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

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PARKER WILLARD BATES, Vocational School ; Class President COLIN CAMPBELL GILLIS, Vice-President LEONARD HOLBROOK NADELL, Secretary-Treasurer WILLIAM AUGUSTINE CONNELL, Class Marshal □ a

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SALUTATORY ADDRESS IT ' S UP TO US By FREDERICK NORTON BATES CHASE RIENDS of the class of 1941, we welcome you on this memorable day. Mr. Thrbadeau and members of the School Committee, we bid you welcome down the long corridors of education to this bright day. Mr. Thibadeau and members of the School Committee, we bid you welcome and thank you for the opportunities you have given us in Weymouth schools. Mothers and fathers, and those dearest to us, we extend our welcome to you. IT ' S UP TO US Every newspaper we scan to-day tells stories of horror and destruction raging in Europe and Asia. We are appalled to think that civilized white men could wreak such desolation. Gladly we turn our eyes to America, to bright green fields, to the quiet security and rugged splendor of our national parks and forests; and we rejoice that we live in a land not yet scarred by war ' s ravages. But America is scarred, terribly scarred, not by a dictator ' s greedy lust, but by our hands. Yes, our own avarice and thoughtlessness has caused fearful desola- tion in this beautiful country. From the beginning, America has been a land wealthy in natural resources. When the first settlers came here, they found dense tracts of virgin timber and many deep navigable rivers. Crossing the Appalachians, they discovered broad, rolling prairies. Many years later, pioneers of a different type discovered vast deposits of minerals and fuels beneath the earth. As is usual amid abundance, waste of these advantages occurred. Millions of acres of forests were burned just to get rid of them. The plains were robbed of their fertility. The mines were cleaned out of all the best grade ore, easiest to obtain, and then abandoned. One of the greatest causes of waste was the ruinous farming and overgrazing practised in former years. When the land was exhausted, the homesteader would move to a new plot, leaving the old one with no protective grass covering to hold the soil. The ranchers did the same by grazing too many cows per acre. The grass was cut short and then stamped out by the steers. Since the Great Plains are subject to strong winds, it was not long before the rich, loose soil had been blown into other states. Water now had a chance to do its destructive work. Formerly the grass helped absorb the water and then allowed it to seep off gradually. With the grass gone, the water rushed along the surface, cutting deep and wide gullies in the earth in a few hours. Such carelessness has turned large productive areas into sterile desert wastes. A second exorbitant waste has occured in our forests. With early settlers it was a case of man against the forest, not man with the forests. Because this feel- □ a