Christopher Columbus High School - Anchor Yearbook (Bronx, NY)

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I I I CLASS OFFICERS ARISTA YEARBOOK ART STAEI' OUTSTANDING MEMBERS YEAREOOK LITERARY sTAI'I' PROM COMMITTEE OV SENIOR CLASS SOCIAL COMMITTEE BLUE LETTER DAY COMMI'l l'EE CLASS REPS

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EDWARD NEIKRUG, B-I IOSEPH SCHNEIDER, 8-3 EDWIN MALONEY, 8-5 CHARLES FITZPATRICK, 8-'I IUDITH CHEVOLA, 8-I0 GERALD HILTON Adviser, G.O. SENIOR TEACHERS Ross KOENIG, 8-2 uso PALMINTERI, 8-4 ANNA Qu1NN, a-s WILLIAM SCHOENFIELD, 8-8 FRIEDA TALMEY, 8-ll GRACE MOSKOWITZ Adviser, Senior Class

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lfffjfaife ,MA ere eniord IOURNAL written in the year 1940 will undoubtedly be of immeasurable value to the future historian. For 1940 is an important, a crucial year, whichever way you look at it. For us, the graduating class, it marks the end of a period in our lives: it marks our first attempt at trying to keep our own balance on the tight rope ahead of us. See it as a whole, in its full significance, now, we cannot. But what we can do now, is make a record of things, small and big, to help us look back upon it through the perspective of later years. Scattered facts about this tumultuous twelve months stretch are here submitted and their only purpose is to betray something fhowever littlel of its peculiar flavor. The verdict of eye-witnesses was, that of all things happening toward the end of anno Domini 1940, two were of greatest magni- tude: The battle of Britain-slowly developing into thebattle of Europe-and the American Presidential elections. If Britain consisted of -47 million Churchills, said Adolf Hitler, there would be no mean! of bringing her to her knees. And his implica- tion was clear. But through tens of long, discouraging nights,-the people of Britginkjnrho for more than a century had led a free and tranquil life, were grimly defending their island home against death poured down on them by Nazi airmen, Of the heavily outnumbered R.A.F., the most inspired of the 47 million Churchills said: Never in the field of conflict was so much owed by so mgny to so few. On the home fromt, Franklin D. Roosevelt-symbblizing in the oils of a frightened vforld the new, fresh forces' of Democracy-was elected to an unprecedented third consecutive term as President, of the United States against his Republican opponent, Wendell L. Willkie. Culminating a bitter campaign, the President, in a few major addresses, defended his record and belittled the oppition, dwelling mainly on foreign issues. When the smoke of the political battle cleared away, however, there emerged the picture of a country and its leaders agreed on thitparamount issue of the day: the necessity 'of sending aid to britain while going on .at full speed with our own defense program. And as part of that program, axresigned' nation accepted-with characteristic good humorr-its first peace-time mili- tary conscription. The spreqd of dictatorship and its aggressive nature also brought the 21 American Republics and Canada closer and closer together in an atmosphere of mutual help. Symbolic? of this united we stand attitude, were: the presence of United States Vice-President-elect Henry Agard Wallace at the inauguration of Mexican President Manuel Avila Camacho as well as the estab- lishment of a U. S.-Canadian Ioint Defense ward. '7 The war and ' the elections and their repercussions elsewhere, naturally overshadowed everything else. But it takes more U10 make an adequate appraisal of a period than a record of the two over- . Q