Boston Latin School - Liber Actorum Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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refinement and gentle manners, but a fighter — tough, hard, resourceful and, when necessary, merciless. One might think that subjection to such a process would surely injure a man’s spiritual and moral fiber. The fact is that a man can go through all this and come out of it clean and wholesome and finer in character than ever. Tak- ing part in it is not what will degrade him, but rather failure to take his part in it. The case is simply this: a hard, dirty job has to be done; there’s no getting away from it; but when it ' s done — done so thoroughly that it will never have to be done over again — you ' ll wash your hands and try to forget it. No one can say just how soon that job will be finished. My earnest advice is that, when the war is over, you keep resolutely to your purpose of completing your college education. The world is going to need educated men as never be- fore; men of trained minds, sound judgment, and broad vision; men who can face new and unforeseen situations without panic, but with confidence and cool determination. The job of the soldier is plain and clean-cut. He knows his objective and how to reach it. The job of setting the world in order after the war, on the other hand, is not only manifold, but quite unpredictable. To men- tion only one phase of it, there will be the work of transforming industrial plants from the work of war to that of peace. That problem appears simple compared to many others, for all we have to do is to reverse the wheels that turned these plants from peace to war. But that change-over will cause disloca- tion of large economic groups and will stir up conflicts of interests which will be wide-spread and far-reaching. These post-war problems will not be solved overnight. They may take years to settle. We of an older generaion will be affected by them only briefly. They will be your problems; and the wisdom and training which you bring to the settling of them will determine the kind of world your generation will live in for the rest of your lives. Therefore it behooves you, and all young men in your situation, to equip yourselves, by thorough education, to be active and intelligent leaders in the coming period of readjustment. That will be your duty, and your great privilege. Page Eleven

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In other years, graduation has meant the passing from the restriction of school to the greater freedom of college; from close and constant supervision to a condition more or less of self-dependence. This year, the transition is from the comparatively light restrictions of school to the rigid discipline of the armed forces. School work used to be the foundation for further studies in college, whose final aim was to make each of you a more cultured and enlightened contributor to the intellectual and spiritual life of the community. Now your college work — the higher mathematics, science, technical studies, and even languages — will aim to mould you into a more skilful and efficient agent of destruction. Your disciplinary training will have for its purpose to make you, not a person of Page Ten

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ENGLISH DEPARTMENT Front row (left to right): Messrs. Taylor Marson, Hobbs, Benson, head; Sands, Russo, Cleary. Rear row: Dunn, Collins, Callanan, Mahan, Brickley, Finn, O’Keefe, Sheahan. DEPARTMENT Front row (left to right): Arnold, Levine, head; Pike. Rear row: Sullivan Fitzgerald, McGaffin. Pane Twelve