Brattleboro Union High School - Colonel Yearbook (Brattleboro, VT)

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PRINCIPAL JOSEPH A. WIGGIN

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WITH A GENUINE APPRECIATION OF HER EVER-PRESENT DESIRE AND WILLINGNESS TO COOPERATI OF HER UNFAILING SINCERITY AND HER UNTIRING EFFORTS IN REORGANIZING THE SPOTLIGHT, AND OF HER KINDLY FRIENDLINESS TO ALL, WE GRATEFULLY DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO ELIZABETH DAGGETT LORD

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PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS Alumni, members of the faculty, parents, and friends: HE class of 1936 welcomes you to its Class Day Exer- -I-cises-the first of our commencement program. We approach this epoch of our lives with varied feelings and emotions. There is a feeling of sadness and regret that we are about to leave this building with its ivy-covered walls which have sheltered us for the past four years and with which are bound up so many pleasant associations. They are associations which we will recall again and again in the years to come, and which have left their work on our lives for all time. Then there is a feeling of appreciation and gratitude. We appreciate the privilege that has been ours of spend- ing the past four years in this school. We are grateful to those who have made this privilege possible-to our parents and to our teachers to whom we take this op- portunity of expressing our sincere thanks. But most of all, perhaps, there is a feeling of anticipa- tionianticipation of what the future has in store for us. The words of Whittier, I know not what the future hath of marvel or surprise, may well be ours as we leave this building. Some of us are to continue our scholastic educa- tion, and some of us are to take our places in the world of business, now a world of strife, of unrest, of changing standards--a world in which the unexpected is always happening-a world in which it is hard to keep pace with the astonishing progress which is being made in the fields of science and research-a world in which one may well wonder if any person or any nation asks the question, Am I my brother's keeper ? Ours is to be the privilege and the responsibility of going out into this amazing world to take our places be- side those who have gone before us, and, with them, to glory in the attempt to solve the problems which are con- fronting our modern civilization. It is then, my pleasure, in behalf of the class of 1936, to welcome you to the Class Day Exercises of Brattleboro High School. -Paul Burnham CLASS ORATION 6-Men THE sensational captures of john Dillinger, Machine- Gun Kelly, Baby-Face Nelson, Alvin Karpis, Ma Barker, Tommy Robinson and Bill Mahan as blared forth from the scare headlines of every news daily in the United States have made us all G-man conscious. These ace operators of the Federal Bureau of Investiga- tion of the Department of Justice, to give them their full name, have made the reign of every Public Enemy No. 1 brief indeed, and no longer does a gangster revel in being the holder of this title. But with all that has been printed about the G-men, surprisingly little has been said about the methods which they employ-the science behind it all. Many important facts and figures have been left out of the newspaper accounts altogether. The present personnel and efficiency of the Division of Investigation began in 1924, when john Edgar Hoover was appointed director. Hoover started immediately to clean house, and gradually eliminated the political job holders. He began the extensive collection of fingerprints which is now the largest in the world. He established a training school, in which each Special Agent learns the latest technique in crime detection, the proper presenta- tion of evidence in court, and how to shoot fast and straight. Each prospective G-man must attend this school for eight weeks. This shooting fast and straight is espe- cially emphasized, for, as Mr. Hoover said, The only thing gangsters fear is death. They don't mind jails, be- cause they can get out of them or be released on parole- the biggest racket in the country. But they fear a man who meets them with his gun and can shoot quicker and straighter than they do. Today, the division is a quick functioning machine with many ramifications. The organized brains, courage, and skill of many men can always overcome that of a few. Five hundred and fifteen trained investigators, backed up by the identification and scientific laboratories, and com- bined with local and state police, constitute a vast law and order machine which no single criminal can long defeat. He can't fight an army. The Division of Investiga- tion has offices in thirty cities. Men are shifted as the need arises. Of the division's investigative personnel, 373 have college degrees, while over 83 per cent have legal training or were expert accountants before entering the service. This group does not investigate violations of the narcotic laws, postal laws, smuggling, counterfeiting and immigration. It does investigate such matters as bank-