The Dickinson press., 1907-06-01
ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT
Class 81 Seven Graduate from Dickinson High
School. large Audience Listens to Com
.ln%encenent Program. Alumni
d. Banquet Follows.

own .country:'s history she cited
the. .martyred Lincoln, who served
us in the darkest hour of our ma
tional life, and to John G.. Paten;
who gave his life to teaching the
Christian faith to the canibals of
the New Hebrides. Asking, are
heroes all dead and the age solely
one of .commercialism and self.
seeking, the speaker affirmed not,
letting what is n%ow'being done for
the negro, how men and women
give their lives to work among
|lepers; how women serve human
ity upon the battlefield; how
President Roosevelt is striving to
purify civic life. Self-denial in
the home, relief of the sick and
starving, cheering the aged, COM
forting the grief burdened, puri-
flying our laws, cleaning our cities;
carrying the story of Christ to
those who know him not, may
make the obscure life heroic.
The story of "Sakakawea," the
bird woman, was told by Emma
Christensen and she told it in a
manner to thoroughly interest her
hearers in the brave Shoshone
Indian woman. Brought by the
Sioux from her western home at
an early age a captive, she strove
to remember the way hoping some
time to return. Her French hus-
band purchased her and brought
her to live with the Mandan tribe
near the present site of Bismarck.
1t was then she offered herself to
Lewis and Clarke as a guide
through the then unknown coun-
try west. Toiling through the
painless wilds, carrying her little
babe, it was her judgment that
avoided danger and her courage
that surmounted, all obstacles.
She refused to leave the expedi-
ton when she reached her own
tribe and pushed on with the ex-
plorers until the Pacific was
reached. Without her the expe-
dition could have resulted in
naught but failure and the vast
northwest region would not have
become a part of the United
States.
Mildred Henderson Smith in
choosing as her subject "North
Dakota-Her Possibilities" was
able to. pay great tribute to our
own great state, At the close of
the Mexican war and long after
considered an arid waste not fit
for the habitation of man, the
hunting ground of the Indian and
the home of bison, deer and an
telope, 1T later attracted hunters
and trappers; and soldiers came
who pushed the red men farther
and farther west. As the value
of the nutritious grasses became
known, vast herds of cattle were
brought to fatten on North Da-
kota prairies. Small ranchers sue
ceeded the large ranchers and
now they in turn are succeeded by
the farmers. In agricultural pro-
ducts North Dakota stands second
to none, her wheat crop in 1906
being larger than any other state,
while her deposits of coal and
clay beds offer unbounded oppor-
tunities: The people Of the state
are industrious and progressive
and the state public school system
ranks with the. best anywhere.
This is supplemented by normal
schools, agricultural college and
university. The state is making a
record educationally as we'll as in
material prosperity, and her edu-
Gators are wanted in other states
and sent out or special missions
by the government, while. their
papers and addresses are quoted
far and wide.
"Child Labor" as discussed by
Ethel Marion Dodd aroused the.
pity and should enlist the efforts
of all in behalf of the 100000
and more children shackled in a
servitude worse than that which
was ended by the great Civil war.
In mines, mills, factories and
shops, in damp, dark, musty Gel
lars which they share with vermin,
little pale-faced children toll four
teen hours out of the twenty-four.
Stunted in body from poor air,
inadequate food and insufficient
clothing, what wonder their health
is destroyed and their spirit
broken ? What wonder that,
driven early to wage earning, they