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PAGE TWO
The West Georgian
WEST GEORGIAN STAFF MEMBERS:
Editor-in-Chief Hutcheson
Sports Editor Billie Cheney
Feature Editor Waldo Jones
Faculty Advisor Prof. George Adams
REPORTERS: Evelyn Malcom, Virginia Brooks, Waldo Jones,
Frances Winn, Neal Windom, Merlin Simonton, Leonard McKibben,
Tom Morgan, Bailey Murphy and Roy Fossett.
Published Monthly by the Students of West Georgia College,
Genola, Georgia. Printed by Frank T. Thomasson, Printers
and Publishers, Carrollton, Ga.
Member G. S. P. A. Member
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The Veteran in College
(Prof. F. M. Chalker)
According to accepted authorities, the United States has been
thrown ten years behind in education as a result of the war.
There are two general reasons for this: the dralting ol stu
dents and teachers from the classrooms and the failure of colleges
to produce much needed teachers.
Now that the war is over we are desperately in need of eras
ing this loss. The most satisfactory answer seems to be the return
of the G. I. to school. The government is providing the financial
means whereby a qualified veteran may retuin to the classroom
for a reasonable length of time. The response of the veterans to
this has ben tremendous.
In West Georgia College many veterans have enrolled. They
are doing excellent work with years of maturity and experienc to
their credit. No doubt they will be better students for their ex
'perience in the armed services with opportunity to travel and see
oher peoples and other lands.
The prospect for filling the great void in education through
the G. I. is most gratifying.
Shakespeare Says-
Methought I heard a voice cry, ‘Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep!” the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care,
The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast.
—Macbeth, Act 11, Sc. I, Line 62.
The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice bless’d:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
’Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth not show likest God’s,
When mercy seasons justice.
—The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Sc. I, Line 184
Neither a borrower, nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Hamlet, Act I, Sc. 111, Line 75.
Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steal my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;
’Twa mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.
—Othello, Act 111, Sc. 111, Line 155.
THE WEST GEORGIAN
The Passing Parade
(Len Hutcheson)
Those of you who are interested in the passing pa
rade, the declining knish market, or the price of
eggs in China should find time for some serious
thought on the relation of the fabulous ostrich to
insignificant mankind. An interesting parallel
can be drawn.
The ostrich is an animal whose main claim to
fame is his passion for ramming his head in the
sand when confronted with life’s problems. Un
usual and entertaining as this posture may be, it
is impractical from a strategic point of view, in
that it leaves large portions of his anatomy sus
ceptible to all sorts of attacks.
This extreme escapist attitude is not original on
the part of the ostrich. It probably started when
the Homans grew bored with the everyday tedium
of circuses and picnics and took their families out
to the arena where hungry lions could be found
busily engaged in devouring disillusioned Chris
tians, to the intense delight of the bored Romans.
The Romans were escaping from tedium, the
Christians from life, and the lions from hunger.
Just what they escaped from escapes me for, when
all was over, the tedium was still there. After
the spectacle, the lions were immediately starved
for the next batch of unfortunates, and Christiani
ty grew. Nevertheless the ostrich felt that this
escapism was more than just a fad, and with a
few innovations of his own, adopted it as stan
dard procedure for ostriches.
Mankind, not to be outdone by an ostrich, took
up escapism, and today in America escapism is a
highly developed art, and in some sections a reg
ular ritual.
One form of escapism that defies description is
the desire of a large percentage of the eligible
voting population to escape from the polls. What
actually prompts these people is one of life’s im
ponderables, but many excuses are given. Some
say they do not know enough about the candidates
to vote. A not very clever way of saying they
have their heads too far in the sand to acquaint
themselves with the facts.
Others say they have no way of getting to the
polls, but these same hangar pilots can be found
with season tickets for the Yo-Yo matches and
plenty of time to condemn Congress. Just anoth
er inch of sand.
There are a few who find almost plausible rea
sons for not voting, but when the sand is scratch
ed away nothing is found but an ostrich head
ready for the chopping block.
Not even an ostrich would allow another os
trich to decide the length to which he may ram
his neck, or the type of silicon he may perform
this operation in. These are part of an ostrich’s
inalienable rights and ostriches, when aroused,
have a powerful kick in their legs.
The American today who doesn’t vote is cheat
ing himself, his country, and his government.
When people vote they set the standard for the
type of government they want. If they do not
vote they open the door for deterioration and de
generation in government. Unscrupulous men,
with unscrupulous methods, find it easy to set
themselves up in office. But if enough people are
aware of the real issues the standards go up.
You who do not vote do not consider yourselves
a part of the passing parade; rather you watch
with detached amusement from the roadside. But
it isn’t so funny when part of the motorcade gets
out of control and hits you or your family. Y T ou
have no gripe coming—you didn’t know enough
to vote for men who would see that warning signs
were put up for your protection. The knish mar
ket that supplies the demand for your goods is
declining—what do you care? Your Congressman
speculates, but so what? has his fun.
You can always make out. far away
—you want someone in office to seeihgtthe road
by your house is paved. No meddling.
Humans are certainly smarter than ostriches.
They never waste time trying to stick their heads
in sand . . . beer offers lots less resistance. But
large sections of the anatomy are still exposed. So
when your taxes are raised or a law is made that
you don’t like, don’t worry. The passing parade
is there for you to watch from the roadside—with
detached amusement.
It has been said that men, like rivers, become
crooked because they take the path of least re
sistance. You are the path over which candi
dates travel to office and the vote is your kicking
power.
The Golden Rule
(Neal Windom)
If we as a nation or as individuals should mea
sure our actions by the “Golden Rule” I am afraid
some of us would come up short.
But I think America as a nation is a pretty
good believer in the golden rule. From the be
ginning of our country’s history we have been
satisfied to let other nations do as they pleased
just so long as we were treated fairly. The early
colonists objected to taxation without represen
tation and other harsh laws imposed by the moth
er country; this objection resulted in war.
Then as time elapsed and the World War I
was in progress and when our nation’s patience
was exhausted we then took part in the winning
of the war. But after the peace treaty America
sent aid to the devasted countries to relieve suf
fering and to help replace that which had been
destroyed. I think we again were expressing our
desire to apply the golden rule in international
affairs,
During the time between World War I and II
America extended much aid to those countries in
need, although we didn’t contribute all that we
could, we had at least made a creditable effort.
Out of the grim facts which were existent dur
ing the aerial warfare in Europe, there was an un
written rule between the American airmen and
members of the Luftwaffe that when a plane was
in distress during a bombing mission, if the land
ing gear of the bomber was lowered the enemy
fighter would escort them to a landing strip.
This was an example of using the golden rule
and using it for keeps.
Today less than one year after cessation of hos
tilities America has sent more aid to the starving
world than any of the victor nations. Yes, our sup
plies are greater and I think in that fact that Ameri
ca stands to lose more by the continued exploita
tion of the relief and our good will to the advan
tage of Russia, who has lost a lot in the war but
who has established herself securely in all the
small countries of Europe—and she has done so
and is continuing to do so at the expense of
American lives and resources.
From my experience with Russian officers, I
should say that they are arrogant and boastful
and think only of Russia, Stalin, and power. The
only thing they knew about America was Chicago
gangsters and the name of President Roosevelt.
I saw American equipment sent to Russia under
lend-lease and the Russians were boasting of it
being made by Russians. They had removed the
name plates, but you’ve got to do more than that
to change a Ford or G.M.C.
Russia’s plan seems to be that if you ask for
the whole hog and get a couple of choice hams,
the appeasing nations won’t feel too badly about
it—if this works, try it again, and then again. Then
do the same thing over again.
It’s past time for America to begin implying
that we expect compliance with the golden rule
in international affairs, or figure out some way to
deal with the “Tapeworm Measurement”, whose
motto seems to be ‘what we would have of others
we will do also unto you”.
“On my tour of the West,” remarked Mr. Gass
anoil, ‘the thing that impressed the most was the
boundless prairies. It almost made me sock to
see all that magnificient parking space going to
waste.”
TUESDAY, JULY 16, 1946