The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1937-06-03
Tom Browns
Essay Won
Fir st Place
Published For Benefit OF
Readers-Excellent
Offering
ONLY LOCAL ENTRY
Electric Typewriter For The
School And Gold Watch
For Winner

'4Today's Need for Thoughtful
Effort" topic for a national essay
contest, gave Tom Brown the OPP
portunity to secure for himself
beautiful gold watch, and at the
same time secure for the school an
electric typewriter. Tom won first
prize in the State Of Minnesota, and
his effort was so good that we
herewith publish his essay for the
benefit Of our readers. It Is as tot-
lows: :,
..Know myself. Presume Not God
to scan.
The proper study Of mankind Is
Man."
Alexander Pope.
One is prone in these days OF
floods. earthquakes and scandals,
national and foreign, to become en-
crossed only In the larger, more
thrilling things Of the world to the
neglect Of the truly great and I'M
portant thing closer to home, name
", ourselves. THE proper study OF
mankind Is man."
A high school boy should not be
expected to look upon life as from
"A height. The most that should be
expected Of him is that he look out
ward and upward for a way for
him to go. Even that Is a very
great task, it seems, for before him
IS a maze Of confusion.
Our schooling SO far has con-
cerned itself much with the
thoughts, the courage and the la
bors of our forefathers who against
almost insurmountable odds carved
this nation out Of wilderness and
gave 1t to US for our inheritance.
Rugged honesty, heroism and pat
riotism are written upon every
page of our nations early history.
That is the background.
In the foreground the school boy
is confronted with something vast
w different. Crime! Political graft!
Strikes! Selfishness! Greed! The
rich becoming richer! The poor,
poorer! Wars! Rumors OF wars!
The headlines in our daily papers
tell the story. AS a nation we are
going we know not where, possibly
to Communism or Anarchy. Truly
the foreground is filled with con-
fusion.
How strange this all Isl In read
ing the pages Of American history
we fed on the marrow Of giants,
our forefathers. Has the labor Of
the giants been in vain! Have their
descendants become dwarfs and
pigmies in an imIbecile modern CIV
ilization, victims Of jazz ideas and
Jazz ideals, jazz morals and Jazz
lives? Have we sold our birthTdght
for a mess Of pottage? The ans
wers rest with the present genera
ton. All that the schoolboy, caught
between the background and the
foreground can do is to wonder.
And wonder he does. He wonders
IL he too should not, like his old
,sters, think in terms Of ease and
comfort. He wonders II he too
should not plan his future upon
the lines Of least resistance.
In trying to reconcile the pres
ent with the past something seems
to have gone out of the joy Of liv-
ing. To our forebears it was not the
axe 50 much as it was the ring Of
the axe that felled our forests. Men
found Joy in labor, in tasks well
done. Not so today, 1t seems. La
Dor, profession, vocation appear to
have lost something Of their appeal
as LIES work, life's destiny. Success
in these things appears to be
sought no longer for itself alone.
Rather are these things regarded
as mere stepping stones to early
wealth. for wealth in the modern
acceptation Of the word, stands for
ease and ease stands for comfort
and happiness. All this seems so
strange, too, when at the same
time we are told the richest man
in this nation today would gladly
exchange all his riches for a dock
workers stomach.
It seems to the schoolboy who
gives the matter a moments
thought that did we possess the in
festival fortitude Of our forefath-
ers, their unalloyed honesty, their
love Of success for success sake,
their real love for their fellow men
and for their country we would
find In these things a wonderful
foundation on which to continue to
build and enlarge the inheritance
that is ours. Did we only stop to
Think
And where must we begin to
think? The temptation Is strong to
want to begin upon our neighbor.
II we are honest we will begin up
on ourselves and take inventory OF
our aims, our ambitions, our ideals,
our attitude towards life and our
attitude towards ourselves. Our
conduct towards our neighbor Is
going to depend upon our conduct
towards ourselves. It Is not In the
scheme Of things for a man to live
unto himself alone. Thus Is Society
born. Thus are born the State and
the Nation. And the same motives
and ideals that actuate US In our
private lives are the same motives
and ideals that shall actuate us in
our conduct towards those institu-
lions.
Are we inherently and uncompro-
misingly honest? If we are, our
neighbor will not suffer at our
hands. If we are we will at the
same time not tolerate In fellow
citizens the thousand and one forms
OF dishonesty perpetrated upon a
people even under the guise Of le-
gality. Legislation written upon our
statute books IL not necessarily
Law, for a law must be q just law
and In conformity with the spirit
OF the Constitution under which
this nation functions.