Burke High School - Silver Lamp Yearbook (Dorchester, MA)

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Message from the Head Muster DEAR GRADUATES OF 1944: If General Eisenhower's suggestion that victory may come before another year proves true, you will be known as the Victory class. You have entered whole-heartedly into the success of the salvage campaigns, the sale of war stamps and bonds, and the rationing projects. By devoted study you have taken your place early in the business world or have trained for higher institu- tions of learning. You, therefore, as students share in the victory on the home front. Now may we consider some aspects of victory that suggest a larger and broader view? You have read in current newspapers and magazines some of the many problems that will face our country after this war. Probably in the next dec- ade, the direction of our Ship of State will be determined for long decades there- after. To the extent that that statement is true, your obligation to your com- munity and to your country is increased. You have had every educational op- portunity that a generous city can provide--a beautiful school and able teach- ers. High school graduates throughout our Country have to a great extent en- ioyed similar advantages. It is said that about forty per cent of our armed forces are graduates of secondary schools. You join then this privileged and important group on which our country depends for vision, growth, and stability. Understand that I speak of the obligation that is yours. Do not interpret privilege to mean that greater rewards should somehow come to you in life. You are in a sense the aristocracy of our society. Aristocracy comes from the Greek aristor meaning bert. In a true aristocracy the spirit of noblesse oblige is the impelling power. Because you have received much, you give much, vol- untarily, as free men, for the higher good of others. Every gift carries with it a corresponding duty. Your education, which permits you to enter the best group, imposes also on you the duty to give back to your community and to your country generous service a hundred-fold, for the rights and advantages which are yours today because you are an American, educated by America to take your noblest part in a free society. This aristocracy of which I speak must be willing to serve those less for- tunate both in America and in the devastated lands of the world. It will be America's opportunity to aid in many ways, to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, and, more generously still, to help to establish policies that will assist these people to share more abundantly in the sources of raw materials and in world trade, so that they may have a fair opportunity to become self-supporting people with a living wage. In distant lands, American travellers have seen page six

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DR. ELLEN G. WISEMAN

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poverty that tears at their hearts. Will our noble youth of America give in- telligent concern to this problem and do what can be done to achieve a satis- factory solution? We ask you to dedicate your best talents to this noble vision of victory- the making of a better world and the conquest over the selfishness and greed of our times, in order that peace with justice may bless all countries. We have lived through centuries dominated by the philosophy of materialism until in our day we see the climax of what happens to nations who place material values above all others. You will know a time when nations will realize that only as they place right above all other values will they find their own life. Moral values are acquired slowly, and the desired period of great happiness for all will not arrive even during your ageg but you will have a large part in its fulfillment. In that happy time the spirit of good-will and cooperation among all nations will replace the evil of vicious competition and envy. Man has learned that he must work with his fellowman, not only for reasons of high principle, but even for the practical advantage of ensuring his own survival. Perhaps, it is America's destiny to lead the way. In that light, great deeds will be done and whole-souled democracy created. A man's reach should ex- ceed his grasp. No ideal today is so important as that of justice which will bring peace to the world. Years will be consumed in working out the perfect details to realize the ideal, but a beginning must be made by your generation to replace greed and selfishness with discerning generosity and courage in in- ternational policiesg so that, insofar as possible, we may aid the children of all nations to have the decent necessities of life. We are our brother's keeper at least to that extent. This active faith in our fellowman will be the spirit of the crusade and the dynamic source of the victory in which I ask you to take a generous part. May the highest success attend you in all your noble endeavors! Jill-o'er-the-ground is purple blue Blue is the quaker-maid, The alder-clump where the brook comes through Breeds cresses in its shade. To be out of the moiling street With its swelter and its sin! Who has given to me this sweet, And given my brother dust to eat? And when will his wage come in? 411 if 4? III it But thou, vast outbound ship of souls What harbor town for thee? What shapes, when thy arriving tolls, Shall crowd the banks to see? Shall all the happy shipmates then Stand singing brotherly? Or shall a haggard ruthless few Warp her over and bring her to, While the many broken souls of men Fester down in the slaver's pen, And nothing to say or do?' ELLEN G. WISEMAN Head Master ' William Vaughn Moody. page Jezlefz