The Coyote (Weatherford, Tex.), Vol. 16, No. 1, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 10, 1941 Page: 2 of 4
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THE COYOTE
SOCIETY EDITOR
FEATURE EDITOR
$
i
4
A
1
FRIENDSHIP
can
a
will be fun.
.S- -
THEM AS HAS AND
THEM AS HAINT
little
other
THE DANGER TO
DEMOCRACY
one for
DEE BOURKE
HEAD OF EDITORIAL STAFF
out of your way to help some
student.
coming school year a happy
yourself and others by going
_________SPORTS EDITOR
DEFENSE OF DAY-
DREAMING
______CIRCULATION MANAGER
THE EDITOR’S CORNER
THE COYOTE
Published Bi-Monthly by the Students of Weatherford College.
Entered at the Postoffice at Weatherford, Texas, as Second Class Mail Matter.
L. A. ZELLERS
EDITOR
I know an automobile driver who
raced a train to a crossing—it was a
dead heat.
Friendship is one of the few
treasured things that a person
Well, we’re in a war again. Which
brings to my mind the meanest remark
I ever heard—one that I hoped I would
never again have occasion to hear.
It was shortly after the Armistice.
The slaughter that had been in contin-
uous performance for four horrible
years had suddenly been brought to a
merciful stop. A woman—a sweet-
faced woman—the last one in the
world in whom you would expect to
find a mean streak, was discussing the
fortunes of war with another woman.
I use the word “fortunes” advisedly.
"If the war would have lasted
another month,” said the sweet faced
woman, “my husband would be a mil-
lionaire.”
And the next meanest remark I
I ever heard was the comment of the
I know a lantern-jawed Indian
who gets all lit up on one drink of fire-
water.
other woman, “Now ain’t that too bad”
she commiserated.
It is hardly probable that either
of these women were as heartless as
their exupressions might indicate. I
am willing to grant that in spite of the
inhuman thoughts which they express-
ed, these women probably never re-
flected upon the horrors of the war—
the slaughter and the maiming of men
during every hour, every minute, ev-
ery second that the war was on. In-
deed, they looked like women who
would faint at the sight of blood from
a pin scratch. But the greed in their
narrow little minds so glazed their
eyes that they could not see the an-
guish with which their gold was smear-
ed. And so, another month of human
slaughter in which the woman’s hus-
band could have profited enough to
make her the wife of a millionaire,
meant nothing to her.
There’s no denying that in wars
of the past, many people profited di-
rectly from the supreme sacrifice of
others. And many of those who did
not so profit, be it said, envied those
who did. It has been ever thus.
It is not my intention, in this ar-
ticle, to talk war. We are getting
enough of that in our newspapers and
on the radio. So let me veer over and
go a little further into that which was
“ever thus.”
There have always been “them
as has an’ them as haint”. And I am
not so naive, or so much the idealist as
to believe that money does not bring
comfort in life, and even happiness.
Nor do I believe that money is the
source of all evil—of some evil, yes,
but a very small part which has been
greatly magnified. The evil lies not in
possessing wealth. The tragedy is in
being possessed by wealth.
The poor who must labor for a
living, envy the luxury which the rich
enjoy. The rich, suffering from ennui,
envy the poor who appear to find life
worth the struggle.
carry throughout life. It will linger on
when all of the other things have van-
ished and been forgotten.
Friends you will make in the
coming school year will help to bright-
en your life now and long after school
is out. Friends are what you need in
the time of trouble and strife, so be
protected from the loneliness which
comes from the knocks of life.
Befriend the lonely, who knows,
but what you will strike up a friend-
ship that will last a lifetime. Make the
The very chief purpose of the
American school or college is the moul-
ding of students into constructive ci-
tizens. There is no doubt as to the ver-
acity of the foregoing statement. The
principal is age-old and has been ex-
pounded so many times that it has ac-
tually become trite. Beside this cardi-
nal function all other accomplishments
seem insignificant in comparison.
Further pursuing this trend of
thought we are automatically con-
fronted with this: how best to achieve
that end of inspiring citizenship? And
then inevitably, unavoidably like the
soundmg of a brass symbol the solu-
tio dawns and burns a clear radiant
beam through all clouds of question.
The answer is simple. Merely create in
the school as near an exact replica as
can be fashioned of that great democ-
racy under which we live. Furnish the
students a first hand opportunity to
practice the game of Life by applying
citizenship rules. Give to the student
body a president and a congress all
their own and to the individual student
a feeling of active service that comes
in being a constructive citizen. In
short, make of the student body a
miniature democracy and of the stu-
dent himself an indispesable part in
the scheme of things.
But in our miniature democracy
propriety requires that there be a pos-
terity. The future occupants of the
school are the posterity. And, in ac-
cordance with the rest of our citizen-
ship theory, it is not only the privilege
but the duty of each individual student
citizen to lend every ounce of his in-
fluence to the perpetuation of this pre-
sent progressive trend and to go for-
ward to still greater heights if we are
to ful fill the primary purpose for
which we attend school.
A long and obstacle-beladen path-
way lies before any who aspire to fur-
ther the cause of school democracy.
But to a group of students possessing a
very substantial degree of school spirit
an obstacle is a challenge. Of course
the original purpose cannot be attain-
ed by the student council alone, nor
by the administration, nor the faculty.
But the student who is not a mere oc-
cupant but in truth a citizen of W. C.
can do a great deal toward furthering
the cause. He can take an active and
sincere interest in the school’s prob-
lems. An invitation is offered him to
converse with his representative in
the student council and to give that
person his suggested solutions to what
are really his problems. A lot will be
accomplished when every student re-
alizes that the extra-curricular activi-
ties of his school are a vital concern of
his.
The numbers of those actively
striving for final reality of this golden
vision are this year receiving new re-
cruits to the ultimate vetory of a
cause which is destined to advance
by a great strides during the coming
terms. It will be fun again to advance
hand in hand, to give and take, to win
and lose. To experience the pangs of
elation and bitter disappointment. It
I’m sure you will get along just
fine if you just follow the Old Golden
Rule, “Do Unto Others As You Would
Have Them Do Unto You”, instead
of the New Golden Rule which is so
prominent these days. “Do Others
• Before They Do You”.
Let’s all get together and make
this year one of the best of the College
history by being friendly, make new
friends and see if the results are not
worth the time and effort.
From the very darkest dawn of
primitive civilization to the intricate
and complex Empyrian tapestry of a
twentieth century universe, every ap-
preciable rung in the ladder of progress
has been reached by means of that
highly-condemned practice of day-
dreaming. From a rustic, home-spun
country of backwoods, log cabin homes
to the wealth and granduer of a land
of metropolitan cities resplendent in
the glories of hundreds of years of la-
bor, fo revery convenience of our mo-
dern life we owe a debt of gratitude to
someone who was (abused, villified,
cursed, and gossiped about because he
was an adle day-dreamer. Day-dream-
ers: our world-builders.
A simple, patient French man of
science ostracized and held in con-
tempt as an impractical dreamer and
idealist, let his vision lead him to more
power, more prestige, more world-
wide renoun than all the war-lords in
the history of his country. He saved
the world more lives than any one of
the latter cost it.
A day-dreaming Italian whose
idle thinking had led to absurd convic-
tions as to the shape of the earth fol-
lowed his dream out onto the tempes-
tuous sea and squarely into “time’s
burst of dawn”.
Only a few years ago an obscure
college professor dreamed of a world
at peace. He rode this vision to the
helm of our national shop of state,
preaching the beautiful and practical
doctrine of the brotherhood of man,
which is destined eventually to lead the
world to thoughts of peace instead of.
war.
Pastuer, Columbus, Wilson. Men
from entirely different walks of life,
but three of history’s greatest pioneers:
dreamers.
The present era is one wherein
yesterday’s dream is today’s reality
and tomorrow’s history. You too, are
a day-dreamer. Who knows but what
tomorrow your most sanguine dream
may be an actuality? Who knows?
The democratic form of govern-
ment is the greatest system of govern-
ment yet devised by mankind; only
by democratic ideas and ideals will we
ever rise above the babble of the totali-
tarian governments. But even in a de-
mocracy we must ever make our de-
mocracy live up to the principles laid
down in the greatest masterpiece, save
the Bible, ever written, the constitu-
tion of the United States of America.
Down through the corridors of
time rulers have tried to “fix” govern-
ments monarchs have tried to anihil-
iate practices; but as inevitably as the
sun rising in the east each has met
with failure. For when any govern-
ment becomes stagnated by a few set
ideas of a few men that government is
on the decline and shortly, as has every
other government since man began
to live in civilized groups, is doomed
to fall by the lethargic hand of its
own bigoted leadership.
A democratic life as well as a
democratic government must rely on
the training of free minds in the power
to examine critically the social and
political structure of our lives, to eval-
uate the work of our fellow citizens
and to enable the young to find their
proper place of activity in our complex
social structure.
Every individual must be given
the opportunity to develop all of the
inherent potentialities given to him by
nature. Mirabeau B. Lamar, second
president of the Republic of Texas,
said, “A cultivated mind is the guard-
ing genius of Democracy.” So we must
not think in only terms of man-power
but in terms of knowledge and spiritu-
al power which produces wisdom, co-
veted by all, derived from education.
We must be made conscious of the
plain fact that a democracy can sur-
vive only when the young are ade-
quately trained for assuming the re-
sponsibilities of the citizen.
This is difficult to do at any time
and especially when millions are be-
ing spent on defense and through ma-
ny other channels. Today school chil-
dren of the land suffer from the lack
of financial aid in the schools which
they attend. San Antonio has cut the
city school fund $200,000. Philadel-
phia has minimized her school fund
by $2,000,000 in the last two years.
New York City has lowered her school
fund $10,000,000 in the last few
years. If we are to defend our demo-
cratic ideals effectively, we must do
away with the niggardly restriction of
school funds. We must do away with
the timid fear which would prevent
the young from acquiring knowledge
of conflicting ideas. Emotional devo-
tion to ideals should not be suppressed,
but controlled by healthy, critical
thought. We must remember that only
by each succeeding generation gain-
ing more knowledge than the former
do we progress. The young must be al-
lowed to add their contribution to the
prevailing principles and practices.
Those who are in colleges and
universities over the land are probably
better prepared to discuss intelligently
economics and policies of government
than thir fathers and mothers for the
simple reason that one in school is
studying the workings of the govern-
ment and a large number of fathers
and mothers have all of the ideas they
are ever going to believe. We must
guard against a bigoted citizenry if
we are to succeed in educating a gen-
eration devoted to these principles:
freedom of the press, freedom of
speech, freedom of thought and ac-
tion. A government without its peo-
ple is only an empty shell. Let us get
away from our stagnated apathy and
make our democracy live the life it so
richly deserves. Away with lethargy,
bigotry and indifference!
EE' ASSOCIATE EDITOR
f FRANK RISEDEN
BUSINESS MANAGER
CHARLES BELCHER
ASSISTANT BUSINESS MANAGER
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Weatherford College. The Coyote (Weatherford, Tex.), Vol. 16, No. 1, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 10, 1941, newspaper, September 10, 1941; Weatherford, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1545144/m1/2/?q=+date%3A1941-1945: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Weatherford College.