Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1921-06-10

the world. Looking 10 Ine eas' ""
would see a great plain, dotted with
cities, factories and farms, with rall-
WAYS. rivers and canals running
throughout. A great industrial center.
Farther to the east you would see the
beautiful mountain ranges, the oil
fields, the coal mines, and, on the
coast of the Atlantic, the great clues
Philadelphia, Boston and, there by
the Statue of Liberty, New York, the
largest city in the world. And now
looking south, you would see WASH
ington, the capital of the nation; ana
further south, in Dixie, the obacco
plantations, the sugar cane groves
and the cotton fields, white with a
harvest that will clothe the world.
You would now have seen only half
the country, but surely enough TO
make you speechless with wonder
could YOU have seer it in truth, and
we're you to look to the west and see
the miles and miles, the thousands or
miles of prairie land covered with
corn, wheat, rye and barley-the
worlds granary-and still to the west
to the Rockies, where the cattle Craze
on a thousand hills; then the fruit
valleys of California, and the beau
tiful cities of the Pacific Coast. Then
you would wonder. The whole thing
seems so inconceivable that n nation
should have so many blessings, such
great resources, a country literally
teeming with wealth; and that nation
one united people with more privileges
than any other people on earth. Is
it at all surprising that Europe is
looking to America?
Poland, once one of the proudest of
overwhelmed with war, is striving for
it's liberty. 1t has Bolshevism on one
side, intrigue on the other, and social
ism scattered all through it.. Then
there are the Slavic peoples who have
come out of the World War as new
nations. Think of Russia in the times
of the Car, when thousands of men
and women each year were driven
into the frozen wastes of Siberia to
starve and die, and now the whole ma
ton is raving mad with it's s~o-called
Bolshevism. The people are starving
and suffering now as they did
before. Nevertheless, when Russia
comes forth from this ordeal she, too,
will turn toward America. Hungary,
China and all those other countries
they do not only seek financial help,
but they look to America, as the
Mother of Liberty, for new ideals of
living, and a friendly guidance which
will lead them to peace and prosperity.
To answer this call and assume this
great responsibility, America must
have a great host of intelligent men
and women, capable of doing things
and of doing them we'll, to show these
nations our democracy. She must have
leaders.
And just as America is the Work
shop of Democracy for the whole
world, so is the public school Democ-
racy's Workshop for the nation. For
it is the place where the children of
to-day are made ready to become the
citizens and leaders of tomorrow.
And they are the ones who must up
hold Democracy to the nations ideal.
The boy or girls with no schooling
has one chance in one hundred and
fifty thousand of performing a distin-
guished service for the nation. One
with elementary education has four
times the chance. While one with a
high school education has eighty-seven
times the chance. Just think of it. OF
five million with no education, only
thirty-one attained distinction. With
elementary schooling, of thirty-three
million, eighty attained distinction;
while with a high school education of
but two million, twelve hundred at
tanned distinction.
Does this not speak for itself? How
much, then, ought we to cherish our
nation as the workshop of the worlds
democracy, and our public schools
and all our institutions, which are
building the foundation and the
strength of Jul government that we
may continue to lead the world in the
light of freedom?
And so, friends, on this day, when
we may look forward to the beginning
of our life's work, and you may look
back into the past, when you, too,
started out with hope, and the world
was sc bright, we must all look for
ward and strive again to show the
world a better and truer democracy.
Class Poem