Hopkins High School - Warrior Yearbook (Minnetonka, MN)

Page 3 text:

Q = HE DAYS OF THE COVERED WAGON ARE GONE, BUT NOT SO THE PIONEER DAYS. THEY ARE ALWAYS WITH US. JUST AS MODERNITY IS THE NAME GIVEN TO TODAY BY YESTERDAY AND TO TOMORROW BY TODAY, SO PIONEER IS THE NAME WE GIVE TO HIM WHO IS FOREVER LOOKING FORWARD. MODERNITY IS A MARCHING, VARIOUS DYNAMIC PRINCIPLE; THE PIONEER IS HE WHO IS GOVERNED BY THAT PRINCIPLE. MODERNITY IS THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF TOMORROW, AND THE PIONEER ITS BUILDER. WE BELIEVE THAT THE STUDENT OF TODAY HAS IN HIM THE CAPACITY, AND BEFORE HIM THE UNPARALLELED OP-PORUNITY, TO DO PIONEER WORK. THE AMERICA OF THE PRE-WAR ERA IS THE PRODUCT OF WHAT WE MIGHT, FOR WANT OF A MORE PRECISE TERM, CALL INDUSTRIALISM. BUILDING ON A PHYSICAL BASE OF UNTOLD WEALTH. IN THE PRECEDING GENERATION, THE GREATEST INDUSTRIAL STRIDES IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD WERE STEPPED OFF BY THE SEVEN-LEAGUE BOOTS OF AMERICAN BUSINESS. THE RESULT WAS A NATION RICH BEYOND FORMER DREAMS, SWARMING WITH MOTOR CARS, INUNDATED WITH BATHS, AND SWADDLED—HALF OF IT, FOR A PORTION OF THE YEAR AT LEAST—IN FUR COATS. OUR MANUFACTURES AND OUR COMMERCE LED THE WORLD, AND OUR AGRICULTURE TO ITS OWN DETRIMENT, OUTDISTANCED THE CONSUMING POWERS OF ITS MARKETS. A RICH NATION INDEED, BUT WE PUT IT TO YOU, A NATION WHICH WAS A HUSKY YOUNG ADOLESCENT AMONG NATIONS — MUSCULAR, MECHANICALLY SKILLED —BUT UNDEVELOPED MENTALLY AND SPIRITUALLY. THERE WERE IN AMERICA MOTOR CARS, BATH TUBS AND FUR COATS IN HAPPY PROFUSION, BUT THERE WERE ALSO SLUMS, HUNGER, AND WEARY DRAGGING FEET IN LESS HAPPY NUMBERS. AND EVEN AMONG THE OCCUPANTS OF THE MOTORS, THE TUBS AND THE FUR COATS, THERE WAS RESTLESSNESS, SELFISHNESS AND ABSORPTION WITH MATERIAL VALUES-ALL OF WHICH GO TO STARVE THE SPIRIT. INDUSTRIALISM, INDISPENSIBLE BRING-ER OF MATERIAL WEALTH AND THE POTENTIAL BASIS FOR SPIRITUAL HAPPINESS, EXACTS A TOLL UPON THE UNSUSPECTING NATION WHICH BANKRUPTS THE SPIRIT. INDUSTRIALISM, UNALLOYED AND UNCHECKED BY A STRONG SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS, MUST ALWAYS BRING EVILS IN ITS WAKE FROM MASS PRODUCTION TO MASS LIVING IS ONLY A STEP, AND TO TAKE IT BECOMES THE EASIEST WAY, THOUGH IT IS THE LEAST WISE. WE WHO ARE FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO LIVE AWAY FROM AN INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENT, MUST NOT IMAGINE WE ARE ENTIRELY EXEMPT FROM THE EVILS OF A MACHINE AGE. THERE ARE SLU GRTHE MIND, AND THEY ARE BUILT BY AN ATMOSPHERE THAT PERMEATES THE AIR THE NATION BREATHES. FROM THAT COMES OUR STANDARDIZED THINKING, OUR SELFISHNESS, RESTLESSNESS AND CONCERN FOR TANGIBLE WEALTH. SUCH IS THE TOLL OF OUR ROBOT ERA, OUR PUSH-BUTTON LIVING. TO AVOID THE TOLL AND MAKE INDUS- .E X L I B R I S