Weekly Messenger - 1918 December 7

              The Weekly Messenger
Devoted to the Interests of the Student Body, Washington State Normal School
VOL. XVIII. BELLINGHAM, WASH., SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1<'18 NO. 10.
Sister's League meets every Mon­day
night in the sewing rooms on
first floor.
The Rural Life Club will meet
Thursday, December 19 in room 120.
L STU-I
Majbel Aaberg, a former Normal
student, fassed away, a victim of tu­berculosis,
November 18th, at Lake-view
Sanitarium, after an illness of
several months.
She had attended Normal for two
years, and taught at Lakeview last
year until March, when her failing
health compelled her to give up her
school duties. Funeral services were
held November 20th. Among the flor­al
offerings was a large wreath from
her pupils, and a bouquet of roses from
Bellingham friends.
Mabel Aaberg was born in Min­nesota
May 13, 1895. She^came west
with her parents in 1900, and since
then has lived at Roy, Wash.
She leaves to mourn her early de­parture,
her parents, Mr. and Mrs. E.
E. Aaberg, three sisters and three
brothers, one of whom is serving
with the American army in France,
and a host of friends. One sister,
Eleanor, was a student at the Nor­mal
High in 1916-17.
Among her friends at Normal Ma­bel
will be remembered as an indus­trious,
ambitious student, a favorite
with teachers and students alike,
having a special fondness for music
and nature study.
When told by her doctors that she
could not live, she declared she she
would fool them all, she had so
much to live for. During her last
hours she spoke of 3ellingham and
the good times she had here, saying
it was the best year of her life. She
asked to be buried in the dress she
wore when she played the commence­ment
march for the class of '17. .
"None knew thee but to ove thee,
None named thee but to praise."
Miss Olive Watson, '12, a teacher
in the Los Angeles schools, was suf­fering
from neuritis, and in order to
regain her health, she started north
working her way from city to city.
It took lier three months to come
north, but she is now feeling well
and strong again.
The Messenger feels all associated
with the Normal will be glad to read
this letter, direct from Dr. Mathes:
Rainy, France, Nov. 6, 1918.
Pres. G. W. Nash, Bellingham, Wash.,
U. S. A.
My Dear Dr. Nash:
It hardly seems possible that it is
almost six months since I came into
this land of war and sacrifice, but
the officers of the "Y" at Paris tell
me that the date is here for a rest
and a change, so today finds me at a
little hotel, in a comfortable village
far to the north of the great French
metropolis, spending the night on my
way in a Ford to the one city in
France that we may mention in our
letters, the great French capital. I
left our headquarters in the extreme
north of old Picardy, at nine this A.
M., drove 85 kilometers, stopped with
French friends for lunch, then made
a drive of 65 kilometers this after­noon,
reaching here at four-thirty. It
is dark on rainy days in these parts
soon after four o'clock at this season
of the year. I hope to reach Paris by
noon, if I have no more serious mis­haps
than I have borne so far—a
leaky radiator that runs empty every
thirty minutes, and a leaky tube that
requires pumping up every two hours.
Let me add, however, that we con­sider
such conditions as these very
minor troubles—so long as "Henry"
will go at all we are quite contented.
I have not met a Bellingham boy
since I came over here. I did meet
one who had formerly lived there,
but whom I did not know at the time
—but I was fortunate enough to meet
Revs. Wilson, Hudson, and King, all
on the streets of Paris at different
times
It seems good to see many Ameri­cans
on the streets of Paris, and it
makes one feel glad he is an Ameri­can
when he sees how grateful many
of the French people are for our as­sistance
in the war. And one further
must ride over the devastated areas
tc appreciate how much the French
people have suffered and lost in the
struggle. During the past two months
it has been necessary for me to ride
repeatedly over long stretches of this
desolate waste, and I have often
wished I might be able to take one
of the ruined districts and transport
it, in all its desolation, to the U. S.,
and set it down outside of New York
or Chicago, where large numbers of
our people could see it. They would
then know why we are in this war,
and know why it is so very necessary
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OF
Word was received at the Normal
this week that Miss Mary L. Jensen,
for many years head of the Latin
and German .Departments of this
school, was married in September to
Mr. W. O. Shackelford, of New Jer­sey.
The news came as a distinct sur­prise
to the many friends of Miss Jen­sen
among both faculty and students.
Miss Jensen was one of the most
popular teachers ever associated with
the Normal. She was a Sponsor and
patient adviser of the Philomathean
Literary Society from its birth ten
years ago until last year when she
resigned from school. For years she
was Secretary of the Faculty and
Chairman of the Life Diploma Com­mittee.
None of Miss Jensen's inti­mate
friends suspected when she
went' east last summer that she con­templated
matrimony. Her marriage
is the -culmination of a youthful ro­mance,
from her early college days.
Mr. Shackelford is Government Meat
Inspector for New Jersey, and at
present their address is 16 Oak
Street, Weehawken, New Jersey.
THANKSGIVING TEA IS
SERVED BY Y J . C J .
On Thanksgiving Eve. the girls of
the Normal Y. W. C. A. served a tea
in the rest room on the third floor,
to which, all the members df the
school were invited.
After a solid hour, refreshments
were served and many charming se­lections
rendered on the piano by Miss
Avis Dodge and Florence Townsend;
also on the phonograph. Everyone
was gay and happy and seemed to be
having a great time. It was surpris­ing
how fast the wafers and cookies
disappeared, directly after such a
plentiful Thanksgiving dinner.
LIEUTENANT BEN TIDBALL.
Ben Tidball, who at one time at­tended
B. S. N. S., has been commis­sioned
a lieutenant of artillery by
the School of Fire, Saumner, France.
He graduated from Whatcom High
in this city in 1910, attended the
Normal one year, and was taking a
law course at the University when he
enlisted. After leaving the officer's
training camp at Camp Lewis, and
passing the mathematical texamina-tion
at Camp Jackson, S. C, he was
sent to France, where he has already
distinguished himself.
OR. HERRE'S IDEAS
In this momentous period of the
world the magazines ore crowded
with articles giving various thinkers'
ideas as to what policies the world
is to follow in dealing with the prob­lems
of the great war.
In the last issue of the "New Re­public,"
John Dewey, of Columbus
University, gives some inspiring and
illuminating liberal ideas.
The Messenger thot it would be of
great interest to its readers to pre­sent
them some of the opinions from
the head of the Science Department
of the Normal, our own Dr. Herre.
Dr. Herre is a bioligst of great
scholarship, having secured his Ph. D.
degree ^rom Stanford under tihle
tutelage of David Starr Jordan. He
has worked in the Imperial Museum
of • Vienna. Unlike many scientists
whose interests are materialistic, Dr.
Herre is a philosopher, an idealist,
and something of a poet.
A summary of his ideas follow:
One of the great questions of today
is, "Shall the United States govern­ment
retain the railroads?" Those
especially interested will enjoy the
article by Weyle in the "New Re­public."
It has been argued that thru gov­ernment
ownership comes the danger
of building up an official caste which
would enable a small number to con­trol
the nation. The recent govern­ment
control of railroads, and the
operation of the United States post-office
has proved the fallacy of the
argument.
American people have allowed
most things to be controlled by pri­vate
industries and corporations be­cause
of their fear of a paternalistic
government.
The United States is behind every
other nation, except Japan, in im­proving
the industrial conditions of
its people, and in giving them equal
opportunities in the ownership and
use of land.
During the war period, business en­terprises
spent incredible sums of
money for further destruction. It is
the general opinion of scientists that
if even a part of this money and en­ergy
had been used with the knowl­edge
already gained in chemistry,
physics and biology, all people could
have an equal access to the resources
of nature.. By utilizing our resources
we could abolish a large number of
diseases that injure man, his do­mestic
animals, and his crops. We
could speed up production so that
there would be plenty of food and the
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