Arizona republican., 1920-02-18

Do the school boys and girls of America know that the very biggest
 men and women in the country are interested in what they write in Uncle
 Sam's essay contest, February 20, on What are the Benefits of an Enlist
 ment in the United States Army" We'll they are-thousands of them. And what is more, they are writing to Uncle Sam to tell him about their in
 terest and to let him know that they
 are anxious to help the contest in any
 wa ythey can.
 Of course, Uncle Sam-which, in
 this case, is the war department-is
 only too glad to get these offers of
 help and he is writing back to these fine men and women that he can use them.
 How? O, in a dozen and one ways and all of 'em important.
 For instance, he has written to some that he would like for them to act as judges on the boards which will pick the best essays in the various recruit ing districts of the country. This will require hundreds and hundreds of men and women, for just think of the work 1t will take to read an essay from every child in the United States. More than 20,000,o00 school children and 20,000,000 essays. Wouldn't, it really has been awful if Uncle sam could not have found hundreds and hundreds of people-bright, willing men and women-to help judge such
 pife Of compositions.
 Think of 1t this way; suppose it takes one hundred sheets of ordinary writing paper, such as you have in your scratch tablet, to make pile one inch high-only one inch. Now how many inches highland feet-would pile be in which there were 20,000, GOO compositions?
 Yes, you could figure it out for your self. But just to save you that trouble, here's the answer:
 Twenty million compositions, each one taking up one sheet of paper. would make a stock 100000 inches tall Or. in other words, 16,666 feet-or more than three miles higher. That means stock of essays more than 30 timesas as tall the Washington monument.
 By the way, if you are one of the national winners, and go to Washing ton next May to get your medal from Secretary of War Baker, you will have a chance to see just how tall the Washington monument is. And when you see how tall a monument only $50 feet high is. you will have some idea of what pile of essays the school children of America built on Feb ruary 20
 But of course Uncle Sam isn't able to use all the men and women who are willing to help in this way-not all Of them. So he has written to many that he will be happy if they will just boost the essay contest in their own cities and towns and do all they can to get merchants, and bankers and other citizens to give still more prizes to the children who write the best es- says. You already kpow that thou sands and thousands of these prizes have been offered. And you can just bet that before February 20 there will 1 be thousands and thousands more
 A lot of these willing citizens who | want to help in the contest are gover- 1 a <Sf <.ff bers of chambers of commerce and boards of trade, ministers of churches superintendents of schools, officials in | the II NJ. C. A. and Knights of Gu iumpus, as well as many others. In the case of the governors and mayors. | Uncle Sam has asked them to help by issuing proclamations, setting aside February 20 as Essay Contest Dayol or perhaps only asking all citizens to | join hands in making the contest the biggest thing that ever happened in | Americas schools.
 And are they doing it? They cer- tainly are Already many of the gov ernors in the country have issued their besides any number of mayors of the biggest cities
 90 mere hardly man, woman or chiid m the country today who doesn't know all about the contest. But the finest thing of all is that everybody IS interested and there isn't any doubt mat parents everywhere are doing Ihelr very best to help their boys and sirIS come out winners on February 20.
 Just because there are so many peo oie interested in the contest, news papers Tn every state are going to pub-4 isn the winning essays in their own 1lstrlcts. And in many cases, the Dapers will also publish a lot of other essays that were. good, but just not iuIte good enough to win first prizes. t certainly is going to be hard in many cases to decide between first md second winners.
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