The Weber Literary Journal I can look down through the future history of the world and predict that only that civilization will really succeed which honestly repudiates the slave of caffeine, the inveterate and the debauched drunkard; and then I am compelled to thank my God that my knowledge of the Word of Wisdom has given me health to do my duty to myself, my fellow men and to future generations. Free Verse "Free verse," they say and send it in; There's really nothing to it Except as prose it is a sin So why why do they do it? They seize a pile of simple "stuff" And far and freely strew it. Now paper surely costs enough So why why do they do it? It moves the editor's dear heart And, rather than subdue it, He brags it up and calls it art; But why why does he do it? I wish, if there's a reason why They stretch this prose, I knew it. Will one poetically high Please tell me why they do it? 42 The Weber Literary Journal Anti-American Immigrant-Nation's Greatest Peril Venna Deamer First Place in Kiwanis' Club Contest ONE hundred forty-five years ago the fortuitous framers of the Declaration of Independence declared these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal. That all enjoy the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and, that to secure these blessings, democratic governments should be instituted, deriving their powers from the consent of the governed. These prophetic fundamentals resounded again in the preamble to the constitution. "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, promote domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America." That liberty of action, that equality of opportunity might be preserved, the constitution created a representative democracy of three departments. Under the legislative branch the people were given the right, through representatives, to make the laws of the nation. The constitution set up a second department, the judiciary, to further safeguard the constitutional freedom of the individual. The president was given the responsibility of enforcing all laws. Lincoln carried the spirit of equality still further. That the freest people on earth should have bondsmen seemed to the great emancipator the gravest of wrongs and in liberating the slaves, he pledged his allegiance to the Declaration of Independence, insisting that "All men are created equal." The growth of the American constitutional ideas did not end here. In our own day we have seen the ballot given to women, making them politically equal with man, enjoying the same liberties and having equal voice in the same democracy. 43