Quincy High School - Goldenrod Yearbook (Quincy, MA)

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ALUMNI KAMO DEBATES THE WORLD I submit herewith the gem which you requested of me. You may print some of it, all of it, or none of it, as you please. I trust that it satisfies. If not, please consign it to the near- est wastebasket. The entrance of the radio into the American scene has revolutionized a good many aspects of modern ife, but none any more than public speaking. The early twenties saw the decline of oratory to a point where the Con- gressman with the wilted collar was an object of mirth rather than re- spect. The advent of radio trans- ported public speaking back to its former eminence, but in a different form. Radio speaking does not admit of those blasting barrages to which Fourth of July audiences have long been subject. Rather the speaker wins an audience by clear, concise sentences easily understood. Where superlatives were the custom before, they inspire only a quick turn of the dial today. College debating has felt the dif- ference, of course. Although the operators of radio stations and chains were as slow in putting on debates over the air as the colleges were in requesting them to do so, college radio debating has at last arrived. It has its disadvantages, but they are outweighed by its benefits. In the first place, old style gesticula- tion and blatant bellowing have been mercifully relegated to the limbo of the passe- Secondly, the time being limited, superfluous verbiage means simply a waste of time. There is no one to smile an encouraging smile; the gallery gods are gone. In place of all this there stands a hard, cold, forbidding, metal “mike,” whose kiss is death to more than one unfortu- nate accustomed to the plaudits of his admiring friends. Radio speaking in debate has also radically changed debating tech- nique. The audience is no longer to be considered as a dozen to a few hundreds, but as thousands of indi- viduals, each with a personal reac- tion. Greater care is necessary in preparation. Each statement must have substantial authority behind it. The hundreds of letters which Har- vard teams have received on their debates emphasize the fact that painstaking care in preparation is absolutely necessary. Where before an exaggeration might be resorted to with some effect, it is potential suicide now. The facts are of para- mount importance. Of course a new bag of tricks has been invented. Two years ago an English team arrived in Cambridge and the Harvard men noticed that their opponents were wont to sub- stantiate their remarks with author- ities possessing unpronounceable names. After the debate was over, one of the Harvard men asked the reason. “Oh, you know,” explained the Englishman, “it’s a jolly good idea. You fellows can’t quote them back at us.” This so impressed one of our men that in Harvard’s first radio debate three years ago over WLS in Chicago, he determined to experi- ment with the idea. The subject under discussion being disarmament, he searched for the name of a foreign authority on disarmament de Madariaga, who was the first am- and finally hit upon that of Salvatore bassador from the new Spanish re- public to the United States. He practised diligently until he could pronounce the name with lightning- like rapidity. I don’t believe that those present in the studio at Chi- cago will soon forget the moment when our opponent in rebuttal rose to refute the statements attributed to Senor de Madariaga. His speech was five minutes of the most pitiful stammering, hesitation, and general distress that WLS had witnessed in many a day. “Who is this—? Who is

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27 THE GOLDEN-ROD This letter is an example of the many received in the Exchange De- partment, and show the type of criticism sent out. We have a total of fifty-six exchanges. Fifteen let- ters have been sent out since the last issue, and eighteen magazines received. Our venture in writing let- ters has proved successful, and we hope they will continue coming in. We acknowledge receipt of the following: “The Hebronite,” Hebron College and Academy, Hebron, Nebraska. “The Imp,’ Brighton High School, Brighton, Massachusetts. “The Broadcaster,” Joseph Kohn High School of Commerce for Girls, New Orleans, Louisiana. “Mountaineer,” Hazleton Senior High School, Hazleton, Pennsyl- vania. “Bow Wow,” Williams High School, May, Texas. “The Partridge.” Duxbury High School, Duxbury, Massachusetts. “The Clarion,” Essex Junction High School, Essex Junction, Ver- mont. “Manet,” North Quincy High School, North Quincy, Massachu- setts. “The Lantern,” Limestone Col- lege, Gaffney, South Carolina. “Arielette,” East Maine Confer- ence Seminary, Bucksport, Maine. “Monad,” Belleville High School, Belleville, New Jersey. “Neversink Notes,” Port Jervis Junior High School, Port Jervis, New York. “Artesan,” Mechanic Arts High School, Boston, Massachusetts. “Lawrence High School Bulletin,” Lawrence High School, Lawrence, Massachusetts. “The Mirror,” Waltham Senior High School, Waltham, Massachu- setts. “The Tattler,” Nashua High School, Nashua, New Hampshire. “The Crescent,” Samuel D. Hamp- ton High School, Buckston Center, Maine. “The Echo,” Winthrop High School, Winthrop, Massachusetts. “The Mercury,” West Springfield High School, West Springfield, Mas- sachusetts. “The Clarion, Jamaica Plain High School, Jamaica Plain. Massa- chusetts. A BAD HABIT At the night wore on and lights winked out one by one, the old man walked from room to room. The lights were dim and the shades drawn. Tirelessly the clock ticked off the minutes, striking the hours, and as two o’clock went by, he turned off the lights. Putting on a coat he left the house. Rapidly he darted behind the hedge nearest him and breaking into a run disappeared into the trees beyond. He twisted and turned to shake off possible pur- suit, finally coming to a stop beneath an unusually large tree. With a last glance around, he swiftly shed his coat and grabbing a low branch, swung up into the lowest branches of the tree. There he crouched and listened. Hearing nothing he crept out on the branch, and grasping the overhanging limb of the next tree. leaped across as agile as a monkey. Climbing up ten feet or so, he reached into his pocket and, draw- ing forth a small bag emptied it into a hole which was cut so as to be un- noticeable from the ground. The hoarder had added to his pile. Oscar Ha 11 berg. “OUR” BRIARS My I)ad (he smokes a pipe you see) Once said: I cannot for the life of me See why your Ma will never let Me grab a chair and smoke, and set.’' He smokes and smokes his old briar pipe Until it seems to get so ripe That you can nearly hear it sins: A funny song-like gurgling. Now when I get as big and old As I)ad with lots of kids to scold. • You bet the time will then be ripe For me to set and smoke my pipe. I'll never let a wife of mine Keep telllin' me to be refined. I'm just a-goin' to smoke and set In my front room and read—you bet. George W. Tarr.

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THE GOLDEN-ROD 29 this—?” he fumed in conclusion, and then overcome by utter weakness rushed, or rather staggered, for the nearest chair. That day a new idea in radio debating was born. With the radio, the opportunities for furthering intersectional and in- ternational good will are boundless. In the past two years Harvard teams have been pioneers in the field of long-distance debating. Last spring, the great cross-country debate was held over seventy stations, with Har- vard speaking from Boston, the Uni- versity of Chicago from Chicago, the chairman and judges being in New York. That gave the two broadcast- ing systems some new ideas. This year Harvard debated Stanford in a trans-continental meeting and a week later debated Oxford in a trans- Atlantic broadcast, both broadcasts being the first of their kind. The technical difficulties involved in such broadcasts are extremely great, and both debates were unique in radio engineering. That these discussions served a double purpose, being at the same time vehicles for argument on vital issues as well as agents for increased good will be- tween sections and nations, was testified by clippings from papers on the Pacific Coast and in England which were received in Cambridge. To those who stood in the studios of the National Broadcasting Company in New York and spoke informally to their English friends in the Lon- don studio before the debate was put on the air, the great possibilities of radio were apparent. Even though only the weather was discussed over the Atlantic Ocean the thrill of re- ferring to that trite subject with the Oxford men was a tremendous one. Although femininity as at present constituted is good enough for most of us, who knows whether or not someone may yet call up his girl friend on Mars? Think it over, Soph- omores! ! TEXAS Texas of course is one of the im- portant states when the raising of cattle and sheep is considered, and while Missouri has always been con- sidered the most important mule raising state, Texas really holds this honor, if the raising of mules could be considered an honor. A student at the University of Texas once wrote in an essay on the State of Texas: “If all of the cows in Texas were rolled into one big cow, she could stand with her hind feet in the Great Lakes and brush the Auro- ra Borealis with her tail. If all the hogs in Texas were rolled into one big hog, he could root a ditch as big as the Panama Canal in three roots. If all of the roosters in Texas were rolled into one big rooster, he could stand on the North Pole and crow so loud that the crack of doom would sound like the tick of an Ingersoll watch in comparison.” Texas really is quite a wonderful State. It contains all kinds of cli- mate, high and dry, low and swampy, hot, cold. She has mountains, for- ests, plains and deserts. She has deposits of gold, silver, lead, zinc, potash, coal, iron and oil. She raises wheat, cotton, fruits, cattle, turkeys, hogs. She manufactures many things and is growing as a manufacturing State. The above reads as though it were scribbled by a “native son” of Cali- fornia about his own state, but it is only by an adopted son of Texas. Imagine what a “native son” would sav! George R. Prout, Q. H. S.T7. FROM A POET I am tempted to tell you a secret. It has always been a quiet ambition with me to have something published in the “Golden Rod.” While I was there at Quincy High I submitted some poetry to the magazine, but because those poems were rather un- polished and puerile they were not Paul Reardon, J’27.