PSALM OF LIFE
With Apologies to Longfellow
By An Unknown
Tell me not in mournful numbers
Advertising is a dream,
For the Business Man who slumbers
Has no chance to skim the cream.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
Competitions something fierce,
If for dividends thou yearnest,
Learn to parry, thrust and pierce.
In the business field of battle
Mollycoddles have no place;
Be not like dumb driven cattle,
Be a live one in the race.
Lives of great men all remind us,
We can bring the bacon home.
And departing leave behind us,
Footprints on another’s dome.
Let us then be up and doing,
Otherwise we may be done;
Still achieving still pursuing,
Advertise and get the mon'.
FIVE FACTORS OF
CITIZENSHIP STRESSED
BY EDUCATOR
WASHINGTON, D. C.—There are
five factors of good citizenship, ac
cording to Dr. Henry Lewis Smith,
President of Washington and Lee
University. These five great ideas,
action according to which is essen
tial if citizenshp is to attain its true
worth and dignity, are:
First, the children of the Nation
are at once the richest asset and
the chief source of power, more po
tential than all of the other human
sources combined; therefore, their
proper development is of the first
importance.
Second, the supreme task of a
Christain democracy is the right
training of all its citizens.
Third, education of intellect alone
is fatally inadequate. The heart
and the character must be developed
as the mind is improved, for if they
are not, the work will have been in
vain.
Fourth, mere political and indus
trial democracy may be its triumph
cause the downfall of civilization,
unless education and religion reach
the masses before they seize the
power.
Fifth, when democracy has out
grown its experimental stage and
has become strong, it will be seen
that the real leaders are not politi
cians, bankers or statesmen, but
those who have devoted their lives
to training boys and girls. They
will be known then as the real build
ers of nations and civilization.
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POST ELECTION
REFLECTIONS
(From The Verstovian, Sitka.)
Now that election is over The
Verstovian is moved ito say two
things:
The local campaign has largely
centered around the so-called “Indian
question.” It is regrettable that the
bitterness and unreasonableness of a
partisan political campaign should
be injected into the consideration of
such a problem. Exaggeration, un
truthfulness and selfishness for par
tisan ends, obscure vision and kill
conscience. The issue in its essence
is a racial one. The solution is not
to be found in the sneer of the su
perior race nor the snarl of the in
ferior. Of the two we consider the
foimer more obstructive to a right
solution than the latter. It is ever
the responsibility of the superior race
to be magnanimous. It is ever its
tendency to limit definition and re
strict constructive action under the
influence of class conceit.
The firm conviction of The Versto
vian is that the remedy is in the
Brotherhood and Kingdom Teachings
of Jesus Christ. The race question
will be solved when men are able
to think more clearly and act more
consistently in terms of the Golden
Rule.
A second observation has to do
with the privilege and duty of edu
cational institutions in the present
Native situations. The crisis is a
double headed affair. On the one
hand we hope the politicians will
pardon The Verstovian for its enter
taining scepticism as to the disin
terestedness of motive underlying
much of the present agitation. If
unfit Natives have voted it is largely
do to the influence of those who
have sought and obtained their votes.
If a boulder has been loosened from
the mountain of our Alaska political
institution and is menacing good
government as it gains momentum
it is the politicians, pro and con, who
have started it going. This crisis
may be in need of attention and a
remedy is possible. To change the
figure we suggest that those who
distributed the germs apply for
“first aid.”
But on the other hand, there is
undoubtedly a situation which is
more properly a culmination than a
crisis. All fair-minded persons must
admit that there are many Natives
of Alaska who are not only legally
but inherently citizens of the United
States. It would be strange and hu
miliating if this result should not
obtain after fifty-seven years of con
tact with American institutions, in
cluding the schools. There is one
effective remedy for illiteracy and
that is to remove it. In this con
structive program educative instru
mentalities should find their incen
tive and joy. The present reward
of such institutions is in the quali
fied Native voters of today; their
worthy and attainable goal is a liter
ate native people.
In the opinion of The Verstovian,
attitude toward this goal is a test
of vital interests in Native problems.
It is better to deplore than merely
to denounce illiteracy. To detest it
without an effort to deliver from it
is a sure road to detestation of the
illiterate and this in turn leads to
class hatred and racial antagonism.
TOTEMS
One of the finest and tallest tot
em poles in existence is in the Sitka
National Monument Park adjacent
to the Sheldon Jackson School cam
pus. Carved by Haida artisans and
originally erected in the village of
Kasaan it was procured for the
World Fair at St. Louis in 1904 and
removed to that city as a part of the
Alaska exhibit. At the close of the
fair, through the efforts of Governor
Brady, it was sent to Sitka to be
erected and permanently preserved in
the public park, along with other
totems of similar origin.
The totem pole, which is but one
expression of the totemic system, is
now a thing of the past in Alaska.
Aside from the diminutive and in
ferior specimens prepared for tour
ist trade totem poles are no longer
made and the totem carver, a man
of ability and distinction in former
times, has vanished along with his
outgrown social conception. The
passing of the totem pole and of the
totemic system in general carries
with it the disappearance of a real
art and brings a feeling of regret
even to those who have been most
instrumental in supplanting old sup
erstitions with modern truth.
Totem poles were of four prin
cipal classes; genealogical, histori
cal, legendary and mortuary. In as
much as the natives of Alaska be
lieved that men were once animals
the principal characteristic of the
totem pole is its animal figures.
From the construction or design of
the totem pole native people were
able at a glance to distinguish the
clan of the communal house in front
of which it stood and to determine
whether or not a welcome awaited
within. These carvings were not
worshipped as idols nor intended to
represent deity. They were highly
honored and revered because vitally
associated, in the minds of the Na
tives, with questions of origin, the
supernatural, and the proper respect
due to the great heroes of the past.
—The (Sitka) Verstovian.
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