High School of Commerce - Caduceus Yearbook (Springfield, MA)

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HIGH SCHOOL OF COMMERCE — I 9 .1 8 C A I) U C B U S (5)

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CADUCEUS 1 9 i 8 — HIGH S C II O O L O K COMMERCE CADUCEUS STAFF JANUARY CLASS EDITORS Upper Row. Left to Riaht: Rita Shea, associate; Theresa Baldarelli, associate; Harriet Kinkade. editor- in-chief; Ruth Gamble, associate; Anita Ghlandoni. associate. Lower Row: Martha Schaluck. associate; Russell Peterson, athletic; 'I hoinas Kilbride, business manager; Bernard Schreyer. photograph; Henrietta Decker, contributing. JUNK CLASS EDITORS - Upper Row, Left to Ri ht: Malcolm Hanson, associate; James Corkum, associate: John Brega, editor-in- chief; Frank Nahormak. associate; Theodore Surdyka, associate. Lower Row: Stanley Maslowski. athletic; Doris Cushing, athletic; Elizabeth Stonerod, business manager; Barbara Beebe, photograph; Norman Terault, associate. FACULTY ADVISERS Mr. G. Donald Melville Miss Helen E. Rankin Miss Edith F. Marsden Mr. Theodore M. Pease, Assistant to Literary Adviser (4 )

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CADUCEUS — I THE COMMERCE For twenty-one years Coininirct lias provided for the students news of school activities, given encqur$ gemerit for do- ing bettes work‘by means Of its edi torials and success stories of alumni, acquainted fellow students with each other through the medium of personal columns, and offered an opportunity for the contributions of feature stories and poems. Now. however, Mr. Clarence I. Chatto, who has been connected with the paper for the past eleven years, states that more improvement could and should be madeto promotea larger circulation. According to Mr. Chatto, the pupils of the future should aim to improve the writing and printing of all stories and articles. Accuracy in spelling, espec- ially of proper names; greater use of humor in editorials; attractiveness of editorial and special feature headings; and greater competence in getting out the paper — these would lead to a superior newspaper. Besides the above suggestions, it is thought that greater encouragement could be given students to contribute more of their own original writings, for these contributions add to the interest of schoolmates in reading the paper. Several former students from the jour- nalism classes of the High School of Commerce are now working on promi- nent newspaper staffs, or doing some other outstanding work in the held of journalism. Norma Aronson, a con- tributor of original work, has had a brilliant writing career. She has written stories for newspapers and maga .ines, won several prizes for short stories for the Scholastic Magazine, won the Zona Gale Scholarship which is awarded to only three girls in the United States, prepared one hundred human interest stories for newspapers to aid the Com- munity Chest Drive, and has done many other such pieces of work. Roy Dykstra. Billy Cavanaugh, Steve Lem- anis. and Paul Krause are other ex- amples of Commerce staff students who have distinguished themselves in the newspaper world by doing good work on the city staff of the Springfield Union, sports writing for the Daily Neu-s. outstanding jobs in the business department of the Springfield news- papers, and notable work in the field of news photography. Today we have in our midst Henrietta Decker, a promis- 8 — HIGH SCHOOL mg poet and short story writer, who has kept the Pensive Poet column of Com- merce filled during this last semester, and .wild has contributed generously to the Magazine Section of Caduceus. A very favorable career is forecast for her. In addition to these improvements, Mr. Chatto has stated that he should like to make Commerce a daily paper, thus eliminating the daily bulletins. He would divide the staff into five sep- arate groups, each division having an editor for each department: News, Sports. Features. Editorials, and Col- umns. Every group would l e given a specified day for getting out the paper; thus, the staff appointed to get out the paper on Wednesday could start right in working Thursday on the paper for the succeeding Wednesday. In this manner, each division would have one whole week in which to do its reporting, writing, printing, and distributing of Commerce. The only drawback at pres- ent is that the cost would be too great. However, a change in the student mone- tary system could be arranged if the pupils were willing to give a few extra cents toward promoting their paper in this way. All these things, then, would build up Commerce to the extent of making it one of the most eminent school papers in Western Massachusetts, if not in New England. Naturally it would take much time to carry out these suggestions, but they are well worth considering. IN RETROSPECT In October. 1037. the editorial board of Caduceus, the year book of the High School of Commerce, met with Miss Helen Rankin, the adviser, to make plans for the new book. It was unani- mously decided that the January-June 1938 issue should be dedicated to Com- merce. the weekly publication of the school. During the past twenty-one years students and members of the faculty have devoted much time and energy to Commerce. They have built the paper from a small, monthly magazine to the large and well-written weekly newspaper now printed. Before 1917, Springfield’s three high schools, Classical, Technical, and Com- merce. issued a monthly magazine called the Recorder. After the High School of Commerce had been trans- ( 6 ) OF COMMERCE ferred to its present building, the stu- dents and faculty decided that such a large institution should publish a paper alone; and in 1917 Commerce was founded as a student council project under the advisership of Miss Dorothy Bcldcn, who served for three years. The task of being adviser of the paper was then passed around at regular in- tervals to teachers in the English De- partment. among whom were Miss Bernice Dearborn, Miss Genieve Allen, Miss Lucille Flag, and Miss Roberts, t he council director. The first issue was dedicated to the late Carlos B. Ellis, then principal of the High School of Commerce. The paper boasted eight pages; the sheets were no larger than the loose-leaf note- books which are used in schools at the present time. The paper remained the same in size and makeup until 1921, when Mr. Ham- ilton Torrey, a new teacher at Com- merce, was appointed adviser. He in- troduced the subject of Journalism as part of the English Department during that year, and applied the teachings of this course directly to Commerce. From then on the paper improved immensely in its journalistic qualities, as it was transferred to the hands of the students taking journalism. As a result, many changes were made. The new adviser cut down the number of pages from eight to six, enlarged the sheets to the present size, and introduced the little news boxes, known as ears, which ap- pear in the upper corners of the first page. A single copy then could be pur- chased for eight cents, although the price for one semester was seventy-five cents. In 1924 Mr. Torrey was forced to leave because of illness, and Mr. G. Donald Melville took active charge of the paper. He was chosen because of four years of newspaper experience previous to his entering Commerce. Mr. Melville started the system of using selected pupils to work on the paper. He made two other changes, by reduc- ing the pages to the present number of four, and charging three cents less for one copy. Cow wcrcc experienced another change in advisership when Mr. Clarence I. Chatto came to the High School of Commerce from the Fall River High School in 1926. Ever since his high school days he had been connected with a school or college newspaper. At Fall River High School he had organized the