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

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16 THE EXPONENT THE CLASS SONG Amidst the flowers of sunny June Are donned the caps and gowns By seniors parting on life’s way, Since high school days are done. On to the work of life we go, Yet severing with a sigh The ties and bonds of friendships dear We formed in Greenfleld High. The future opens up ahead. We feel the call of youth, Also the strength to conquer life All in the name of Truth. As we press on to victory. To keep our standards high Are lessons of honor and loyalty We learned in Greenfield High. If joyful pleasures come with day Or sorrow comes with night May we with courage rising high E’er strive to do the right. Her token of complete success May Fortune ever fix Upon each loyal member of The “Class of Twenty-Six”. Words and music by Bernice G. Sargent, ’26 ESSAY WITH VALEDICTORY CONSERVATION During and since the time when Roosevelt was president, there has been much agitation about conserv¬ ing our national resources. Socie¬ ties have been formed to plant trees and wild-flowers and to save coal, mineral wealth and the water sup¬ ply. ‘All this is very good but, while trying to preserve things material, have we overlooked the immaterial? There is something more important than material resources to be pre¬ served,—the thing, upon which na¬ tions stand and lacking which they fall,—national ideals. Ever since men have existed, they have had ideals; at first very low but advancing as human civilization advanced. We might follow the story through all its progress but it is too long a tale to be told here, so let us pick up the narrative in England in the seventeenth century. Here everyone was forced to at¬ tend the Established Church, but there were people who believed that everyone should be allowed to wor¬ ship as he chose. Others there were who believed in a more democratic form of government than England had. These people became colonists in America where they proceeded to live according to their ideals. Op¬ pressed people from other parts of Europe also came here that their ide.als might be realiz;il. Finally there were in America thirteen colonies which banded to¬ gether against England because they had common ideals. Many of the colonists gladly laid down their lives that their ideals might live and be preserved for their children, and when the Revolution was won, the survivors set up a government of their own, based upon the Ideals most dear to them. Our national Constitution is the symbol of their

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THE EXPONENT 15 with him, and another speaker main¬ tained the idea that by escorting a young lady to the theater her escort had more of a chance to show her that he wasn’t stingy, and was willing to spend enough money to give her a good time, in the way of good seats at the theater, and offer her refresh¬ ments of some kind. There may be something in what each said, but per¬ sonally I think they were both wrong. I believe it is because most young men are rather bashful about speak¬ ing of their religion, and asking a young lady to share it with them. At any event it is odd. In former years a young man felt proud to escort his young lady to church, but now it appears to be very different. But, I suppose it is just one of youth’s peculiarities. Many years ago there was an old man who never answered a question with “yes” or “no”. One very rainy day he was observed coming into a store where several of his friends were gathered. They wagered with each other that they could make him say “yes” to a direct question, so when he entered, one said, “Is it raining hard, Mr. Stearns?” Mr. Stearns paused,looked at the speak¬ er, tipped his head and replied, “Look at my hat!” This droll, eccentric manner was a family trait, and was passed down tb his grandson, an educated man of culture, who had been abroad, and who had graduated from one of Ger¬ many’s well-known universities. One day this grandson went into a store in Boston and was treated with cold indifference by the clerk, a young man who probably had never been outside the state, perhaps not out of the city limits. Finally Mr. Stearns, pointing to his hat, said to the ' Clerk, “Do you see any hayseeds on my hat?” He was at once treated with respect and prompt attention. Not many pe ople would have taken such an eccentric way to reprimand an in¬ solent clerk, but it did the trick. Are we not usually too ready to criticize those who are not our par¬ ticular friends and, sometimes, even our friends? Why not start over again and try to see the good quali¬ ties instead of the eccentric ones in our fellow-men, for we are all human, and, being human, we all undoubtedly have our share of the idiosyncracies of human nature. GERTRUDE L. CHAMBERLIN, ’26. IVY SONG (Melody in F) Loyalty, Honor and Scholarship, too. Are what we’ve stood for these four long years. To G. H. S. we will ever be true Through all our hopes and fears. Now that we’re leaving, never to return, We leave this emblem, the ivy of success, ♦ That our memory they never may spurn In coming years at G. H. S. i We plant this green ivy by thy friendly wall Which to us all will ever be dear. And pleasant memories will surely recall Jn the future years. Harriet M. Salway and Kathryn R. Knight.

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THE EXPONENT 17 ideas cf guvernment and the rights of men. Later the Monroe Doctriiio stated thtir belie thac the New World must be kept safe for democracy. Then came a “great war testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated could long endure.” Our fathers proved that it couM. Next, because Spain was not us¬ ing the Cubans rightly, according to these standards of ours, we entered the Spanish-American w. ' ir. In ]bi7. President W ' iison extend¬ ed the Monroe Doctrine to the world when he asked Congress to declare war on Germany, saying that we must enter the war to preserve our ideals and the ideals of the world ard to “make the worLl safe for democracy.’ This, then, is our herilar-e, the noblest ideals to be found anywhere in the world. It is our duty to pass on the legacy and not betray our trust. A hundred years ago we upheld the idea that America was the “Promised Land,” the land of the free from which none was barred. Now we have passed immigration laws which keep out many liberty¬ seeking people who wish to come here. Have we shattered an ideal? How about the principle that all men are created equal? That is be¬ ing broken in many of our Southern states right now, because negroes are not allowed to vote. One of our newest and highest American ideals is the principle of world peace, embodied in the League of Nations. The idea of the League originated in America, but thus far we have broken one of our own ideals by not becoming a member. Are we drifting away frojn the high standards that have been s ' t before I ' S? The Constitution purposely puts the government of Oi i country in rhe hands ( + the people b‘cause was and is our ideal that true gov¬ ernment is of the people and by tlie people. Yet only fifty-two per cent of the people voted at the last pres¬ idential election, which the t.me when the largest number of votes is cast. This shows that nearly half the people of this country are be¬ traying the ideal. Everyone should know the workings of the govern¬ ment and take his part in them, but we are too lazy or too busy to do this and so we willing ly ‘et “the eth¬ er fellow” take all responsibility. It is in this way that a few crafty politicians get the real control of the government, not the people. There will soon be an opportunity given you, voters of Greenfield, to show whether you believe in uphold¬ ing one of the historic ideals of your state. Our fathers believed in the Puritan Sunday, that the Sabbath is a day of rest and worship, not in the Continental Sunday which holds that Sunday is a day of commer¬ cialized sports, amusements and pleasures. This ideal is now in great danger for an initiative bill was introduced into the Massachu setts State Legislature making lawful all forms of Sunday sports and amusements for nay. The, bill was defeated three to one in the Legislature, but, since it was an initiative bill and its su’ Torters had secured twenty-five thousand signers, the question is to be upon the bal¬ lot at the November election. , Are you sufficiently interested in . pre¬ serving the ideals of your state to take the trouble to get out and vote on the question in November? For, it is our duty to our coun¬ try to love it; to support its .Con¬ stitution and to obey its laws,; to respect its Flag; to defend it from all enemies; and to make it stand for the highest ideals to-day as it always has stood in the past. VALEDICTORY Classmates, we have reached a goal, a parting of our ways. Some of us are going one way—the way to higher education—while many take the other path, directly out into life. Though perhaps our ways will sometimes cross, yet many of us will never see each other aq-ain. Still, in the years to come we shall remember with pleasure the days which we have spent to-gether here. And now, as we stand at the brink of life, m ’ ' wish for each one of you is that you may climb “Round Round” to the top of the ladder of success in your chosen profession. ISABEL MORGAN ’26.