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

Page 11 text:

THE EXPONENT 3 people are not free from it. To a drug addict the law is no obstacle, for it is easier to break the law than the habit. However, the most noticeable source of law¬ lessness in the United States is the eighteenth amendment. The breaking of this law is more noticeable because we see so much of it in daily life. You can find this kind of lawbreaker on the street, in the store and in the theatre. You meet him on the highway driving his car with a care¬ less indifference to both his own safety and that of others. However, bootlegging is not confined to the uneducated and alien classes but the rich and educated also break the eighteenth amend¬ ment. These people claim that they need spark¬ ling wines and smooth liquors to grace their so¬ cial functions. In New York City some of the first families have taken up aristocratic bootleg¬ ging. Furthermore, a Congressman just a few days ago, was sent to the penitentiary for two years, because he lent himself to a conspiracy illegally to move whiskey. Many people are doubtlessly opposed to prohibition on the ground that it is an unwise measure. But respect for the law and prompt obedience to its commands is the first and greatest duty a citizen owes his coun¬ try. If the law seems unjust, let him try to have it repealed, but as long as it remains on our stat¬ ute books, he should obey. A few persons, happily only a very few, are opposed to any system of law on the ground that it interferes with their personal liberty. Law does interfere with personal liberty insofar hs that liberty is a menace to society. But laws are made for the single purpose of protecting society. The few countries that have tried to exist without any system of law show us the real necessity of a sound body of laws. The masses of France were without any established system of law during their Revolution of 1789. What happened? All aristocrats, regardless of belief, were ordered to the guillotine. Hundreds were murdered simply for thir wealth. Others fell, not because they were guilty of any political offence, but because they had incurred the displeasure of the dictators. Indeed, a man with any property was in absolute danger of losing both life and property. In recent years similar scenes have been enacted in Ru:sia and in a milder form in Mexico. Indeed, men can enjoy real liberty only under the protection of the law. Our forefathers fully realized this, when they wrote in the Preamble of our Constitution; . “We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, insure domestic tran¬ quility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” Much of the lawlessness that is now prevalent is due to the poor enforcement of ' our criminal laws. This lawlessness has often been laid to post-war influences, but in France, England and Canada crime has not increased since the war. So it seems likely that vice flourishes here, because criminals escape justice. Ex-president Taft is of a judicial and cautious mind, yet even he used this strong and urgent language: “It is not too much to say that the administration of our crim¬ inal law is a disgrace to our civilization and is due largely to the failure to bring criminals to justice.” In fact, when settled here, the natives of European countries which have the best record of law ob¬ servance, become more lawless than our own citi¬ zens. In America criminals are treated much bet¬ ter than in other countries. Our prisons are more comfortable and our terms of imprisonment short¬ er than elsewhere. Prisoners are often released on parole, which usually weakens the force of the law. Old offenders are let out on probation and suspended sentences. Fines are imposed more often than prison sentences. Trials are delayed so long, that, when the trial does take place, the case has lost its interest. Then, the criminal often gets undeserved sympathy and invariably escapes severe punishment. Another source of public lawlessness is the breakdown of authority in the state. This con¬ dition has given rise to a selfish individualism, which has often been confused with true Ameri¬ canism. People of that belief think that Ameri¬ canism is the right to do anything they choose. An example is seen in the case of the dairyman who, irritated by the strict requirements of clean¬ liness on which the state milk inspector insisted, broke out, “I have read about this foolishness in the newspaper, but I am an American, and I pro¬ pose to stay on being American.” Judging from the amount of lawlessness now prevalent, this feeling must be firmly fixed in the minds of many of our people, and the (only) remedy for this selfish individualism can not be found in laws. It must be found in our homes. Our people must be taught to love truth and square dealing if we want the high patriotic ideals of our forefathers to re¬ turn to us. Lawlessness, whatever its cause, is due to a lack of self respect within the individual. Every right- minded person feels horrified at the lawlessness of which we read every day. The bandits have held nothing in life sacred. They will commit murder for a song. They lie with ease and betray their best friends without a qualm. How different is the old Edinburgh weaver, who used to pray

Page 10 text:

2 THE EXPONENT the school will lose many hard and faithful work¬ ers, both in athletics and literary life; also we shall lose some excellent talent in the line of act¬ ing, as was well illustrated in the presentation of the play, ‘ ' Come out of the Kitchen.” Everybody on the Exponent board has worked hard during the past year to make it a success. New and attractive cover designs have been made. Cuts from the drawing cottage have been contrib¬ uted to make the book more attractive, and I am sure that everyone will agree that they were very clever and have certainly fulfilled their mission. The book has contained many interesting stories; among them the story of “Don Fylipe,” so mys¬ terious and showing so well the talent of the auth¬ or, was eagerly followed. The grinds have been especially good and the advertising section has shown the results of hard work on the part of the business manager, to whom I think we owe a note of thanks. The paper under the leadership of our capable editor-in-chief has been a great suc¬ cess. We hope that next year’s Exponent board will make as much improvement on our school paper as last year’s editors did. If as much hard work and time is put into it as our previous workers spent, it can be done. We all extend our best and sincerest wishes to the departing class of the school and wish them the best of the world’s good in whatever they may be doing. G. L. C. ’26. SALUTATORY Friends and parents of the class of ’24:— To you we extend our heartiest greetings. It is with pride that we welcome you to this fine building which will in the future house the pupils of Greenfield High School. Members of the Faculty, to you we have noth¬ ing but words of praise and words are inadequate to express our appreciation for our principal and teachers. We wish to take the time to thank our parents for having made these school days possi¬ ble and we also feel that we should thank the citizens of Greenfield for our splendid opportuni¬ ties. Obedience “Obedience to Law is Liberty.” This truth is the foundation of democracy. Long ago our fore¬ fathers dared to trust to themselves the govern¬ ment of our nation. But the success of this ex¬ periment rests wholly with the people, for they must willingly obey the laws that they make. In expressing this same idea one of our late presi¬ dents said, “Liberty to make our own laws im¬ plies an obligation to observe them ourselves and to force obedience upon all others. Liberty is responsibility, and that responsibility is duty and that duty is to preserve the exceptional liberty which we enjoy from the law, by the law and within the law.” Right now our country is passing through a period of lawlessness. In fact, the morale of our whole nation is lower than it has been for a long time. Accounts of hideous and vicious deeds fill the papers. We have more lawlessness in the United States than in any other civilized country. Apparently, there is no respect for law. Every right minded person feels horrified at the banditry which disgraces our great cities. Canada with three times the people, has fewer burglaries and robberies than Chicago. Four times as many mur¬ ders were committed in Chicago as in all Canada. The same conditions exist in every state in the Union. Murders have become more numer- us during the last ten years, and, in the same period, burglaries have increased twelve hundred per cent. The drug habit is appalling, for even our young

Page 12 text:

4 THE EXPONENT every day, “0, God, help me to hold a high opin¬ ion of myself.” He realized how sacred truth, friendship and life are. He understood Tenny¬ son’s inscription, “Be loyal to the royal in thy¬ self.” Truly “Obedience to Law is Liberty.” But there can be no liberty without personal character, and character is like an acrostic or Alexandrian stanza. Read it across, backward or forward, and it spells “Obedience to Law.” LESLIE G. ROSS, ’24. VALEDICTORY THE FUTURE OF NEW ENGLAND Four years ago. New England celebrated the three hundredth anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, and if the shades of her fathers were present, they must have smiled to see their descendants beginning again where they themselves first started—with the conquest of the soil. For the men of New England have a new vi¬ sion. It is a vision of abandoned farms reoccupied and cultivated, of great stretches of woodland cleared and made to bear crops, and of lowlands drained and converted into rich gardens. In short, it is a vision of New England’s rural life restored. During the first two centuries of her history. New England lived almost exclusively from the soil. Her towns were small and her industries crude and unimportant. The normal family life was on the farm. As the sons grew to manhood, they pushed westward to make new homes. This situation is not true today, however. During the past half-century the growth of industries and the concentration of people in large cities have gone on by leaps and bounds. New England is now one of the most thickly settled sections of the country, yet eighty per cent of her people are living in cities. Physical conditions do not account for this sit¬ uation. New England soil is as rich and fertile as any in the country. Figures compiled by the De¬ partment of Agriculture show that each acre un¬ der cultivation produces an average of twenty bushels of wheat, as against thirteen in the central West. Also, Massachusetts and Connecticut show the largest yield of corn per acre of any state in the Union. Our soil, since it is of the last gla¬ cial period, is least exhausted, and a well distrib¬ uted rainfall of forty-three inches takes care of irrigation cheaply. In spite of all these very fav¬ orable conditions however, the area under cultiva¬ tion in New England is steadily declining. Fur¬ thermore, most of her small towns are at a stand¬ still or are losing in population. On the other hand, the large cities are growing still larger. New England is already importing three quarters of her food, and day by day the gulf between pro¬ duction and consumption widens. There is a deep significance in these facts. The New England manufacturer and workingman are severely handicapped in competition with the Western industries, because the latter are located near the chief sources of food supply and so are better situated with respect to living costs. Up to now, our industries have managed to hold their own, but there is a trend against them which threatens to prove fatal. Take the matter of shoes, for instance. In 1900, practically the en¬ tire supply for the country was produced in New England. Since then and especially in the last two or three years, the shoe industries have been moving westward. This reduces their production costs by bringing them nearer the source of hides, and into a region of cheaper labor. As a result, the West is now supplying twenty-five per cent of the country’s shoes. The same situation exists in the cotton industry. The natural location for cotton mills would seem to be in the South, where the cotton is raised, yet New England has had a large share of these mills ever since the birth of the industry. But this will not be so for long. Several large concerns in New England have re¬ cently announced their removal to small southern cities, giving as their reasons: “cheaper living and less congested housing conditions for their help, as well as more favorable freight rates on mate¬ rial.” New England is reaching a critical point. Her rural life is rapidly disappearing, and her com¬ mercial status has a good start in the same di¬ rection. Pessimists predict that in ten years New England will be the playground of America. This situation has turned the attention of many back to our first occupation—farming. The trouble with the New England farmer, as a group of business men recently stated, is that he buys at retail and sells at wholesale, a system that would ruin any business. These same b isi- ness men asked a prominent farmer if he was making money from his cows. He replied that he was, but could give no figures to back up his an¬ swer. The business men proceeded to buy farms. They kept the same number of cows in the same way, but they kept books as well as cows. At the end of a year they were able to show the farmer that all hands were losing money, and just why this was so. The instance is typical. These busi-