The Red Cloud chief., 1910-06-09
For Value Received We Promise TO Pay

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Though we have looked forward to
this event for several years, though
we have thought of it with hope and
eagerness; there is sense of regret
we had not expected. Brightness and
festivity flow uppermost; yet, just rs
n faint minor strain underlies the
song, think especially to the gradu-
ates, tinge of vague, indefinite sad.
ness clusters about Commencement
and what it signifies.
1t signifies the close of the first real
epoch of our lives--our school-life.
The ties are being severed tonight
which have bound us together as fell
low.students for twelve long years. 1t
is the beginning of responsibilities
when each and everyone of us is ex-
pected to take his own place in the
world on his own footing, and fight
his own battles. In a word, Com
mencemcnt is the end of the old life,
and the beginning of the new.
AS we drop the curtain upon the
past, as we pause at the threshold of
the future which lies before us with
all its opportunities and possibilities
and challenges us to do our best, sure
ly there could be no time more appro-
pirate to express gratitude and appre-
citation for what has been done for MS
in the past, We are not forgetful of
the fact that you, the people of Red
Cloud, have made this night possible
for us. liy your time, money, and eff
fort you have purchased for us the
privileges of an education, thereby
giving us the means to earn our own
livlihood, equipping us to cope more
successfully with life's problems.
And so it is, We are entering our
new and greater tasks with a heavy
debt before us. and the question is
Are We going to pay back? Are we
going to make good2"
But the value of ab dup pation can
not be measured in dollars and cents.
Can the cultural and intellectual de-
velopment gained during the four
years in High School be determined?
One Of the chief aims of school life is
to develop good,Ihonest, broad char
acter. For how much cash would you
sell your character? Can it be pur.
chased by .money? BY no means.
Some debts are lowered and cheapened
by payment in cash and this is one of
them. Since you have in a measure
made us what we are, let us rather
give part of our lives thereby
giving in proportion to value received
AS we have received an education, let
us assist in giving others one. Let us
help them, as much as we are able by
sympathy, by encouragement, by ma
terial assistance. TO make the most of
their opportunities. Instead of the
question "What doth 1t profit meP,"
let it be, What can do for my fellow
man'" and this think is the greatest,
the most far reaching life of ala life
Ol SerNlce,
1t seems to me in this twentieth
century rush and scramble for the al.
mighty dollar, for fame or whatever
the aim may be, We have set the pace
too fast, and in such an existence we
have failed to appreciate and pass on
what has been given to us, we have
failed to pay for value received. And
for this life of service, what will be
the reward? 1t will be the abstraction
OF knowing that those who believed
in us have not been disappointed, that
their confidence has not been mis-.
placed. The satisfaction of knowing
that we have paid fully with interest
doubled and trebled. We shall be able
to face the world with clean record
knowing that we are fully worthy OF
its conf iencc and trust. We shall
have employed all our faculties to the
very best purpose, we shall have lived