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Show R. Schmutz Wins Award of Legion i The American Legion . Aux-jilary Aux-jilary Lester Keate Post No. 90 have been sponsoring a contest ! in the first year high school, on j Patriotism. The contest ended j on February 2. j Ray Schmutz, son of John i Schmutz was awarded first place and Pershing Nelson, son of Alma Nelson received second place. Following is the winning essay: "It is sweet and glorious to die for one's country," runs the familiar line from a poem by Horace. This Roman poet lived long before the time of Christ, but even in that far-off period, patriotism was not new. The Romans of that time were telling their children the story of Regu-lus, Regu-lus, a Roman hero who advised his countrymen not to make peace with Carthage, and then went back to the enemy to suffer death by torture. Even before that nearly five hundred years before the Christian Era, a noble no-ble band of Spartans held the pass at Thermopylae and ' died to a man to save Greece and a new civilization. However, the essential idea of patriotism among those ancient people for the most part was a passion to destroy the rival tribe. "If we are to live and flourish, they must die." Patriotism has never been confined con-fined to one people or to one era. It is the universal feeling of the human heart and one of the noblest passions to which humanity is heir. What is the underlying sentiment sen-timent that makes men patriots? It is the conviction that life itself it-self is of no importance compared com-pared with the life of a nation. The Swiss patriot Arnold Win-kelried. Win-kelried. so valued his life when he rushed into the ranks of the Austrians and saved the day for Switzerland. So also was Nathan Na-than Hale whose dying utterance was, "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country." coun-try." Even now, Japanese soldiers sol-diers have offered to ride to certain death inside topedoes in order to guide them into enemy ships in case a war should break out. These examples and manv more that you know help to express ex-press the feeling of a true patriot. pat-riot. When we think of a nation we do not necessarily think of how much land, how many tree? or how much water it contains; it is not geographical, botanical, nor geologital. We think of th character 'and history of that nation na-tion and its people. A nation exists for precisely the same reason that a man ex- ists, and no man exists for his own sake. A man exists for the sake of his race, for the sake of lending a hand to help the race upward, for the sake of doing his part in pushing civilization forward. This spirit of .loyalty and self-sacrifice animates all of those who practice it in everyday life. There is no finer quality of love of one's country than that which inspires men and women to become good citizens. Such patriotism makes them sacrifice sac-rifice leisure, pleasure, money and personal preference to serve the state. One does not have to wait until a war breaks out to show his' patriotism. We should not have to hear a blare of bugles bu-gles and a ruffle of drums nor see a regiment of soldiers marching march-ing hy to be aware of that thrilling thril-ling pride within us. It should be alive constantly. Patriotism is like a family instinct. In a man it is intelligent intelli-gent love; in a child it is blind devotion.' Therefore, it should be fostered in the hearts of children. A child should have examples of patriotism before him constantly so that he will be inspired to noble ideals and heroic living. The boy who sees father neglecting his duties as a citizen while his mother is indifferent to the national problems of the day. is not being encouraged to love his country more than his life. Ours is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people and it shall not perish per-ish from the earth so long as patriotism exists within its borders. bor-ders. Patriotism shall always exist as long as the spirit of it is instilled in the hearts of children child-ren and as the children grow so shall their patriotism. This great and glorious nation belongs to all of us and it is our duty as citizens to help make it greater and more glorious than ever, so that all mankind may profit by its greatness. A nation's glory lies in its common manhood and therefore, to make and keep our nation great we must all 'be true patriots together toge-ther forever. By Ray Schmuty |