Hale High School - Pompositticut Yearbook (Stow, MA)

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But what of the next fxfty years? Is Amerxcan llberty 1mpa1red and endangered? The xssue of c1v1l1zat1on today IS whether our Democracy can survive the wounds xt has recewed 1n these recent years and contlnue to grow and xmprove Thus depends upon us Democracy IS as much a way of lwmg and a phllosophy of lxfe as it is a form of polxtxcal organ1zat1on Governments do not preserve themselves They can be preserved only by the v1g1lance of those to whose guard1ansh1p they have been committed We Amencans cannot shtrk our responsmbihty Democracy has a place m the lwes of all of us l choose the people who represent us in government by votmg 1n our regular e1ect1ons From the very begmmngs of th1s nation there have been groups that have trxed to change our form of government At the present tmme th1s trend IS greater than ever before order to prevent a disaster It IS necessaryg to be aware of what the government of the Umted States has always offered 1ts people and compare tlus w1th the var1ous 1sms that wlsh a change Cornmumsrn Soclalmsm Fasclsm Nazlsm Each of these ruthless 1sms 1s the result of defeat All of them would put an end to the people s l1bert1es And what are these l1bert1es'7 It 1s far more than Independence of a natlon Llberty IS a thlng of the sp1r1t to be free to worsh1p to thmk to hold oplmons and to speak wxthout fear Liberty allows one to develop hls talents to keep a home sacred from lntruslon and to rear ch1ldren ln a secure manner He IS free to earn to save and to accumulate property that may give protectmn m old age and to loved ones Through the generatmons men and women have sacrlfmced thelr lwes on battle ftelds that we may be free At Plymouth Rock at Lexlngton at every step of the Western front1er and at Gettysburg are the graves of Amerlcans who d1ed for thxs the path of progress 1nstead of followlng the w1ll o the w1sps whxch lead to greed or po11t1ca1 tyranny The hope of Amerlca and the world IS to regenerate Democracy with 1ts responslbllltles and 1ts obllgatlons not to abandon xt Fellow classmates Our school days here 1n Stow are ended We have passed through all the grades offered to chlldren of Amerlca Our frtendshxps and affection for each other have grown through the years and now a feelmg of sadness creeps over us as we leave Hale I-hgh and scenes so fammlmar to us As we go forth in 11fe mn whatever d1rect1on our footsteps lead each of u has the right to select his own vocat1on That s Amerlca VN hether it be agriculture science the teachlng professlon art or mus1c Amer1ca allows every boy and g1rl to pursue the course he des1res America glves us opportumty Let us be ready to sexze thls opportumty and by so dolng the pursult of happlness w1l1 be open to us Our country IS large our resources are great and there lS a large fleld ln whlch to work Opportunity IS at hand Our future does not depend on the tattered forecast of Karl Marx Rather let us strwe to clmg fast to the ideals estabhshed by our forefathers We are famlllar w1th the Declaration of Independence the Constltutlon and the B111 of R1ghts and we under stand what these documents say We are the ones to make our democracy contmue to live To do thms we must see democracy 1n 11ttle th1ngs the everyday thmngs we do the words we say the thoughts we think and the way we act toward other people Democracy has made our way of llfe possxble and now our Job 1s to do everythlng we can to mamtaln and strenghten it Selze the opportunlty to keep this country our country the Umted States of Amermca strong and free Ruth Stmles 13 . . . . . . . 0 ,Je . . . s l In lla ll 1. I , ' 11 Y purpose. To resume the path of Liberty is not to go backwardg it is definitely to choose 4 1 .C n I - I, n Q Q .u Sl . . I' . -

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Changzng Democracy We Amermans today face a challengmg opportumty perhaps the greatest ever offered to a single natlon for hmstory has brought us to a tmme of dec1s1on At issue IS the survxval of the 1nst1tut1ons of freedom S1nce 1950 IS the half way m1lestone of the Twentieth Century 1t 15 an approprlate tlme from whmh to 100k back and see how far we have come and where we stand Slnce 1900 we have wxtnessed changes more stupendous than human soclety has ever undergone ln a s1m1lar span Few probably ant1c1pated the enormous forward strldes wh1ch our country has made and xts unparalleled growth and prosperlty Revolutwns have occured not only ln lndustry and technology but ln science 1n medlclne and even ln our concepts of thmkmg Durlng th1s per1od of years our populatmon has doubled our labor force has more than doubled and our nat1onal mcome has chmbed tremendously Mass productlon and mass consumptlon have y1elded a hlgher output greater employment and a steadily 1ncreas1ng lncome Yet of all the progress that has been made It ms d1ff1cult to single out the pr1nc1pal lmes of development whxch stand out as essentlal contrlbutlons of the fxrst half of the Twentleth Century There are too many One could wr1te a brief hmstory of these years s1mply by l1st1ng such now common words as motmon p1ctures radar televxsxon automob11e, and atommc energy All th1s was due perhaps to the fact that all has been achleved ln a free soc1ety wh1ch to date has permmtted a greater measure of personal liberty than most people on earth enjoy The energy and 1n1t1at1ve wh1ch we were allowed to develop freely and the great opportumtmes open to all IS much of the secret of our success However along w1th these Improvements mn matermal cond1t1ons for everyone these last forty nme years have also wmtnessed the world s two most dreadful and destructwe wars the greatest depress1on smce the estabhshment of the money economy and what perhaps may stand as the world s greatest revolutxonary upheavals These events have w1thout doubt not only affected the period ln wh1ch they occurred but the future as well ln 1900 our nat1on was thoroughly cap1tal1st1c Amer1ca was proud of such xndustrmahsts as john D Rockefeller Andrew Carneg1e and of lnventors llke Thomas Edlson and George Westmghouse There was no l1m1t to what men of brams lmagmatlon and enterpr1se could do But thmngs have changed not suddenly but very gradually smce 1900 Perlls now confront the nat1on wh1ch challenge Amerlcan Democracy There has been a great extension of state power over the mdxvxdual There has been the r1se of labor as a great economic and polxtlcal power the growth of Government ln busmess and red1str1but1on of wealth through 1nher1tance and mcome taxes ln short wh11e we stxll l1ve m a capxtallst soc1ety nts functlon has been greatly altered VK e have moved consxstently towards more and more centrahzatlon of socmal orgamzatwn more encroachment by the State b1gger Government h1gher taxes and generally a trend towards meetmg more o the mcnvmdual s problems on a soclallstxc or communal rather than the mdwldual plane Thus we see that these forty me years of the Twent1eth Century have been not only years of unparalleled growtl and progress but of truly 1nc1s1ve changes m our social and economlc structure In spx e of thxs we enjoy a better standard of lwmg than any other country and despmte tl encroachments of the State we are st11l a free people 12 I - ' . mm 1 . . - I I ' I . . 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ' - 1 1 1 1 1 . . 1 1 , . . , . 1 1 . . 1 - . 1 1 . . 1 1 . . 1 1 1 1 1 , . 1 1 1 1 . 1 1 - 1 . . . . . . . Y , 1 1 K 1 ' 1 1 1 . , . -. . I - - - 1 1 1 ' 1 - 1 . A - 1 ' f .

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Salutatory Address Teachers Fr1ends Parents and Schoolmates lt 1s lndeed a great honor for me to take part m the exercises that mark the graduating of the class of 1950 from Hale H1gh School For twelve short years we have been sharmg all the Joys sorrows and thr1lls of school l1fe and compan1onsh1p Now on th1s memorable mght we shall d1sperse and follow the varmous paths that Fate has 1n store for us As we travel these paths I hope that we may uphold the honor and traditions of our dearly beloved school Tonight we shall pass 1nto a world of new experience an unstable world whlch we shall face w1th hope and v1gor strengthened by the knowledge acqumred from our kmd and patlent teachers So w1th keen satmsfactwn I welcome you here to th1s our graduation The Lure of Communism As the graduate of today faces the future he fmds many teen agers and many prominent college professors actively interested ln commumsm He IS at flrst very much surpr1sed that communism has so much appeal but gradually flnds that the theory of cornrnumsm 1s based on 1deal1st1c concepts of falrness and just1ce He learns that theoretlcally commumsm means state control of product 1on and d1str1but1on for the purpose of glvmg the common people their falr share of the products of labor He learns that theoretmally commumsm should produce an ideal c1v1l1zat1on Young people whose mmds are troubled by the present ev1ls of the world have the hope aroused that in such an Ideal state there w1ll be no mass poverty no raclal d1scr1m1nat1on no lower mlddle or wealthy classes no rel1g1ous d1ssens1on Such ldeas have been 1nst1lled ln many teen agers by a communlst controlled school m New York run by Alan Max These 1deas are more wxde spread than one rrnght thmk and are extemely dangerous to our natmon for rn actual pract1ce the 1deal1st1c theor1es produce some very ugly practlces and destroy many of the freedoms that we Amer1cans cher1 h The extent of these dangers may be seen 1n the fact that ln freedom lovlng Umted States an est1mated forty to seventy thousand communists hold underground meetmgs Schools hke Max s give proof of the spread of thls doctrine among young people and even intelllgent college professors are fooled by what sounds llke a perfect set up Should commumsm ever hold Amermca m 1ts grasp as xt has so many countries of war torn Europe the freedoms we so dearly cherlsh would be gone forever Nina Alexelva s pathet1c story of how the Russian chlldren lost thelr God 1llustrates the complete lack of rel1g1ous freedom wherever commumsm exlsts Ten year old Stephen a Russ1an boy who had been brought up to love and obey hls parents and to revere the Lord Jolned the Young Lemmst group wmth great enthusiasm In accordance wmth 1ts rules he rejected God He was ashamed to tell his folks how he felt about th1s matter of rel1g1on and each mght he would cry himself to sleep as the confllct grew ln h1s mmd between betraymg h1s parents love and betrayxng Lemmsm After burnmg one of the relmgmous statues mn hxs home as he had been lnstructed to do hrs conscxence really troubled hxm St1ll he knew he must be a faithful Lemmst VN hen h1s devout grandmother dled 14 Q 1 1 ' 1 I I l 9 I ' 1 . . . . -- 1 I 9 1 , . a f n , - I I 1 1 ' 1 1 - 1 1 1 - Q 1 1 I 9 H . . . .. . . 1 . . .- Q 1 r 5. - 1 Q lu f - 1 '- 1 - 1 . .0 . . . . 4 . - - . 1 1 1 . , 1 1 1 1 1 1 . .. . .- n 1 1 ' , - 1