Brockton High School - Brocktonia Yearbook (Brockton, MA)

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democracy will collapse. How, then, can we make the people learn the value of a controlled intelligence: how can we kindle in them a desire to attain and perpetuate it? The most potent weapon for the control and development of the minds of the people is the Written word. F rom the beginning of civilization it has shaped the life of man. ln referring to the destruction of the Christian writings by the author- ities of the later Roman Empire, H. G. Wells' History of the World states: The destruction of the books is particularly notable. lt shows how the power of the written word in holding together the new faith was appreciated by the authorities. These 'book religions,' Christianity and Iudaism, were religions that educated. Such has been the power of books to the present day. The invention of printing brought light to a world which had been sunk for centuries in ignorance, superstition, and servitude. Milton's Paradise Lost and Dante's Divine Comedy have established the prevailing conceptions of the here- after: Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress had a religious influence second only to that of the Bible: Dickens aroused a passion which reformed the entire work- house system of England. Now, with newspapers, magazines, and books, aided by compulsory education, the written word has more power than ever before to present to the people the material which, second only to personal experience and environment, shapes opinions, and, as the case may be, improves or degrades minds. What a vast influence for good or for evil is wielded by such a controller of the nation's thought! How insidious and dis- torting it can be! The German government well understands its power, as the Nazi book purges and control of literature demonstrate. Since the Written word is of so much importance in the development of a people, let us consider our literature. Much of it has sunk to the very sewers of inferiority: many newspapers must print material acceptable to the average reading public: pulp magazines are pitiful: many of the best sellers are fashion- able poison. The few intelligent, conscientious writers are not appreciated by the average citizen because they are not readily accessible or comprehensible to him. Many writers cater to the naturally low taste of the mass: great writers appeal to it only when their thoughts are so simple as to be easily understood, or when they delve into the gutter. The majority of our people are unable to distinguish between good and bad in printed matter. To remedy this situation, let us suppress the sensationalists and the exploiters of ignorance: let us provide meritorious literature for the public, and educate men to understand and to enjoy it. A group of citizens has the right neither to hinder the development of an ideal democracy, nor to create for the intelligent, social problems and other worries which would be entirely unnecessary if people were compelled to educate themselves. Oh, it will surely be said, but this is not democratic! Of course it is not democratic. An ignorant people do not deserve democracy. Throughout the entire history of the United States runs a long line of abuses of democratic privileges by the benighted classes. That a blundering and uninformed majority should have control over an intelligent and enlightened minority is atrocious. lf a citizenry has no mental 19

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I CLASS CDRATION Education, the Hope of Democracy By WILLIAM WALKER ln order to proceed in its war efforts with the greatest possible efficiency, during the past six months the United States has been analyzing itself to learn its shortcomings and its possibilities. It has come to realize, at least in part, its sluggishness. In adapting itself to the conditions of active war, in responding to the pressing needs of the moment- accelerated production, trained workmen, and especially the co-operation of the civilian population-the United States has, once again, painfully demonstrated the com- parative inefficiency of the American democracy under unusual strain. In the War of l8l2, in the Civil War, in the first, and now in the second world war, the citizens have been dilatory, unco-operative, and indifferent until faced with personal destruction, except where individual interests have been concerned. Immense resources and large population, or their formidable appearance, have saved the country from the usually disastrous results of late awakeningsg they may well do so again. They cannot, however, be successful always. Even in peace the machinery of government moves clumsily: unemployment and crime increase: bigotry and ignorance continue to blind: the intelligent are forced to expend their abilities in the solving of social problems. These and other corruptions are popularly attributed to the President, and to our traditional institutions, which are, nevertheless, too sacred to the memory of our forefathers to be altered. We who are really guilty refuse to shoulder the responsibility. There is something basically wrong with us, the citizens. We alone are accountable for the faulty functioning of the government, we alone are retarding the progress of democracy. Lack of mental and moral training and of a desire for self-improvement are responsible. The masses are not educated for freedom, not even for the limited freedom in which we now live. Although our privileges are necessarily supervised by government in order to keep in hand the ignorant and immoral and to force unification against interference from other states, democracy emphasizes individualism, not unification. To realize a democracy which will be sufficiently unifiable to be practical, and sufficiently personal to be ideal, we should force education upon our peopleg should imbue them with the desire to improve themselves mentally and morally. lndividualism, tolerance, and co-operation are integral parts of an ideal democracy. The present system of compulsory education has proved partially successful: but our intellectual and especially our moral training are notably insufficient. A more stringent and higher intellectual standard of education, and a higher moral standard, must at first be requiredg but, if the government is to be made less restraining than it is at present, if ideal democracy is to be reached, not coercion but the desire to learn must motivate and accompany all education. In a true democracy, the people themselves must have this desire, or their 18

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CONTINUATION OF CLASS ORATION equipment with which to rule, and will not avail itself of the opportunity to obtain such, it has no right to govern, and deserves any aristocratic form of government it may bring upon itself. First, it must consistently and continu- ously enforce a higher standard of education in schools and in universitiesp second, it must provide worth-while literature: third, it must keep out of circula- tion the admittedly poor books, papers, and magazines. Time and again the slothful, the ignorant, and the indifferent masses have been enslaved by aggressive leaders. We have seen already dangerous signs of aristocracy in our economic and industrial world: first in capitalism under the monopoly system, then in labor dominated by unprincipled union heads. These coalitions, acceptable in themselves, become more and more dangerous as the power which they possess becomes concentrated in small groups or in individuals. In the latter part of the nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth, capital exploited labor: within the past few years, labor has been gaining strength. The power which capital and labor have held has not been deeply considered by the general public, but the risk is there. The risk will be even greater if the democracies are successful in this war and fail to realize their weaknesses: for then the people will be satisfied with their country and its imperfect government, and industrial and economic aristocracy will grow fat. Satisfaction will breed lethargy, and lethargy invites conquest. Mass education is the only answer to these problems. Mass suppression and mass exploitation have failed. The serfs of France rose up to crush the glitter- ing court of Louis XVI: the English, under Gladstone, broke the last threads of the imperialistic plans of Albert and Disraeli. lf the education of our people is begun before it is too late, we may remove the danger of the extreme concen- tration of federal power toward which we have been advancing since the administration of Lincoln. A highly developed ability to think and to co-operate, together with high intellectual and moral standards, will make possible a much more nearly perfect democracy. To foster this utopia, let us then be willing to learn, and demand to be taught thoroughly: to be provided with better education and wholesome, creative literature: to be given higher moral standards. Let us prepare ourselves for a world tor at least a countryl in which dissensions are settled, not by physical war, but by mental solution: by subjective debate and liberal thought, without the ignorant intolerance and the offensive bigotry to which democracy at present submits. With the coming of knowledge and understanding, a host of social problems-unemployment, crime, living standards, religious and racial differences-may readily be solved. Let us also be tolerant of inquiry, so that genius may be set free to inquire where it will, with no fear of opposi- tion, and certain of the approval of a people capable of weighing and com- mending its disclosures. No longer then need the progress of man be held back, as it has been for centuries, because of the inability of society to appreciate and to utilize its discoveries. At the end of the present war, we shall have a final opportunity to prove the United States worthy of being called a democracy. Restriction and coercion must be made the means to the end, not the end in itself. lf we win, we may have the opportunity to attempt on a world-wide scale such an educational system as has been proposed. Let us not lose this opportunity, nor in fact any opportunity to develop an enduring, intelligent, unrestraining democracy, for we cannot remain uneducated as a people and continue to be free. An indif- ferent people cannot be a free people. 20