Hodgdon High School - Aurora Yearbook (Hodgdon, ME)

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THE AURORA -it I: 14 1 1- members of the class of 1930? As a strange feeling came over me, I saw, as in a mist, the letters fall from the pages of the book to the table before me. Guided by an unknown power I picked up the letters and placed them again in the old AURORA. I watched, spell- bound, the letters grow into words. Frank Benn, from Hodgdon. Frank went to the University of Maine, special- izing in agriculture. He returned from Maine to take up his fatheris business. He is now on the farm doing successful work with the help of his several sons. I waited. Nothing 'more came. Then letters again dropped to the table. News! Extra! Miss Geneva Adams, first woman senator from Maine moves Congress to immediate action on farm re- lief. Solution to the farm problem which has hung fire for many years, seems cer- tain. In a speech which was heard by millions, Miss Adams stated with unusual clarity, the principles upon which agricul- ture reform must be founded. Nothing more, the letters slipped silent- ly to the table, and I was left to ponder, Geneva a politician. Well, well. Not even marriage has deterred Verna from her determination to set up a first- class school. She is the head of a most successful private school for girls in the West. She places great emphasis in the training and culture of nightingales. Marietta Nason. After several years of complete lack of information as to her whereabouts we find her the private sec- retary for the mayor of New York. There are rumors of her taking over that posi- tion in a few months. After years of preparation in normal school, universities and finally under masters in Rome, Thelma Turney has returned to Hodgdon, to take charge of the Hne new Latin Department there. From Paris to Houlton in ten hours. That is the record of Albert Nightingale, who is now chief pilot of the mail Heet of airplanes running from Hodgdon, Maine, to Paris. When the mist had cleared a bit 1ny trembling fingers spelled out the name Inez Turney. Entering a hospital in Port- land she trained for a nurse. She gradu- ated from the hospital and for so1ne time practiced her profession in that city. She later left Portland and is now matron of the New York Hospital of Radiotherapy. Evelyn Manuel is famous for her sing- ing and dancing pictures. She can still make real love scenes though she has a diHerent partner than he way back at Hodgdon. Slowly the name Ralph Herron grew upon the page. Fish is star catcher for the Yankees. It is his seventh year with them and they have held the pennant for four of the seven years just past. The letters moved no more. The story was complete. Slowly the mist drifted away and I again was looking at the old copy of the AURORA. Nearly all that night I sat and mused over the lives of my former classmates. Each one was doing his bit, something good, something useful, something for which the class of '30 might well be proud. BYRON BRITTON, '30. AGRICULTURAL PROBLEM OF THE UNITED STATES Probably the most serious domestic problem since the last war has been the The one conspicuous exception to the distress of our agricultural population.

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HODGDON HIGH SCHOOL -if I 13 1 1- destructive distillation of soft coal, which produces tar, from which many gorgeous colors are made. Let us now consider the importance Of a chemical substance. For example: sul- phuric acid. 'Wfhat would happen if the United States government should sud- denly Hnd itself without sulphuric acid? Our country would be in a worse state of affairs than in any Of the greatest panics known in history. For this is used directly Or indirectly in nearly every fm- ished product. NVithout this fertilizer, re- fined petroleum, preparation of all other acids, and manufacturing of all other hardware would be impossible. These are only a few of the things for the produc- tion Of which sulphuric acid is necessary. In fact, sulphuric acid is used in larger quanities than any other compound. Consider now for a moment the waste that would be going on in the world today if it were not for the chemist. Men made cotton but threw away the chemist now uses the seeds cloth from seeds. The for making washing powders, roofing tar, dye stuff, paints, soaps, feed for animals, yarns, ropes, carpets, writing paper, fer- tilizers, and oils. He has saved millions of dollars a year on this one product, which formerly went to waste. From coal he has used every ounce of possible good. Every gas and vapor is turned to use. Perfumes, aspirin, flavor- ings, tar, illuminating gas, fertilizers, and a great number of dyes, from which be- fore had been only a dirty fuel. We can now name no industry which the chemist has not, in some way, made better for the enrichment of life. Let us now turn to the pleasures which the chemist has made possible for us to enjoy. Think of the motion pictures, which form probably our greatest source Of amusements. At present he produces a Elm itself from cotton, nitric acid, and camphorg though to look at the finished product one can scarcely believe it. He has recently thought of bringing to use a type of a non-infiammable film made from cel- louse acetate. The cost of this which is rapidly being reduced is the only thing which has prevented its more common use. VVhy is it necessary to say 1nOre? All of these facts though they are merely an introduction to some of the more com- plicated parts of chemistry are sufficient to show us the important part chemistry plays in the advancement of life itself. VVhere would we have been today, if it were not for the chemist? VVe prob- ably would have been still living in the dark ages. But since he has appeared the great questions now are, what will be the next thing for the chemist to produce? XYhere will it all end? Even a century ago men of science refused to prophesy on this question. But now our highest hope is that they will work with the doctors so that they may achieve the present goal of medicine, as to find a cure for such diseases as tuberculosis, and cancer. In the past and at present chemistry stands leader of all sciences which make for the enrichment of life. Who can fore- tell the future? YIERNA BENSON. PROPI-IECY One day, many years after I had grad- uated from Hodgdon, while I was inves- tigating a strange case, I came across an ancient copy Of the AURORA. What could have become of all my Old classmates,

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HODGDON HIGH SCHOOL -x I 15 J '- general prosperity during the Coolidge administration was the condition of the farmer. He had grown poorer while the rest of the country was growing richer. In the five year period 1922-1927, it was estimated that over 1,000,000 people had left the farms for the city and that the value of farm property had decreased from 379,000,000,000 to 359,000,000,000. Wliile the government guaranteed the railroads an income of 6W, made the manufacturer safe by tariff, and protected the laborer by immigration laws, the farmer, who made up 2273 of the popula- tion, received less than SW on his capital and held less than 10? of the money. His income was estimated at 3800 a year, that of the teacher 31300 g that of the govern- ment employee 31650g and that of the preacher 31675. These are all poorly paid professions. In 1928, although the American people paid 322,500,000,000 for 17 food prod- ucts, the farmer received only 173 of this amount. The remaining 273 went to the middlemen. VV hat, we wonder, is the cause of this condition? Looking back to the time of the war, we find government officials en- couraging farmers to plant large crops. They guaranteed 32.20 a bushel for wheat and the price of potatoes was high. They claimed that over-production was impos- sible, since there would be a hungry Europeu to feed after the war. The guar- antee on wheat prices stopped with the war. Europe was hungry, she was also impoverished. VVhile our tariff discour- aged her from buying in the American market, it enabled the manufacturer to maintain prices for shoes, clothing and farm machinery much higher than the pre-war levels. The price of wheat dropped from 32.14 in 1920 to 93 cents 1 in 1922g that of corn from 31.25 to 86 cents, that of hogs from 314 a cwt. to 37.80, and that potatoes from 311-310 in 1919 to from 34 to 50 cents in 1920. The actual cost of raising grain and pota- toes was larger than the selling price in 1922. Taxes steadily increased while prices of farm machinery were kept high by tariff. The demand for food was strict- ly limited by population, and little could be gained by high-pressure salesmanship and alluring advertisement. In 1921, one hundred Representatives and Senators of both parties from the agricultural states appeared in Congress, and in the mid-term election of the next year they cut the Republican majority from 68 to 14 in the House, thus securing something like a balance of power. That Congress passed several measures for farm relief-acts to prevent future specu- lating in the grain supply, to protect the dairymen from adulterated milk, to legalize cooperative agricultural societies, and to assure the farmer fair treatment at the hands of the agents of the stock- yards and the packing houses. ln 1922, thru the revived War Finance Cooperation, the government appropri- ated 3433,000,000 for the exportation of agricultural products, and the credit of the Federal Land Bank was extended to farmers who wished to borrow on the security of their livestock and their crops on the way to market. These measures were by no means satisfactory to the farmers. They demanded the creation of a National Agricultural Export Company, with a capital of 3200,000,000, authorized to buy up surplus farm products and sell them abroad for what they would bring, while the tariff would be high enough to prevent re-importation. This, the Mc- Nary-Haugen Bill, was vetoed in Febru-