Weymouth High School - Campus / Reflector Yearbook (Weymouth, MA)

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conditions cultural development and destruction would not have gone hand in hand. The twentieth century has wrought a tremendous change in the world. Governments have changed, educational opportunities have been enlargedg medi- cine and surgery have gone ahead by leaps and bounds, and science has revolu- tionized man's life. Yet all around us, in this age of advanced civilization, wars are being waged. It is the old story of ancient times-the survival of the fittest. Will man continue to destroy man and to undo his great wroksP That is the problem which faces us to-day. The seriousness of the problem was stressed by Herbert Hoover in a recent speech when he said, The tools of industry as well as warfare will destroy this civilization unless they be guided by men of high character. What should be our answer to this twentieth century challenge? Let us answer it in the words of the same statesman: Out of this technology and power over nature we must build stability and security for the common man, or fail. We must stiffen those elements of character and wisdom that will make these forces beneficial and not destructive. It is in education, morals, and character of men where our hopes must rest. This is the task which lies ahead of usg this is our life. SG if '55 SCX 'ized' 55' K 16

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ook down upon a busy street, and you will see a world in motion-people trucks, buses. In the distance, trains are speeding over the tracks and gliding into the station. Even now, an airplane whirrs across the sky. You are looking at transportation, to-day stirring chapter in the history ol the United States. For our history can be written in many ways-in politics, in art, in science-but equally as interesting, it can be written in the terms of travel and transportation. Let us turn back the pages of American history, and learn how our ancestors passed from covered wagons to trailer trucks, from canoe to steamboat: from stagecoaches to automobiles: from blazed trails to modern highways-always going forward with the purpose of bettering mankind by speedier and more comfortable methods of transportation. From earliest history, men have tended to wander. Quest for adventure has ever led them to travel. Desire for wealth has prompted them to seek means for marketing their goods. Eager longing for social contact demanded a more eilicient means of transportation. i The first method of travel was shoe-leather express , except that perhaps men had no shoes. Later, man learned to domesticate beasts of burden. The discovery of the wheel naturally was followed by the invention of wheeled vehicles-wagons, coaches, trains, automobiles. And so developed roads. However, it was not until 1775 that any concerted attempt was made by the Government to build a road as such. For more than a century, American pioneers had been occupied with the task of surviving, and transportation was of no im- mediate concern. But the old Indian trails did provide a route for travellers on loot and on horseback. With the outbreak of the Revolution, however, the need for roads was painfully obvious. In 1775, there were only three roads north and east from New York, and only one leading west from Philadelphia. General Washington found this lack of adequate roads as great a handicap in the conduct of his war as the lack of material supplies. .-Xt the time of Washington's inauguration, anyone really in a hurry went on horseback. But, with the advent of the nineteenth century came a new genera- lion that lived in the present and looked ahead into the future. Its members were eager to move forward with the purpose of bettering their country. Thus, it was natural that they demanded internal improvements, especially good roads and turnpikes, under Government aid. The result of this generation's demands for improvements in transportation facilities may be divided into three periods before the Civil War: turnpike and improved roadsg canals and improved riversg and railroads. Seventeen hundred and ninety-two marked the completion of the famous Lancaster Turnpike, the first scientihcally-built, hard-surfaced road in the United States. ' Shortly after this, the Federal Government came to realize the need for more and better roads, and, as a result, the National Road for, as it was more commonly known, the Cumberland Roadj was begun in 1811 southwest from Cumberland, Maryland. In 1818, it had been completed to Wheeling, West s lb I