The united American : a magazine of good citizenchip., February 01, 1925, Page 12, Image 12

Page Twelve
THE UNITED AMERICAN
ing to the folk-tales of ancient England, was quietly
buried in the church of St. Olav.
A search for the body which is supposed to have
found repose these many centuries ’neath the edifice
of the sainted Olav, has now been commenced and
when the last stones have been removed and every
square foot of ground, upon which the old church
stands has been turned over, six to ten feet in depth,
will the authenticity of this ancient tale from the days
of the feudal Norse-English kings be proven or set
at rest as unauthentic and unworthy of any historical
credence.
FEBRUARY, 1925
local offices is the best assurance of good govern­
ment in state and national affairs.
Charles Russell Lowell fell fighting to destroy
slavery and to preserve the Union. In his message
to the young scholars of America he said:
“Be a useful citizen. Don’t grow rich. Don’t seek office;
but remember that the useful citizen always holds his time,
his trouble, his money and his life ready at the hint of his
country.”
Be a useful citizen. Get some understanding of
the real province of government, the true relation of
laws and institutiohs to the actual life of the people.
HOW CONFIDENCE HELPS
From Northern Furniture
'T' 0 HAVE confidence in another man’s square
x
dealing is good evidence that you practice
square dealing yourself. Lack of confidence has kept
thousands of good men in the background and they
are standing in the rear today, watching their more
confident and aggressive fellow workers succeed. If
you have faith in yourself and in your ability, others
will have faith in you. Nothing can stop you if you
know how to create the confidence of your fellows.
If you are an employer you needn’t expect com­
plete efficiency in your help if you are unable to es­
tablish their confidence in you. You have to prove
to them by your personal and business acts, every
day, that you are to be trusted. Then you will have
a business organization to be proud of, for your
employees cannot help being benefited by daily con­
tact with a man who is four-square in everything he
does and says.
If a business man has self-reliance he can in­
spire everybody about him with self-reliance. Con­
fidence is catching, and a wholesome bond is made
only when men have confidence in each other,
whether as private individuals or as responsible repre­
sentatives of a business. There cannot be two stan­
dards. There is such a thing, of course, as over-
confidence, but its real name is bad judgment.
Nothing is more certain to destroy the good feel­
ing that may be cherished towards you than to show
distrust. On the contrary, confidence leads people
naturally to act kindly, fairly, to trust and be trusted.
CIVIC PATRIOTISM
The Legislative Forum Journal
ANE OF the chief duties of American citizenship
is the cultivation and practice of civic patriotism.
By this is meant the feeling and the taking of a deep,
unselfish, earnest, ever-wakeful, active interest in
the affairs of one’s city or local community, regarding
it as having an autonomy, a distinct personality, a
name and interest of its own, and endowed with a
sense of personal honor and with laudable ambitions
for the promotion of the welfare of its people. When
such civic virtues exist the local community will
neither suffer from dry rot of public indifference and
neglect, nor become tainted with graft or corruption.
Its life will be healthful and, like the ocean, will be
kept pure by its own ceaseless flow and movement.
All life-giving patriotism is local. A good municipal
citizen will also love his state and nation and perform
his duties in a triple capacity. Good government in
When the battleship Oregon of the United States
Navy once upon a time was the pride of the nation and its
fame added glory to the name of this great State, its ranking
position was one of which every citizen of Oregon was ex­
tremely proud. Now there rests at the moorings of the Bre­
merton Navy Yard a ship of an antiquated construction, a
ship that has served well its purpose of national defence. This
ship is now old and long since out of service and commission.
Its armor is not sufficient to resist the power of the modern
projectile. As a war-ship it would serve no better purpose
than a merchant vessel. Obsolete, it has been partly dis­
mantled. The heart of Oregon is 'going out in love for this
old ship, for it is none other than the proud old Oregon that
won renown in the Spanish-American war. Because of love
of the old ship the state of Oregon is asking the government
to turn it over to the state of Oregon and the state is
being asked to appropriate money for its care. The plan is
to use it as a training ship, with a permanent berth in the
Portland harbor. We are afraid that sentiment, beautiful
sentiment, is leading the citizens of Oregon to bargain for
something they will soon regret. After all, it should be re­
membered, it is not this obsolete hull, but the glorious ship
that once was, that we fondly remember. Should the
possession of the old hull and the burden of its perpetual
care serve the purpose of marring its glorious history, or its
obsoleteness tend to efface the fond memories we treasure,
then it would have been a thousand1 times .better that we had
all been invited to witness its funeral out on the broad Pacific,
off the Oregon shore, where a migthy shell from one of Uncle
Sam’s bombing planes might have ended its carrier and closed
its history, while a flotilla of modern naval vessels, in proper
formation, as an honor guard, firing a salute and a last fare­
well, would have added the proper touch to signify a nations
sorrow in its passing. Thus we fancy the proper setting and
scenes amid which the old veteran might pass with dignity to
a grave in the briny deep. 'Could we thus treasure the history
and the passing of the old 'Oregon it would serve a definite
purpose as a permanent monument to national greatness and
its achievements would forever be an incentive to fervent
patriotism.
Lieutenant Osborne Wood, the son of one of
America’s foremost citizens, Governor-General Leonard Wood
of the Phillippines, is. evidently not following in the footsteps
of his honored father, judging 'by the reports from France where­
in it is said this young American of late has been spending a
great deal of his time in riotous and fast living, ending up,
as the reports have it, in issuing and cashing a bad check for
a considerable sum of money and hurriedly leaving that country
for a more pleasant abode in Spain. The young man’s wife,
a daughter of prominent American parents, recently left him
and returning to her parental hearth in this country, is
reported contemplating a divorce. There is suffering and
pain for the poor and unknown parents whose sons and
daughters go wrong, but added to this is the indescribable
humiliation that comes to the prominently known parents
whose progeny chooses to cast aside honor and the invaluable
asset of a well known and reputable family name. Our
sympathy and kindly thoughts are going out to General and
Mrs. Leonard Wood as we are reminded of the great services
they have rendered their country and the people who in the
face of such misfortunes are so often too prone to forget.