle of its power was guilty of the self-same folly that bared the breast of Caesar to the knives of his assassins? Shall il in the light of future analysis appear to ail the world that the American people, blinded by an egotistic conception of their greatness, rushed headlong and unseeing into the very midst of dangers that were plainly visible to the normal eye of reason? Shall it some day be told how the American eagle was lulled into a fanciful and groundless security by the sweet music of its own laudations, how it was rendered apathetic and indifferent to danger in the consciousness of its power, on the adulations of its inferiors,—it in tin midst of its lazy improvident dreamings was victimized by the danger it was too proud to prepare against.—the practiced—sharpened and murderous talons of an eagle that flew from tin East ? And what cause—what reason is there at the present time for the issuance of such a warning to America? Trouble in the nature of armed conflict, between this nation and Japan has ever been a topic of at least academic interest. Volumes have been written en it by the more eminent strategists of both countries. In the Pacific states however, and particularly in California, the question has been far more than simply one of academic interest. Due to the inactment of such measures as the Alien-land law for the purpose of affording to American citizens their just proportion of protection. feeling has sometimes run high both in Japan and along our own Pacific slope. Today that feeling has been