Brockton High School - Brocktonia Yearbook (Brockton, MA)

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GRADUATION ADDRESS Tl-lE AMERICAN DREAM-By Herbert E. Murray To the observer of world affairs, the situation at the present time seems rather dark. Truly the lights have gone out all over Europe-the light of culture, the light of learning, and the light of human brotherhood. The contributions of the greatest minds the world has ever seen assembled at one place at one time are balanced precariously on the brink of destruction, As the democracies of Europe stand with their backs against the wall, the dreams of liberal minds over the centuries seem to be fading away. Yet there is one cherished dream which is still alive, There is one citadel of human hope that has not yet surrendered to a panzer division, There is yet one last frontier of liberalism in the world. The dream that is still a force in the minds of men is the American dream. To some, the words, American Dream are just glittering generalities-virtue words. That is merely because they have not been defined. They mean faith in the common man-belief in the rights of the individual to life, liberty, and happiness under a democratic form of government, As such, they stand for what America has been trying to accomplish for over one hundred and fifty years, We have seen that idea take form and substance in the successive waves of westward migration, lt was known as Manifest Destiny then-the idea that it was our destiny to push westward, to build advance settlements for marching democracy. ln that frontier era, if a man had an axe he could literally hew his freedom from the wilderness. After he had cleared his wood- land and established his home, he was bound to no man, and his soul was his own. Then in l89O, the physical frontier closed. Its influence as a revitalizing force on American democracy was gone, and America was faced with the sociological problem of making its ideal of the freedom of the individual conform to a rising industrialism. Then began a new tide of European immigration which soon swelled into a flood, There followed the process of infiltration and assimilation-concrete proof that the American dream would work. The oppressed of all nations came to America because to them America was a symbol of new life, They had not heard of the American dream, but they knew the individual was judged here for his value as a human being-not as a mere cog in a vast machine directed by those in power. Certainly, there have been episodes in America's upward march that would not bear too close inspection. Though muckrakers like Lincoln Steffens have pointed to corruption in municipal and national government, though iconoclasts and cynics have claimed that the ideals of America are just a hollow mockery, they have emphasized what was bad, and subordinated what was good in the American structure. Surely we can apply to the pageant of America the words of Whittier- Step by step since time began I see the steady gain of man. One thing that has always distinguished America from the other nations is the fact that here the limits to which a man may rise are found only in his own capacity and ability. This freedom for advancement has given rise to a para- doxical society-a nation of closely unified individualists, Nowhere has so much emphasis been placed on the individual as in America. For this reason America has been favored over the years with a race of leaders from every station of life As someone has said, Lincoln was not great because he was born in a log cabin, but because he rose above it, As one surveys the leaders who have played such an important part in the American scene, he can truly say with Carlyle that l-listory is the essence of innumerable biographies. Z2

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We young people must guard against wrong goals and wrong judgments of success. We must not put the dollar sign before our own happiness. We must not put the desire for personal advancement over the desire for peace and good will. Our school and its teachers have worked for four years to teach us certain thingsi they have tried to teach us how to think-to distinguish right from wrong, they have tried to teach us how to act-to perform our duties without procrastination. ln the nome of all that is right, let us show that we have assimilated those teachings. This country has talked about tolerance for one-hundred-sixty-odd years. Let us in our generation do something about itl Thirdly, our parents have always been imbued with a desire for improvement, as we should be in the future, Although this present adult generation is charged with being responsible for this contemporary chaos, they can, on the other hand, be praised for the rapid developments made in science and industry, for the reforms started in regard to crime, its punishment and preventionj for improved labor conditions, for advances in agriculture, education, and business. Our parents have devoted their lives to raising the moral and cultural level of the youth of this Country, and the least we can do is to respond to and continue their efforts. Lastly, we come to the problem presented by our form of government, There are men who believe that freedom and democracy are relics of the past-that tyranny and oppression are the dictates of the new order. We know that this is not true. President Roosevelt, in his last inaugural address, said, The life ofa nation is the fullness of the measure of its will to live, We have that will, now as never before, We are a nation of individuals, working together for a common cause. We are unhampered by fuhrers, komissars, or duces, who would tell us howto think and act. Our fathers had that will, when many of them gave their lives to make the world safe for democracy, twenty-five years ago. Eighty years ago, in the Civil War, brother fought brother, because each had that will to live. The Free Soilers settling Kansas in l85O had that will. I quote their hymn: We cross the prairies, as of old Our fathers crossed the sea, To make the West, as they the East, The homeland of the free. Our ancestors also had that will to live when they came here from foreign lands to make new and safer homes for their children. We have grown up under the shadow of this heritage. Men and women have fought, bled, and died, in order that we might live. Surely, then, we must include the preservation of democracy in our philosophy. Surely, out of respect to the courageous men and women who have made this country the land of opportunity, we shall struggle to keep it the land of opportunity! Without our democratic way of life the great spirit that is America will perish, and we shall become merely the pawns of fate. The four-point plan which has been presented, it will be seen, centers about just one word, That word is unity. Unity. lt is such a simple word, but what power it contains! With unity as its motto, this nation can become a great and good force, finally turning the world back to the course of peace. And what are we citizens to do to achieve this unity? A quotation from the Essay on Man, of Alexander Pope will answer that question: Act well your part, there all the honor lies. Every one of us, from the newsboy on the corner to the President himself, is only a cog in that great structure which is present-day America. lf each of us does his small part, forgetting the dollar sign, forgetting prejudices, forgetting all else save the preservation of our way of life, then, and then only, by the grace of God, shall we have the America of which we dream. Zl

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We assume then that the American ideals, the American way of life, and the American dream have been a vital and a living force in the building of these United States. What part will they play in the world of the future? lf anyone could be so rash as to hazard a guess as to the shape of things to come, the future looks dark indeed. The European powder keg has been touched off again, and this time the charge appears to be destroying every- thing worthwhile in the Europe we have known. Paris is now in foreign hands. with all its art treasures, day by day the old London coffee houses ithe former haunts of the literary greatl, London churches, and other institutions as old as democracy itself are being destroyed. All Europe would seem to be a jungle of snarling simians-apparently proving that Clarence Day was right when he said that this is a simian world. Certainly in a Europe honeycombed with ancient rivalries and ambitions, there can be little hope for the steady advance- ment of modern culture. Clearly then, it is in America that the hope of the world must lie. lt is only in a country whose people form a cultural entity, where there are no deep- seated hatreds between racial groups, that there can be any intellectual advancement. lt is my sincere belief that l-lenry R, Luce was right when he said that this is going to be an American century. When this war ends, it will probably find Europe exhausted, frustrated, and defeated. Across the ocean will lie America, with, we hope, a clean bill of national health, l-ler traditions, her native culture will remain intact, The country will not have been devastated by war--the national heart will be pulsating with life and vigor. And it will be America's duty to help Europe out of chaos, to try to keep the world from altogether reverting to the dark ages. Dating from the end of this war, America will undoubtedly set the standards in world morality and culture. Let us hope that the citizen of i960 will be educated on the American plan- not the plan of totalitarian Europe, l-le will believe in the supremacy of the individual and the common man, l-le will be a creature of reason and not of prejudice and impulse, Arbitration and peaceful settlement of differences will be his guides in world conduct-not brutality and murder. l-le will further the arts, literature and music will be part of the American heritage that he will share with his fellow man. l-le will not tear down in a few minutes the work of centuries, He will be tolerant, Aryanism and all other racial cults will not be part of his creed. ln a world with American ideals he will be able to follow Jean Paul Richter's great law of culturei Let each become all that he was created capable of being, expand if possible to his full growth. This is not a Utopian ideal impossible of attainment. lt can become a concrete reality if we take it upon ourselves to make it so. Indeed, I like to think that the spirit of the new world that is to come is expressed in the memorial that is being carved on the side of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. There, hewn out of imperishable granite are the four giants of democracy-Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln, l wonder if they see a vision of hope as they gaze out upon the great west that was the cradle of our Democracy? ln one of his books, James Truslow Adams tells us that once there was a young girl sitting on the steps of the Boston Public Library. She was Mary Antin, a Russian immigrant. As she sat on the steps of this storehouse of learning, she wrote these words, which l would like to leave with you as a philosophy for the future: This is my latest home, and it invites me to a glad new life, The end- less ages have indeed throbbed through my blood, but a new rhythm dances in my veins, My spirit is not tied to the monumental past, any more than my feet Continued on page 88 23