Word: wars
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Dates: during 1910-1919
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When the full history of the great World War is written geography will be understood as one of the fundamental causes. When white people migrated into Europe from west central Europe they found a land divided by mountain ranges and arms of the sea into small geographic provinces. This led to the growth of numerous small countries. Physical geography, by isolating peoples, leads to national strength and often to international animosity...
...physical features became of the greatest strategic importance. The east-facing escarpment in France formed natural defenses of Paris. In the effort of the German army to approach Verdun from the east fully 500,000 men were sacrificed in trying to capture the heights east of that city. The war became a "War of Positions". The topographic situation of each town was important. The position of the Chemin des Dames was important because of its elevation, so the positions of Vimy Ridge and the Messines Ridge were fought for most bitterly. Each river valley in northern France played a part...
...war has awakened in the American people an interest in geography, an appreciation of the significance of geographic factors in the control of industrial and commercial life. Every man interested in large business enterprises should be trained in geography; every man who expects to travel in foreign lands or to enter government service should understand the geography in his own country and that of the world...
There is a phrase which is subtly returning to a too frequent use among students in the University, it is the two-word phrase "getting by". The current vocabulary lost this unfortunate expression during the win-the-war days. Then, anyone who employed it would have been looked upon with well-founded suspicion that he was shirking his duty. The best only was expected, and the best was given unhesitatingly by all. But as President Lowell warned the Freshmen earlier in the year, "the great moral effort which this war has required will surely be followed by a period...
...poor indeed; for he has dropped out of the race in life and but impedes the way for those behind. If a student is merely "getting by" he is a liability to himself and to the University whose advantages he simply prevents someone else from obtaining. The win-the-war need for moral effort is past, but the need for moral effort exists as strongly as before. The student who merely aims to "get by" is a slacker in times of peace no less than in times of war...