Natick High School - Sassamon Yearbook (Natick, MA)

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ADDRESS OF WELCOME AND GRATIGN EN PASSANT Parents, teachers, and friends, it is my pleasant duty, as Presi- dent of the Class of 1927, to welcome you to these Class Day Exer- cises. You, who have followed us in our joys and sorrows during the past. four years, are today giving us your moral support, as we come to this first real milestone of life. Now that we are to take a more active part in life, we question- what is our aim and p-urpose in life? What shall we try to attain? Is it money? Is it an easy job? Can we honestly believe that We shall be satisiied with either of these? Everyone is trying to make money-that is a perfectly legitimate- aim. Samuel Johnson once said, There are few occupations in which men can be more harmlessly employed than in making money. It is not money that is the root of all evil, but the love of money. If we ask how much of ourselves we are Willing to sell for money, I feel sure that we would not, knowingly, sell our health. John D. Rockefeller has a fabulous income, but who of us would be willing to exchange our youth and health for his age and inlirmities? You undoubtedly remember the story of the greedy king, Midas, who prayed that everything he touched might become gold. After his prayer was granted, even his food turned to gold and his beloved little daughter, while in the act of embracing him, became a golden statue. There are a good many potential Midases today, truly they have not the Midas touch, but they have the Midas look. The dollar sign is their gauge. True Worth is indistinguishable to them, for the universe has become a balance sheet, their minds are adding ma- chines, their hearts beat in tune with the ticker. We know that no man can get money without giving something for it. The wise man, therefore, gives labor and ability. The posi- tions we obtain when We start to work-whether now or four or eight years hence-are due largely to the education given us. What prog- ress we make after the age of twenty-five, however, depends upon us. That progress will be dependent upon the amount of study we devote to our job. Vice-President Henry Wilson said, Want sat by my cradle. I know what it is to ask my mother for bread when she had none to give. I left home when ten years of age and served an apprenticeship of eleven years, receiving one month's schooling each year, and, at the end of eleven years of hard work, a yoke of oxen

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1927 7 TEA LL FOOTBA

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6 THE SASSAMON and six sheep, which brought me S,S84. Still, during those eleven years of hard work, he managed to read and study over one hundred hooks. Many really big men master new subjects yearly. Gladstone took up a new language when he was over seventy. When a man ceases to study, he ceases to grow. Emerson said, The gods sell any- thing to everybody at a fair price. This is really the philosophy of business. The job that can be learned in two hours' training is worth just what it costs, the only job which is worth much is that which demands unceasing study and work. That doesn't mean a disparagement of lowly toil. Those who perform lowly, humble duties well and cheerfully are contributing their bit to the advancement of the world. Carlyle preached the dig- nity of labors-and he followed his own preaching. With diligence are allied two other qualities equally necessary for success: enthusiasm and imagination. Napoleon's enemies used to call him the 100,000 man -meaning that his vim and enthusiasm injected into the army a spirit equal to that of 100,000 men. Be- cause of that enthusiasm he inspired his soldiers to seemingly impos- sible achievements. History records the results of imagination, with- out it, Columbus would never have dared to sail away to our shores, if Watts hadn't watched the steam from the tea kettles, and dreamed a dream, the steam engine might not have materialized, if Benjamin Franklin had not played with his famous kite, 175 years ago this month, the present day electrical miracles might still be unknowng il' the Wright brothers hadn't dreamed and experimented, aviation would not have made such remarkable progressg if Bismarck had not dreamed of military power, he would not have developed such a war machine and the World War might have been averted. Practically all modern business of importance is the result of some dreamer's vision and enthusiasm. Without enthusiasm and intelligent imagina- tion Col. Charles Lindbergh would never have undertaken his epoch- niaking trans-Atlantic flight. With enthusiasm and imagination there is needed what has been termed a divine discontent to make a man dissatisfied with his in- telligence and to stimulate him to further study, to urge him to qualify for a bigger, better position, to cause him to enlist in Hbetter- ment movements , to strive for really worth while things. If Lincoln had not had this spirit of discontent, he would have remained unlet- tered like his father, and the world would have lost a leader. This spirit of discontent stimulates mankind to nobler endeavor. On the other hand, a certain degree of contentment leads to the en- joyment of many pleasures. Some of the happiest experiences of life