Published by The Dalles High School Students, June edition, pages 63-64 SENIOR DEPARTMENT SALUTATORY Valedictory We are graduating. We think of this as a turning point in our lives. It is really nothing so decided as that - we will not emerge changed by the experience; but it is a good time to decide our future lives. Are we to be successes or failures? It depends largely upon ourselves and the thing which will impell us - ambition. Ambition is essential to progress, thus the successful man is the man who is ambitious. Some has said that "we never go higher than we aim". The ambition of the individual not only affects that person, but it affects his country as well. In India the social system known as caste, by drawing distinct and hereditary classes and strictly limiting men to their own caste, eliminates ambition to a large extent. This one fact alone has had a stupendous effect on India and has made her what she is today - unprogressive when compare to other nations. She has been left behind in the race. But we, in our country, are more fortunate than the Hindoo, for our government and religion put no restrictions in the path of our progress. Quite to the contrary, our government stands ever ready to help. It educates us, fitting us properly to be responsible citizens. And our two best weapons in life are education and ambition. So let us be ambitious for the sake of our country and that we may be good citizens. We wish to live up to our motto, "By our efforts we hope to rise". However, if we start out aimlessly, we can hope to do little but travel round and round in a circle. To rise straight and quickly we must have something definite to which to rise. This we call ambition - it is our goal. In addition to our motto let us take for our watchword ambition". There are two kinds of ambition - that which is selfish and that which is not. While we are establishing our ambition we should not fail to make it a worthy aim, an ideal by which to live. The best kind of an ambition is that which in the accomplishing will render "Service" - service to our fellowmen, a step in the world's progress. The best example of service we have had in the past few years is the soldier who goes forth to battle and lays down his life for humanity. We cannot all render this supreme service, but there are various other services we can give. Most of the popular professions of today render service in varying degrees. The doctor, the lawyer, the teacher, the farmer, and innumerable others can be counted in this class. It is not difficult to render service. The time has come when we must separate. Each one of us will take a different path to his goal. And so for the education which makes possible the truest Service, we wish to thank our parents, our teachers, and the citizens of The Dalles. For us they have made sacrifices and we, in parting, can only assure them of our appreciation and try, in the years to come, to fulfill all their hopes for us. H.J.F., '19 Submitted by Earline Wasser (Spelling is students, not that of submitter.)