Dennysville High School - Dentonian Yearbook (Dennysville, ME)

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THE GOSSIP 15 to reconvert to the peace time level. It is their plan to get jobs in these factories again as soon as they begin producing post war products. The farmers tool have an argument to give for not returning to the farm. Today farms are decreasing in number but increasing in size. Farming is be- ing, done on a larger scale, and yet fewer men are needed. The modern inventions have cut down the need for help on the farm. There are smaller reasons also which help to increase the housing problem. The older people today do not need the companionship of their children as they formerly did. With the telephone, radio, automobile and modern movies old people are main- taining their homes longer. Another factor tending to increase the need for homes is the ease of mod- ern divorces. The wife and husband decide they don't love each other any longer and decide to separate. This causes each to have separate homes. In case they had a boarder there would be three separate homes need- ed. With this country working hard to establish a world peace the problem of housing is a great task. Because of the war torn countries in Europe which need building materials, and our country is helping to supply their needs, there is a shortage of building materials in our own country today. There are still many homes in this country today which are being sold. The prices which these homes are be- ing sold for range from 310,000 to 830,000 which is far in excess of what any ex-serviceman or the average A- merican can afford. Homes are needed so quickly and to such a large extent that the use of prefabricated houses has been sug- gested. Prefabricated houses can be built quicklyiand with gwernment control prices can be set sof that the average American can laiord one. Long term loans have been suggested to the ex-servicemen so they could af- ford a home and have time to pay back the money borrowed. ' Our government is today confront- ed with the problems of providing homes for our returning veterans. With the other problems of organiz- ing world peace this is no easy task. Alton Ward '46 Ik wk Pk 41 SECOND HONOR ESSAY Food Problem Food has not only become a prob- lem to the people of America but to worn torn countries of Europe who face starvation. There are millions of men, women, and children in Europe and other parts of the world who are undernourished and in great need of food. It is up to America to feed the world, or shall America be responsi- ble for the death of millions from starvation? America has not only got to help feed Europe, but she must supply enough food to feed her own citizens. The United States has come out of this war one of the most powerful na- tions of the world and, therefore, I think the obligation of the United States of America to her Allies is to help feed the hungry. If this country refuses to help and a great many of those people die, then the things for which we fought will again be in dan- ger. They say we fought for freedom and justice, the foundations of democ- racy and peace, but where, there is

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14 THE GOSSIP Today as we graduate there is a lot of talk about our country and re- conversion. Reconversion means the state of ,changing back to peace time work after la war. It also means a lot to the millions of graduating students all over the world. Many girls and boys are not graduating this year or 'any year. Parts of our world are now in ruin. In these parts there aren't any schools for the willing boys and girls who would like to learn, so that they may have a future. These children have many obstacles in their way, few teachers, very few of the right kind of books, schools are not ready for them, and some who would like to become students of the school of learning have to work to help rebuild their war torn country. These unfor- tunate children seem to forget that the way for our generation to rebuild our world, is to go to school and get to know how to pave the way for the next generation and our future years. During the war there were many jobs for anyone who wanted one and high wages. Now these jobs have been cut down a great deal. The only jobs left, or seem to be, are jobs that graduating students would not like, knowing that they have graduated for something better. It will take a few years actually to get back to our regular peace time hours and ways. Until then we should find ways to help reconvert our country in our own way. That sounds odd, to have us reconvert, but with hundreds of other students doing the same things we would never think We have a big task. Some ways we students can do our part in reconverting is to take part in our country's, community's, and world affairs. Listen to the talk that is about the world, about things that are happening and be able to voice our opinion, not some else's. It makes the graduating students feel a little uneasy to hear about all these strikes. How can he get on? How can anyone get along if he is going to disagree? He wants to go out in a world of peace and not a world of riots, disagreements, and hard to get along with people. We love our country, high school- ers especiallyg we would never want to live in another country. The Unit- ed States comes first, this we have no question of. Martha Sanford '46 if ik Il' Ik FIRST HONOR ESSAY The Housing Problems of Today Today we have many problems facing us. The war is won but yet much has to be done. Lack of housing is one of these problems. It is not just the problem of your own community but of our whole nation. Our veterans are returning home now in hopes of buying for themselves and their families. They find there are no homes available. While they trav- el about in search of homes they find their money being decreased by the high rents being charged. Our veter- ans find only one explanation in their minds: Homes were all taken by oth- ers while the service men were away in the fox-holes. The farmers who left for the cities to work in our war plants are not re- turning to their farms. They found life easier in the cities. During the war the farmer got a taste of shorter hours and better wages. These farmers are now stay- ing in the cities waiting for factories

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16 I THE Gossip . hunger and shadows of both death and disease there is no peace. Many veterans returning from the war have taken up farming for a fu- ture occupation. Farming has become av very important industry because of the high demand for food. The pro- duction of food will increase if manu- facturers can increase the production of farm machinery. Probably more food would have been produced if the strikes had not delayed the produc- tion of necessary equipment. During the war when help and machinery were at a premium, the farmer met the responsibility of food, so there is no doubt they can do it now. Ways in which the citizens can help the food shortage is not to waste any food, but to conserve it. The house- holders should reduce their purchases of wheat to 40 per cent and fats to 20 per cent. The use of wheat for live- stock feed must also be conserved to lessen starvation in Europe. Public eat- ing places should use no more than an average of two pounds of flour per customer per week. This is why they should use more dark flour than white flour. There are many German prisoners here in the United States who have to be transported back to their own country. If they are shipped back now it will make the food problem even greater over there. I think these prisoners should be left in this coun- try for a while to work on the farms and help produce the food needed in their own country. So now, I think it is up to the farm- ers of 1946 to produce all the food they possibly can. If each and every family plants a garden this year it will help a great deal to lessen the food situation. i Shirley Ward 41 IK 4' Ill THIRD HONOR ESSAY Petroleum in The Post War World During the war gasoline was the main factor in deciding the fate of each nation. While it was being used in war torn areas, we at home, were feeling the want of it. We began to realize what the world would be like with no gasoline or still worse with no petroleum products. It has been said that there is noth- ing petroleum cannot do. The amaz- ing part is that our research has only begun. Strangely, no one knows where pe- troleum came from. It has been stored deep in the earth for millions of years. Scientists have been able to establish quite convincingly that its source must have been animal or vegetable mat- ter, or, maybe both. Thus it seems that the energy which drives your car, came from energy imported by the sun to plants and animals. When they died petroleum was formed. When kerosene was first put on the market, gasoline fthe by-product or waste productl was dumped into riv- ers and evaporated. Then came the invention of the gasoline engine and from that time until the present day gasoline is one of the chief products of petroleum. We have a habit of saying that cer- tain motors are very powerful. It is not the motor but the fuel it burns that is powerful, as strides are made to produce better gasoline from which more energy may be extracted. We are gradually finding out how to im- prove motors. At present we think