Greenfield High School - Evergreen / Exponent Yearbook (Greenfield, MA)

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THE EXPONENT 7 the development of the dynamo electricity took great strides. In 1884 electric street cars were run in Cleveland, Ohio, and in 1888 the first standard electric railway in the United States was built at Richmond, Va. In 1895 the electric locomotive came into use. The Baltimore and Ohio Rail¬ road wanted to burrow under Baltimore, and as coal-burning locomotives were out of the question for so long a tunnel, an electric loco¬ motive was tried out. It was such a great success that the Pennsylvania and New York Central railroads built vast terminals in which only elec¬ tric locomotives could be used. Ever since that date the electric locomotive has been constantly prov¬ ing its superiority over the steam locomotive. In a recent test one electric easily outpushed two great steam locomotives. It has been found that on an electrified division of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad over the Rockies, a distance of 400 miles, 42 electrics do the work much bet¬ ter than 112 steam engines. In the snow of the mountain passes the steam trains were slowed down by radiation from their boilers, but electrics are never happier than when there is zero weather. Braking steam trains down the steep grades of the Rockies was a great problem, but electric trains are equipped with “regenerative brakes.” By simply turning a switch the motors are turned into dynamos and the train coasting down the hills sends electricity back into the power line, thus act¬ ing as a brake. It is estimated that 100,000,000 tons of coal, or a source of power equal to five Niagaras would be saved annually by electrifying all railroads of the United States. Thus the electric railroad has taught America how to conserve its fuel supplies, for the rivers running down the mountains pull heavy trains up. So efficient has the electric locomotive proved that today nearly every railroad in the United States is looking forward to electrifying its whole system. More recently still has wireless telegraphy been invented and developed to such a degree that now wireless telephony is becoming a common, everyday thing. Today one thinks no more about putting on a pair of receivers and “listening in ' here and there all over the country than one does about starting up the phonograph. The radio is used nowadays on all ships, in many homes, and even in aeroplanes, railway trains and automobiles. Now let us think of the future. What a won¬ derful age this is! What opportunities are ahead of us? Thomas A. Edison says, “The chances for big electrical inventions are much greater now than before the telegraph, the telephone, the electric light, and the electric motor were invented, while each of these is far from perfect.” Just think! In the near future probably all the railroads will be electric, gasoline automobiles may give way to electric ones, pocket wireless telephones may take the place of stationary ones, and so on. Thus elec¬ tricity which is now only in its infancy, progresses, and in the future, when coal and oil give out, elec¬ tricity will be used everywhere for everything to which power or electrical energy can be applied. WILTON DEAN, ’23 IVY ORATION The Latent Power of an Idea In the past few years we have heard a great deal about World Peace. Since President Wilson returned from Versailles with the covenant of the League of Nations in 1919, we have talked, read and thought about it. Many of us have come to re¬ gard it as a mere fad which will soon pass out of the public mind into oblivion. But when we consult the pages of history we discover that this is not too new an idea to be durable. It has seemed to grow naturally and slowly for some time. Arbitration is the form in which this idea has been continually cropping out for the past cen¬ tury. More and more, nations have learned to ar¬ bitrate their differences. We can here boast that our nation has done more arbitrating than any other of the world except our mother country, Eng¬ land. But other countries have also taken up the idea. France, Italy, Russia, Japan and several of the South American republics have been parties to one or more important arbitration cases. For the nations have found that by so doing they not only keep out of the debt which would be incurred through war but that they also are fully as apt to get what they consider their due through ar¬ bitration. Again, the world has for the last century been growing more and more averse to the thought of sending its young men through the horrors of war. Hence an eminent writer declares that he can find this much good in the terrible struggle of 1914-18: the civilized world was so shocked by the terrible sufferings which the inventive genius of each side thrust upon the other that the date of organized peace protection was brought cen¬ turies nearer. Perhaps, then, this great catastrophe was allowed by the Ruler of the Universe so as to convince the world that war is what Sherman said it was.

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6 THE EXPONENT CLASSMATES: 1 We are setting forth on life’s highway, Leaving school days far behind; But in thinking of our work and play Years hence, we shall pleasure find. 2 We shall soon forget our arduous studies, And the hours we racked our brains; But we’ll keep all of our happy mem’ries, As the sweep of time ordains. 3 Though these years have made us many friends Whom we’d like to keep always, Far and wide through the world, life sends Us on our appointed ways. 4 It is folly that hereafter, All of us will hear the call, And once more returning, come together In some carefree banquet hall. 5 For the road leads onward; we can tell Nothing through the future’s haze. So it seems best here to say farewell At this parting of the ways. LOUISE D. HUNTER, ’23 CLASS DAY EXERCISES Address Parents and friends, we heartily welcome you to these public exercises of the class of 1923. We are met here as a student body for per¬ haps the last time. We have come to participate in a partly serious, partly humorous program pre¬ pared by certain of our members. Ever will there remain with us the memory of this impressive meeting. Never shall we forget the friendships and acquaintances four short years have made for us. Always shall we honor and re¬ spect this noble building which served so well our high school career and in which were inspired our future hopes and aspirations. Now, as graduating seniors, we have reached the place in life where we can look back and trace of Welcome our steady advance and at the same time look for¬ ward and marvel at the future with all its oppor¬ tunities. But the path we have ascended has been paved by the unbounded generosity of our parents, or other near and dear ones, coupled with the un¬ faltering efforts of our principal and teachers. Now we are at the foot of the broad highway of life v here our future depends upon the fundamentals we have grasped in our training as youths. Only the strong can hope to attain success in climbing this steady grade. Therefore I am sure the great¬ est compliment each senior can pay his school, his teachers, and his parents is his ability to say —“I am ready—I am ready to go forward.” ROBERT HALL, ’23 CLASS ORATION The Progress of Electricity in the World What is electricity? For nearly 2000 years men have experimented with various electrical phenomena, and although many theories have been advanced, we really know no more today about what it actually is than men did in the ages past. Both Gilbert and Franklin assumed it to be a fluid. To¬ day it is more generally thought to be a strain of some sort in the ether. However, the people of today seldom think about the nature of electricity. They simply push a convenient button in the wall and the room is lighted, the door bell is rung, or some other task is done for them without any thought on their part as to the wonder of it. The first discovery of much importance in the history of electricity was through an accidental observation in 1786 by the Italian anatomist, Gal- vani, who noticed that the legs of a frog which he had been dissecting twitched every time there was a discharge from his electrical machine. He thus found that if two strips of dissimilar metals were put together like an inverted V and placed in a solution that acted on one more than the other, an electric current was produced. Thus was in¬ vented the electric cell, which was the only source of electric current until the invention of the dyna¬ mo. From the invention of the electric cell to the present day scientists have been steadily in¬ venting and improving electrical machines and ap¬ paratus. The first invention of great practical worth was the telegraph by Professor Samuel F. B. Morse in 1832. This was soon followed by the ro¬ tary electric motor, the electric lamp, and the electric locomotive, and then in 1876 Alexander Graham Bell exhibited a strange instrument called the telephone, at the World’s Fair being held at Philadelphia. Although few thought the telephone practical, with the invention of better parts, such as the Blake transmitter, the telephone lines spread, until in 1914 the lines had crossed the continent from New York to San Francisco. Electricity advanced in other ways also. With

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8 THE EXPONENT But, to return to the history of the World Peace idea. In 1899, the Czar of Russia extended an invitation to the nations of the world to send dele¬ gates to the Hague in Holland for a discussion of rules of warfare. Arrangements were made where¬ by any two nations might call upon other nations for arbiters to settle their differences amicably. In 1902, this court sat for the first time. Since then it has settled many questions which might otherwise have become serious. At present the dif¬ ferent governments have regular judges to act as arbiters and the Hague Court is permanently estab¬ lished. In 1907, another Hague conference was held which among other acts condemned the use of dum-dum bullets. In 1914, our Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, suggested that a third conference be held in 1915. But before the plans were completed the European war broke out and Peace took a vacation. We all remember the efforts that were made during the winter of 1918-19 to secure a League of Nations which should prevent more wars. When the United States did not enter the League because of the failure of the Senate to ratify the treaty, the senators received a great deal of criticism. But now many who then favored ratification have decid¬ ed that it was as well to keep out. No scheme for a League could have been successfully put in opera¬ tion when all the nations of the world were facing a readjustment which ranged in consequences from slack business and unemployment to national bankruptcy. Yet a well organized League is bound to come —all farseeing people agree to this although one writer says that it will not arrive until 3000 A. D. However, most authorities are more optimistic than this and some expect to see a working Leagui within their own lifetime. j Ihe chief fault in the plans thus far tried in the interest of peace is that they lack provisions for a police force. Theodore Roosevelt once said that it was of no more use to try to run a League of Nations without a pplice force than to try to run a city or state without one. Some have sug¬ gested that a certain percentage of the navy and army of each country be turned over to the World government so that it could enforce its orders. To command arbitration of differences and to order the nations to obey decrees of the court with¬ out some means of compulsion would be the same as to forbid small boys the green apple privilege and then leave them alone under an apple tree. Some good authorities are of the opinion that to form such a police force would be an impos¬ sibility. The nations would not consent to it for fear that some one nation might gain control of it. With all due respect to these authorities, we may say that ideas are the strongest things on earth. In 1688 when a few thousand Quakers in Pennsylvania passed the resolution that slavery was a moral evil, no one supposed that slavery would be abolished in the cotton states. But ideas grow —and Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclama¬ tion. Thus we may hope that the dreams and work of such peace champions as Andrew Carnegie and John Nobel will not perish; and while we are hop¬ ing, we will do well to remember the words of Roosevelt: “There can be no nobler cause for which to work than righteous peace; and high honor is due those serene and lofty souls, wh-o with wis¬ dom and courage, with high idealism tempered by sane facing of the actual facts of life have striven to bring nearer the day when armed strife between nation and nation shall end throughout the world.” RALPH HASKINS, ’23 CLASS HISTORY Introduction Now at the close of our long, hard year We trace our history year by year. In four great works we try to show, How we have journeyed this path of woe. Our Freshman year was full of strife It was chucked full of childish life. Like the Odyssey it had its fights, And as a thrilling book it ended right. As a thip we began our onward flight, Steering the depths with all our might, As an ancient mariner we journeyed on But therein lies a tale to be found. A little older and not so bold We, like Lancelot and Elaine of old Grew like him, a knight right bold Or became like her, a maid of gold. Seniors, dignified we begin again Trying such truth as comes to win, A record of loyalty, honor and truth W ith a diploma to show as our proof.