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

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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-

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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

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THE EXPONENT ness men went to work to make farming a pay¬ ing proposition like their factories. It was not an easy job, but it is just this application of busi¬ ness principles that farming most needs. The time was when the New England farmer was at a disadvantage, but the tide has turned. There is no longer any cheap land in the West. Transportation charges to the eastern markets are no longer low, as the rates are now standardized and based on distance. This gives a decided pref¬ erence to the farmers of the East. The western lands are losing their fertility, and commercial fertilization is already recognized as a necessity for good crops. Nevertheless, there are many i large and growing cities here in the East that must be fed. All these facts spell opportunity for New England, and that opportunity lies in one direction —agriculture. Classmates, we have reached our goal. Through four, long years we have seen hard work and good times together. Through four long years we have worked and planned for this climax of our school life. Tonight we part, but may we meet again in the future. A. LINCOLN DURKEE, ’24. CLASS DAY EXERCISES President’s Address of Welcome Parents, relatives and friends: In behalf of the Senior Class, I extend a wel¬ come to our Class Day exercises. This morning our historians will recount the marvelous achieve¬ ments in our past, and our prophets will unroll before you the glorious events of our future. If you think that those efforts are a little too hu¬ morous for such a serious occasion, our orators and song writers will show you that the Class of ’24 can be as dignified as our caps and gowns imply. With our welcome we extend to you, who have made it possible for us to be here, a promise that our motto, “Perseverance Conquers,’’ shall be our watchword in the years to come. LEONARD L. THOMPSpN, ’24 CLASS ORATION The Amazing Adventure of Popular Education Two thousand years ago today, in the midst of a grove of oaks in the isle of Britain, a very in¬ teresting graduation exercise was being held. In a small, rocky, open space, shaded to twilight by the arch of green overhead, stood a little circle of robed, white-haired men. Druids they were, seri¬ ously listening to their leader, a tall man of ma¬ jestic bearing, who was speaking earnestly to two middle-aged men in the center. These two com¬ prised the graduating class. Having finished their twenty-year course of training and study, they were now being received into the exclusive order of priests, or wise men. Here today is a graduating class of one hundred boys and girls, who have covered more ground in their four years than the two men had in them twenty. This is an example of the most astound¬ ing change which has ever taken place in the world. The Druids, representing the old order of things, looked upon education as a great evil, which was dangerous unless carefully restricted and managed. Under their system, only one per¬ son in five hundred ever got a spark of education. The very finest and most promising boys were chosen from the tribes, carefully trained and thught in the privacy and secrecy of the great forest in the learned arts and sciences. At the end of their course they were made priests, and came to have great authority in the tribes. In this age. there is no such careful selection of the best and rejection of the rest; we give any and all who want it all the education they can carry away with them. Now, this principle of universal free education is very new. In all ages, privileged characters have been educated, of course, but the idea of educating absolutely everybody was frowned at. Even as recently as 1671, Gov. Wm. Berkely of Virginia said: “Learning has brought disobedience and heresy and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them. . . The Lord keep us from both.” The Puritans are to be blessed (or cursed, per¬ haps) for starting the free education iaey on its aniazing course. They educated only their beys, and did it because they thought a person could save his soul more efficiently for bei.ag able to