West Paris High School - Nautilus Yearbook (West Paris, ME)

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W LAM ESSAY CCDNTE5 T Station ULAM in Lewiston, Maine sponsored an essay contst the first of October. The subject was Uwhy Every American Citi- zen Should Vote in the Coming Election,H and was open to the public. As a class assigment everyone in English III and IV wrote an essay. Mr. Reid then submitted a group of them to the contest. The judges decisions' placed two U. P. H. S. students as winners. Lilja Mustonen, a SSHIOP, won first and Francis Slat- tery, a Junior, second prize, The winners' were invited to the broadcasting station to listen to HJunior Town Meeting of the A1r.H They were interviewed over the air and awarded 'their prizes: the first being Carl Sandburg's famous snovel, UAbraham Lincoln--The -Prairie Years.u Second prize was a large American flag. The prize winning essay follows: nNineteen.hundred forty-eight, being election year, everyone should be interested in politics. World conditions being in such a turmoil, people should carefully choose the man who plays such an important part in foreign affairs. Yet, do you find this in- terest among the majority? A person today will do anything to save the effort of going to the polls. ' Nvhen our, forefathers formed a democratic government they wanted it to be a servant of the peopleg carrying out the peopldi desires. Today the American citizen is the servant of the gov- ernment. Americans are continually meeting the demands of the government. UAnd everyone just sits back and lets this go on. nLet's get interested in what's going on right before our eyes. Ulf everyone would vote in the coming elections with an un- bias mind some of the evils of the political world might be cor- rected. nFor this reason, I believe every citizen should vote in the coming elect1on.M ,

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Government offers more Uhelpn for agriculture, housing, edu- cation, health, and other things. Everybody is being encouraged to ask for something. Every government aid means more taxes and more regulations. Each new experiment fastens onto the people 'a new load, and the load remains. , When a flyer risks stormy weather over the oceans, he ap- proaches what airmen call Wpoint no return.J Beyond that he can- not return to safety. He must take his chance on getting through. How near is U. S. A. to Point No Return? Frances Cole '50 DOES HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF? In the course of the past few years I have heard a number of times that this nation is fallingg that in another score orrnore years we will no longer be the chief country of the world, .that we will lose our prestige among the other powers and we will cease to be the npromised landn so many foreigners seek. This may be true, but I have to see proof. Let us analyze the situation as it stands. In order to do this we must get at the base of things, so we will go back to the time of Ceasar. When Rome was in her prime, she was a vast Empire, covering nearly one-sixth of the known world and boasting control of prac- tically all of the trade in Europe. She fought courageously, de- fending her boundaries and taking land for the good of her people Then the inevitable happened. Home became an arrogant, cruel and aggressive nation. She fought foolishly, losing men without bat- ting an eye, until finally the populace of Home was nothing but a group of weak-kneed politicians and women. Morals became as noth- ing. That stable unit in any nation, known as the family, began to fall apart. In short, Rome fell. Next consider Spain. To relate the collapse of this nation would be to retell the previous paragraph. Spain lost good men through wars, families broke up, moral standards dropped, she be- came over-aggressive, and was beaten. At one time England was a great power, queen of the seas she was. Hardly a nation dared venture against her. Yet she was beaten twice by a small republic, barely a country. Now we come to our problem. Are we on a slow decline? As far as moral standards go, it is true they have dropped, but not below a reasonable depth. The important thing is this, Have we become a cold, cruel, ag,ressive nation? Have we fought foolishly and lost thousands of strong, young men? If feeding half the world is cruel, then we are heartless. If protecting smaller na- tions from oppressive imperialists is fighting foolishly, then we must be close to idiocy. Therefore, I believe we are still the good old U. S. A. and will remain so for years to come. Francis Slattery '50

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