Leominster High School - Magnet Yearbook (Leominster, MA)

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Of War and Peac e IS SGOL— DI “Ense petit placidam sub liberate quietem” —‘With the sword she seeks peace under liberty.” Did you know, classmates, that the pre- ceding quotation is the motto of the Common- wealth of Massachusetts? Mottos are often not very pertinent. Ours, however, concerns us directly, for it describes what we are about to do. Very soon, most of us will be fighting for peace in the armed services of our country, or on the production front. It is important to us that we are going to fight for peace rather than for a madman’s insatiable desire for power. It matters that instead of being considered machines for the propagation and enforcement of military dictatorship, as Japanese soldiers and factory workers are, we shall fight for peace. Should fate decree that some of our class- mates lay down their lives so that we can reach our goal, we will never feel that they have died in vain, as surely the Italians must, who have nothing to gain, no matter how the tide of battle turns. When I say we are going to fight for peace, I don’t mean the temporary type of armistice which followed the last conflict. Our idea of peace includes freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. It’s up to us to win that peace, Class of ’43! M. F. =i 9 hie

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Time for Greatness At the risk of plagiarizing the title of Herbert Agar’s book, I am going to talk briefly with you on the task which lies ahead. Many of us middle-aged men and women have been donning sackcloth and ashes, beating our breasts, and crying aloud that our pettiness in the months following World War I was responsible for the staggering sacrifices you are called upon to make. I hope that we really mean it when we say that “our failure to assume our share of responsibility for international co-operation was so unpardonable that we should look at the end of this war to the younger generation to share the responsibilities which will be ours.” No doubt you are surfeited with all this talk from us older people. Many of u s forget that when we were your age the mouthings of the oldsters meant but little to us. We do know, however, that you are, on the whole, a healthier lot than we were 25 years ago. We know that to help you at the end of this war, will be a history of the mistakes we made at the end of the last one. Our aim now is victory. This excuses none of us from giving thought to the kind of world we want to live in after the war and to the blue prints which are being prepared for this kind of world. Let no one deceive you by saying, “There is time for nothing now, but fighting and winning the war.” There is plenty of time for planning the peace. Every literate American citizen should read Louis Adamic’s TWO-WAY PASSAGE, Norman Angell’s LET THE PEOPLE KNOW, and similar plans for making World War II the last World War. You have seen how my generation enlisted in a “war to end wars” and how we failed to win the peace. You have our mistakes to guide you. This is a time for greatness. You will not fail. DD, Sala

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Edward Mullan Class Of fice rs. : Margaret Russell . de Doris Bourvous