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

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In wartime more and more research scientists are needed to work longer hours investigating more diversified fields. Under such a system more of the basic laws of nature are evolved. Also in wartime, inventors bend all their efforts towards contrivances applicable to winning the war. Heme, there are produced belter engines, more effective medicines, momentous achievements in the science ol communications, and many other advances all pointing to final victory. In the realm of industry, the effect of war is just as stimulating. Every manufacturer increases his output, and those plants not able to make war materials are remodeled so that their facilities may be utilized in making essential articles rather than their normal products. Every conceivable type ol factory is a masterpiece of human ingenuity in expeditious production. Now, let us examine the results of a speeded-up home front by watching a typical member of the armed forces. He gets up early in the morning and eats a hearty breakfast of food that has probably been shipped in a dehydrated condition, a process that saves much space and weight on cargo boats. After that, he sets about his daily routine, protected, if he is in such a zone, from serious tropical diseases by powerful treatments given him by the medical stafl. Next, our average fighting man goes out on field maneuvers, or perhaps it is a real battle. There he uses the most accurate weapons ever made, scientifically designed and under high-speed mass production in the United States. Or, maybe, he is in the air force fighting the enemy; still he uses the best planes, the best bombsights, the best radios, and the best of all equipment. He may be in a submarine, or a tank, or on a battleship or even in a commando unit; always he has the best that we can supply the fastest. Later in the day comes the most enjoyable part, V-mail from home; and there we have an undeniably outstanding achievement of the war. The solution that V-mail is providing to the all important problem of quick, facile transmission of morale-builders will stand as a monument to success. So we observe a world struggle. So we see the progressiveness of a world of science and industry in a time of turmoil. There we realize the true significance of unity and the application of that union to success; a combination furthered by trial helping to abolish its stimulant. Science is dependent on industry; industry depends on science; the present world crisis is dependent on both of these and the future of this nation depends on the successful outcome of the war. page thirteen

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The closer affiliation between science and industry that has developed from the present wartime emergency is one ol the most progressive steps yet realized from the war. Pure science, alone in the laboratory or textbook, is useless without a field ol application; and industry, without the advantage of scientific improvement, is a self-centred, non-advancing field. Let these two be joined, however, and ' we see the signs of man ' s ingenuity beginning to stir. Fix to these the necessity provided by war, and with startling speed the formula emerges spontaneously as the achievement ol success that we have today. Necessity is indeed the spark of life granted to this combination; and war, an unnecessary business, paradoxically supplies just the impetus needed. Fortunately, on our side, this nation stands, with test tube poised and welding torch ablaze, ready to provide for anything that is desired; for the winning strength in battles, for the superiority ol instruments and weapons, ' and for the utmost safety pre- cautions for our lighting men. Let us see how these developments emerge. Perhaps, in the midst ol a battle a soldier thinks of some gadget that might do a better job than some of the present equipment. He suggests this to one of the officers who makes a note of it. Eventually the idea gets back to the United States, and is referred to a group of scientists who study the problem. In time, if the project is feasible, it is perfected and turned over to our modern industrial organization. This group applies its principles of mass production, and with enemy-stunning alacrity a new weapon is produced and distributed. This is an example ol the cooperation between science and industry. Another instance. A naval officer complains that he must have a better submarine detector. Immediately, with scientific precision, old devices are analysed, defects corrected, improvements made, and new inventions tested. Soon, with the apparatus completed, it. too. goes to the assembly line; another product of this splendid co-operation helping to save lives and win the war. Thus, we see that in the course of war many previously unsuspected problems arise. With the aid of minute scientific investigation, discoveries are effected and then, by means of organized industry, these implements ol war are rapidly produced. Necessity is the incentive of co-operation which is the keynote of success. Progress is not limited to an emergency created by war, but is only accelerated by it. Constant research is being undertaken in laboratories through- out the country, and from time to time fundamental principles are discovered. A practical application of one or more of these principles is called an invention. page twelve

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The Strategy ol (i I o b a 1 Madeline lean Mitchell War THIS PRESEN T conflici presents us with mam innovations in warfare. It has introduced a strategy ol global war thai warns us to sit up and take notice. No longer can people remark with smug satisfaction, It Can ' t Happen Here! We in the United States are aware ol this fact. Science and industry, men and women, from all walks of life, have mobilized on the home-fron( for an all-out victory. What has caused this change to tome over us? Whv do citizens give up their leisure time to prepare for possible attacks from the air l an invader? The answer may be found in a new approach to the study ol geography, which has revolutionized military thinking in our present day. The origin of this study of geograph) can he traced to the beginning ol the 30th century. An Englishman named Mac Kinder saw that the globe consisted of one large island extending from the coastal countries ol Europe to the Orient, including at the same time Africa. On both sides ol this World Island were two formidable sea powers, Japan and Great Britain. Mac Kinder recognized that here was the basis for a new war strategy. Thus he set forth a perfect theory of geopolitics. It was: Whoever rules the East Europe commands the Heartland: who rules the Heartland commands the World Island rules the World. ' ' But the English paid little attention to his ideas that the combination of space and politics could lead to the conquest ol the world In one country. They had their powerful fleet. So what did they care about theories that were mere possibilities, while their sea power had made them the Empire on which the sun never sets? It remained for a clever German named Haushofer to make these theories a reality. After the first World War, while most Germans laid clown their arms and returned to peaceable occupations, Haushofer poured over military books, noting the errors of one campaign, the success of another. He sent men out to foreign countries to athletic contests, to ski resorts, to foreign colleges purposely to study the geography and political status of the countries in question. Every postcard and snapshot was studied, until Haushofer saw how the geographical factors of a territory influenced its politics. In his classrooms, he did not teach from old-style maps showing the long water routes from continent to continent, but used the new map of the Air Age, which from the point of view of one looking down from the North Pole, shows the closeness of the continents connected by the land bridges, such as the Aleutians, Alaska, Iceland, and Greenland. Since the earth is 9 12 water and 3j ]2 land, and Eurasia is 2 3 of this land, page fourteen