Westport High School - Herald Yearbook (Kansas City, MO)

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I6 THE WESTPORT HIGH SCHOOL HERALD. -and herein lies the importance of education. But this training must not be hap-hazard. It is most important that it have regard to the institution under which the people live. The education which would do for children of a monarchy would be entirely inadequate for the inhabitants of a republic or democracy. In the former ease the ignorance of one genera- tion might not influence the character of the government, but who can measure the results were such to be the case in a republic. W'ash- ington, our great po-litical -prophet-gigantic in his foresight as in everything-in his Fare- well Address, insisted that the more potent public opinion is ini any country, the greater the need of its being intelligent, and he might have added particularly upon political sub- jects. Therefore, to make the people see the need of the hour, to make them understand that the legal government must be given 'power to con- trol the corporate interests, popular education must come. The powers of the government must increase as the powers of forces and in- stitutions increaseg the government which was the real power a century ago would be inef- ficient in this age of monstrous business cor- porations. But the citizen must be educated in the problems of the day, and in his p-ower to control them. He must be made to see and realize the power of the corporations. He must be educated to know what power the government has and what it needs. But most of all he must be forced to understand his duty as a voter on whom the destinies of the nation rest and must be forced to exert his in- fluence through his suffrage in favor of right, justice, and good government, so that this nation may not meet with the fate of the Fish- eaters, but may increase and prosper. When this is done we will need fear no longer the extra-legal power, but our government will be truly of the people, by the people, and for the people. SIDNEY ALTsCHULER, '1l. THREE PINES. Three pines stood on the wooded plain Compartiorzless amid the glade, And thru their boughs the winds long sweeping train, A constant miirmettroas rustling made. Alone they stood in SIHI and shade, Erttwining close their eoronals High o'er the foresfs nether inter braid Of light and gloom at irzterztals. lfVith noise of many waterfalls, Wiiid-sittept their boughs moved Cease- lesslyg- They heard, and dreaming of their mrozuztatin- walls, Wept odorous gums in memory, EDWARD WY Moses, 'll. The natt political fel ways been acteristics. ture that l in bettering society cha tive state, changes in llope mths human brf equality, l' been the in the wot lelut the about by day. On -those t and lreligi of mankii slow gro sions, in prodigal, ly, of ma of attem noble hea cause trii Christ revolutio has surp sults. It ' twenty c because love wh whose g manity. in tht arisen v tionized all. Dir an hone quell th

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mple and 1 society. ver there are men. owerless, vhen not strength and re- tlly weak dividuals s was the followed : in such ht of its al weak- n. ns. They then has y when, at of the tion and re weak s of her ered- the subjects time of it grew st Rome mr. And former a huge power. alization ain the ie land, l-, well- Hg them 'as con- now en- lt never United rfection at pres- of out- lOn con- course, THE. WESTPORT HIC-I-I SCHOOL HERALD. I5 can we maintain our position as the greatest of the modern nations? Une of the chief causes of our present prosperity is the great financial institutions which have grown up in this country since the time of the Civil VVar. They have raised us to our present commercial status and they are still reaching out to work greater wonders. In this wonderful progress is to be found the germs that will either make us the greatest nation the world has ever seen or dragfus down to the dust. Experience has often shown that when a nation is most-con- fident it is many times in gravest danger. Al- ready through the influence of these gigantic companies many former individual rights and privileges are being destroyed. Are we in the same position as the Fish-eaters-are we fall- ing under the control of a corrupt financial monarchy ? I do not cry against a centralized govern- ment, but I do warn against a corrupt, extra- legal rule. Carlyle has said: A governing power must exist, your other powers are si- mulacra, this power is 'itf What is it in America? It is stated as a polit.cal axiom that all human societies are governed, directly or indirectly, by the strongest constituent ele- ment or elements in any given political entity. If the ordinary legal government is stronger than any element in the body politic, then the legal government and the real government are identical. But this condition is almost ex- ceptional in the United States. At times in the national government and frequently in states and cities, there have been two govern- ments: the legal government weak, badly or- ganized, corrupt, and the real government, consisting of men seeking office for personal ends, backed by public utility corporations, railroad companies, banks, trusts, and monop- 'olies. In city governments we have the ex- amples of Tammany in New York and Schmidt and Ruef in San Franicsco. In states New York and Pennsylvania, stand, not ex- ceptional, but as types. It is a universal law that all society is strongly ruled-it cannot exist under a weak government. If the legal government is inef- fective, a strong, extra-legal power will gain the upper hand and usually in such cases the people are cruelly and harshly ruled. The choice of the people lies between a strong, just government and a strong, cruel govern- ment. And they must be educated to make their choice. The struggle in the United States today, one manifestation of which is insurgency, is to re- move the go-vernment from the real seat of power to the legal one. The legal seat of government is Washington, but the real center is Wall Street. To deny this is useless-the United States today is in the hands of the money power and we are just wakening to our condition. The country is governed by a strongly centralized power wh-ose throne is VVall Street, and there it will remain till the general government is given enough power to attract the true government to Washington. The present well organized systems of rail- roads, banks, and trusts form a powerful na- tional authority. An equally strong govern- ment, organized by men of equal power, with equal efficiency, must exist before we may hope to separate the national administration from the corporate interests. We talk of driv- ing the corporations out of politics-this is im- possible. What we must do is to give the legal government enough power to again con- trol the financial interests. lfVe have been looking-we arehlooking for a way to accomplish this, for a remedy for the prevailing evils. Is it revolution, or anarchy, or socialism, or nihilism? No, none of these, but one much more simple and effective, with more lasting results than all. It is popular ed- ucation. The masses must be educated- to the point where they may not only know which is the best course to follow, but to the point where they are willing to put self aside and work for the good of the nation. The successful operation of a highly or- ganized government intimately depends upon the character of the citizens. What forms this character but the instruction they receive

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nvernment as and in- Jhich was l be inef- lness cor- educated iis power o see and ons. He ower the But most stand his es of the ert his in- of right, that this the Fish- '. When anger the it will be d for the :R, '11, THE WESTPORT HIGH SCHOOL HERALD I7 The Force That Changes The natural state of man in his social and political relationship to his fellow-man, has al- ways been revolutionary in its essential char- acteristics. It is this tendency of human na- ture that has led to the great progress made in bettering the conditions of humanity, for, as society changed and advanced from its primi- tive state, so nations began to feel the need of changes in their laws, religions, and learning. Hope tithe hope that springs eternal in the human breast -hope for freedom, hope for equality, hope for the uplift of mankind, has been the fundamental motive for every step in the world's advancement. , But these changes have not been brought about by the struggles of an hour or of a clay. On the contrary, all great revolutions -those that have contributed most to civil and religious liberty and to the enlightenment of mankind-have been of obscure origin and slow growth. Providence, upon all occa- sions, in order to accomplish its designs, is prodigal, of courage, virtues, sacrifices-linab ly, of man: and it is only after a vast number of attempts apparently lost, after a host of noble hearts have fallen into despair-that the cause triumphs. Christ was a revolutionist-the greatest revolutionist of all. His was a revolution that has surpassed all others in its marvelous re- sults. It was a revolution that has endured for twenty centuries and will endure for all time, because its doctrines taught men love-that love which 'has moulded people into nations whose greatest aim is the welfare of all hu- manity. In the teaching of philosophy, men have arisen whose keen observations have revolu- tionized the world, bringing enlightenment to all. Diogenes, with his lantern, seeking for an honest man, was groping for a foot-hold to quell the powers of vice and superstitution. He is typical of the multitude of great minds, that in the centuries since have tried to lead men nearer the absolute truth. Then, there have been orators who have striven to raise the tide of patriotism among their fellow-men. Demosthenes, by his ora- tory, learned upon the shores of the Mediter- ranean, swayed the Greeks to higher and nobler ideals. Cicero, in his famous oration against Catiline, stirred up the waning patriot- ism of the Romans. Nations at the times of their crises have always produced such men. Some of the greatest revolutions of the world have been waged for religious freedom. With the posting of Martin Luther's theses in 1517, there began that great religious up- heaval, known as the Reformation. It was a struggle for the emancipation of the human mind, and for the suppression of the tyran- nical powers which were controlling it. It was a revolution that still sways the world, one that was the forerunner of the world- wide movement for religious freedom, typi- fied in the American Constitution. just as men have sacrificed their lives in order to create newer and better ideas in re- ligion and- philosophy, so they have willingly given up life warring for the cause of liberty and equality. T For love of country a handful of Greeks hurled back the vast hordes of Xerxes at Thermopylae. Hannibal crossed the Alps and overthrew the Romans to preserve the auton- omy of Carthage. The Cantons of Switzerland struggled for years for love of home. For the seven centuries, since the Barons forced Magna Charta from King john at Runnymede, the English Constitution has been growing and broadening under the iniquence of civil and religious liberty. But free govern- ment in England did not come without fierce conflicts on many fields. It is only through