Lynn Classical High School - Classical Yearbook (Lynn, MA)

Page 10 text:

Glass Uratiun The Road Into The Future Paul Rhudick, 1947 Thorstein Veblen, in his essays In Our Chaging Order speaks of the twilight peace in which we are living. True, he was writing of the aftermath of World War I, but his remarks apply with equal pertinence today. And, indeed, as we look about us at these mysterious shapes which loom in the path- way of the future, as we consider our mental confusion about the tasks that con- front us, it becomes clear that we are living in the twilight of peace. What are some of the problems which darken with uncertainty the face of the future? How shall we cope with our difficulties and banish from our world the fogs of doubt and bewilderment so that we may find the path to the future, and come up out of the valley of confusion and armistice into the security of peace? In order to blaze the path ahead, it is well first to survey the clouds which obscure it. On every hand at home problems Vex and challenge us. There is, perhaps, first the distressing need for greater housing facilities. Millions of veterans still plod the street, searching for homes for their families. The government has made some faltering attempts to cope with this need, but the Taft-Ellender-Wagner Housing Bill to finance government loans for low cost housing is, at the moment, still being debated. Production lags woefully behind demand, and the houses which have been provided for veterans are, all too often, dreary reminders of the barracks which they have so recently va- cated to take the road back home. If there is to be a home at the end of the road, more initiative in extending credit to small householders not only by the government but by private bankers as well, and more resourcefulness in imple- menting large scale housing projects for permanent homes must be displayed by our leaders. Yet another difficulty confronts us as we seek the road to peace. Eco- nomic insecurity threatens our domestic market. Management and labor strive restlessly with each other, jockeying for that equitable relationship between cost, wages, and profit, which means a stable economic situation. There is as well, the problem, of the absorption of the returning veteran into the labor market without the rejection of those youth who, like our class, have come to maturity since the close of the war. How to dissolve through satisfying work the 9-20 clubs which plague veteran and civilian alike, how to find work for all, how to provide just wages comensurate with the cost of living and yet at the same time keep the profit motive in industry, how to erase the stresses and strains which have existed between labor and the public -these questions loom before us, obscuring the path of peace. To these questions answers must be found. Some of the answers lie perhaps in the hearts of the young men and women leaving our schools today. Can it not be that in the graduating classes bidding formal farewell to the schools of the nation this June there may be many of those intelligent supporters needed to strengthen our leaders who seek peaceful reconstruction! ezght

Page 9 text:

Presentation of Class Gift Michael Garnier It has long been the custom at Classical High School to present the school and the student body with some remembrance from the graduating class. This custom, traditional in our school, is one we have cherished and one we enjoy perpetuating. This year our class had no difficulty in making our choice of gift. In our school library we have many trophies, tangible evidence of our skill, and prowess in various lines of endeavor. These prizes we have greatly treasured and enjoyed. During this past year their number has been materially augmented because of the gratifying results Classical has attained in various competitive contests. That these momentos may be advantageously displayed, the Senior Class has selected as a gift a case which will serve not only as a container for these trophies, but as an embelishment for the halls of our school. To you, Gloria, as representative of the undergraduates, I take great pleasure in presenting this check to be used for the purchase of this case. With this gift we, the class of 1947, wish to express our appreciation to our Alma Mater, and to wish for the school many years of continuing service for the boys and girls of Lynn. - Acceptance of Class Gift Gloria Kalenow, 1948 Thank you Michael. It gives me great pleasure to accept the gift your class has so graciously selected for the school. Your choice is a particularly happy one, for the case you have described will indeed display to advantage our various trophies. To have them in one case as a year by year record of the achievements of the school is an arrangement fortunate and decorative. I wish to assure you, Michael, that as a representative of the school I well understand and appreciate the significance of your gift. As your class bestows this gift on Classical, in the spirit of affection so We will cherish it as a remembrance of you. That we shall miss you next year I need hardly say, for we hold you high in our affections. Today however, we congratulate you on the successful completion of your high school career. WE are happyvwith you in the satisfaction that we know must be yours at the moment. To you I extend the good wishes of Classical. May your future be joyous and bring to a happy fruition all the hopes, am- bitions, and ideals which today you cherish.

Page 11 text:

Akin to the housing and labor difficulties which beset us and, in fact, allied to them, perhaps growing from them, is the grave situation concerning juvenile delinquency. During the war while fathers fought at the battle front and mothers toiled on the production line, there arose a generation of so-called latch-key children, emancipated through many hours of the day and night from parental authority. Deprived of the stabilizing influence of adult leader- ship many of these children have become hardened to the morals of the street, and overstimulated by the excitement of the war, have begun to swell in appal- ling numbers, the offenders filing through our juvenile courts. How can we sal- vage these childreng how can we reeducate their hearts to worthy living? Every adult, young and old alike, might well pause and give thought to these questions. For, America cannot afford to lose the fight against juvenile delin- quency. If she does, the war against the axis will have been won in vain. Still other distresses plague our domestic consciousness. What of the mili- tary situation? In an unsettled world is it safe almost completely to divide our military establishments? Shall we disband the armies, abandon our bases, scrap our equipment? Shall we rid ourselves of that mysterious entity called the army mind ? Does not democracy itself demand that we return to the easy going ways of peace? Yet just as we are about to give a whole hearted, yes in answer, uneasy whispers halt us. There is trouble abroad in the world. The armies fight in China. The lights go off in England because coal is short. In Berlin, the dis- placed persons from their bombed-out cellars plot confusion to the conqueror. Britain and Russia jockey for power in the Middle East. In India the Moselem fights the Hindu. In Palestine the Arab fights the Jew, and all alike fight the Briton. Starvation and malnutrition stalk in many lands. Are We so sure the dread four hoursemen of Apocalypse will not ride again? We have cut our mili- tary establishment down to the bone. Shall we diminish it still more? The answer is that we do not know. Confusion of mind assails us on yet another point. Man has made himself a new, a terrifying, and mysterious weapon of destruction of which we are joint custodian. What shall we do with the atomic bomb? How shall we share with others nations the mysterious and awful knowledge which may rule the future, may indeed decide whether the future will ever eventuate? The answer to this questfon we have sought in our own council with the United Nations. But whether man has the moral force to surmount and control his knowledge and power to destroy is one of the awful mysteries which darken the path ahead. Turning for the moment from our domestic questions to survey the in- ternational scene, we find that in this sphere of our life as a nation also, the mists of confusion beset us. How shall we use the power and prestige which have come to us as a result of the war? How shall we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and harbor the harborless of those lands which look to us for hope? We have sought within the United Nations through the International Bank, and through the International Monetary Fund, to find the solution to some of these problems of success, yet we cannot breathe too easily. There is no stability in international markets, already our economists are whispering that the British loan will have exhausted itself by August of '48 without accomplishing its purpose of helping sagging Britain to her feet. 721716