Ipswich High School - Tiger Yearbook (Ipswich, MA)

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IN ALL LABOR, THERE IS PROFIT To the school committee, superintendent, principal, teachers, and friends who are here tonight to help us commemorate the completion of our High School career, we extend our heartiest welcome. Four labor- ious years have been necessary for the com- pletion of one room of the house of life. Tomorrow we begin another. Perhaps we feel we have worked ardu- ously in order to attain the little success we have won, but let us consider for a moment the amount of labor expended by those great characters who have climbed high on the ladder of success. Those men have worked unceasingly, but not without reward. Consider the contributions to civ- ilization which those great, hard-working men have made. The professor has reached the stage at which he imparts to less- learned men the knowledge of the ages. The physician lessens human suffering. The business-man controls the industrial and commercial world. The scientist has made discoveries which are almost incredible. The laborer’s duties are necessary to the wel- fare of humanity. The value of labor lies not only in the finished product, however, but also in the effect which work has upon character. Man b? rated by God, not according to the task he accomplishes, but according to the effort he nuts into his work. People too seldom realize this truth, which is well expressed •in the following selection from Browning: “Not on the vulgar mass Called “work” must sentence pass, Things done that took the eye and had the price, O’er which, from level stand, The low world laid its hand, Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice; But all the world’s coarse thumb And finger failed to plumb, So passed in making up the main account ; All instincts immature, All purposes unsure, That weighed not as his work, yet swelled the man’s amount. Thoughts hardly to be packed Into a narrow act, Fancies that broke through language and escaped ; All I could never be, All men ignored in me, This I was worth to God.” We may struggle all our lives, yet never reach the heights from which our ideal beckons to us. Indeed, we should have no fixed goal. We should “hitch our wagon to a star.” Success in its broadest sense is never attained, there is always something beyond us, something to strive for, to grasp. A man’s soul dies when he becomes thor- oughly satisfied with himself and the world. Tt is the man climbing after an ever-rising ideal, who makes contributions to the civ- ilization of the world. Yet there are people, and indeed many of them, who labor and labor, yet fail. Some may make early failures into step- ping stones to success. Others will struggle, will follow a lofty ideal, but will follow it in vain. Browning refers to the latter class as “high men”: ‘ ‘ That low man seeks a little thing to do ; Sees it and does it ; That high man, with a great thing to pursue, Dies ere he knows it.” The labor of this apparent failure, has produced, not material, but spiritual fruits ; and may it not be, as Browning suggests, “God’s task to make the heavenly period perfect the earthen”? Dear classmates, have we not found dur- ing the last four years, that a nything really worth while requires much labor? Our High School life, by teaching us the value of work, has prepared us to meet unflinch- ingly the difficult tasks of life. In the future, as in the past, may we be guided in an upward path by the realization that ‘ ‘ In All Labor, there is Profit ! ’ ’ Irene Atkinson — 1921. AMERICANIZATION Without doubt, Americanization is one of the most important and most necessary educational movements in our country to- day. Educating the foreigner regarding the constitution, the rights of citizenship, redress before courts, and the equal oppor- tunities of all people in this country, is of the greatest importance if we wish to make

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SMELTING looming above him a huge dark shape, and he heard the woodcutters’ cry of “Way there” coming out of the fog, lie would have turned but he could not, and the giant pine tree came crashing upon him. The last sound he heard was a taunting devilish cackle from Duval. When the men came to cut the wood, they saw that Arthur ’s head had been severed from his body, and Arthur’s body had been so flattened that it had burst and his lungs had been torn from him. Also they saw a swordsman with a wound in his heart, and one hand gone, standing by and laughing shrilly. Julia Doughty — 1922. THE JOYS OF HOUSEKEEPING Oh, the joys of housekeeping ! They are few and far between, The endless dusting and sweeping Are far from a perfect dream. Sweep ! Sweep ! Use the broom As much as you will — Pa dirties up the room, He doesn’t care a pill. Straighten the rugs and fix ’em all — The kitten frisking by, Punning, jumping, chasing his ball, Moves ’em from where they lie. Wash up the kitchen floor, Make it all look neat — Brother steps inside the door With his muddy feet. Wash and wipe the dishes, Put them all away. Still your mother’s wishes Keep you from your play. Take up the holey stockings, Darn, and warn, and darn ; But never escape the mockings Of the tangled yarn. Thus on and on tasks go, And deep into the night, Swiftly, swiftly, swiftly Do they keep their flight. Dorothy Shaw — 1923. To the thin man I say, “If you want to grow stout — After fifteenth of March — you must just tumble out Of your bed in the morning betwixt one and three, And go up to Mill River, along side o’ me. A flashlight or lantern and a pair o’ hip boots, A fish-net, close knitted, and a bag that just suits Is all that you’ll need. When you get there, Oh, Boy! Wade out in the water and just feel the joy Of smelting.” To the stout man I say, “If you want to grown thin, Come along smelting and just wade right in Close by the sluice-way and hold down your net, Then wait a few minutes and see what you get. I’ll bet you a quarter you’ll laugh and you’ll shout, When the wee silver beauties from your net you dump out. You won’t mind the cold tho’ your fingers should freeze, While you stand in the water way over your knees, When smelting. ’ ’ And so you will find them, the thin and the stout, Up in Mill River with banter and shout, Catching the smelt as they rush for the sea — Both old men and young, wide awake as can be, Forgetting their troubles, each heart full of cheer, And each one agreeing the best time of the year Is from fifteenth of March to April, same day, When they lay aside worries and take up the ulay Of smelting. Richard Ralph — 1921.

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Americans of the great mass of foreign- born in the United States. There have been many definitions of the term A mericanization. At a conference of English teachers who were anxious to pro- mote the movement, the following definition was unanimously adopted : ‘ ‘ Americaniza- tion is the process of teaching the foreign- born the idioms not only of our language but of our thought ; of familiarizing them with American traditions and American ideals; and of encouraging action in har- mony with such teaching.” Indeed, there might be no better definition of American- ization than that contained in the golden rule, “As ye. yould that man should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.” The foreign-born are illiterate, and they fail to understand American ideals. The task .of Americanizing them is, therefore, a great one. No one knew the extent of illiteracy in this country until we entered the Great War. For. years we had been boasting of the intelligence of our nation, ' and of the very small amount of illiteracy in this country. . It was always easy for an illiterate to answer . ‘ ‘ yes’ ’ when the canvasser asked, “Can you read and write?” No one was required to prove his answer. When.wm entered the Great War, it was different. The. government got the facts. It discovered that one-fourth of the men in the army were unable to read an American newspaper, or to write a letter to their friends, at home. In truth, almost 20 per cent, of the people in the United States are unable to read. lit the State of Massachusetts alone there are 300,000 illiterates. . That means that an average of almost, one person in every ten cannot read. Not only are the foreign-born ignorant of the English language, but they fail to understand American ideals. Some of them come over here with the idea that the United States is a place in which to make money, and our country signifies nothing else to them. Some think that this is a country where people are taken advantage of and enslaved, and that all are not given equal opportunities. May of the foreigners are influenced by the spirit of radicalism in government. They come here to over- throw law and order. Many do not under- stand the country which is willing to be- friend them. How can we have a united country if we do not promote Americanization, if we do not teach these foreign-born American principles and ideals, if we do not show them which of their ideas are right and which are wrong? We must show the for- eign-born that in this country they have all the rights of citizenship if they attain it. We must show them that not only should they earn an honest living, but they should also interest themselves in the coun- try which has received them, and they should have other ambitions than the pur- suit of money, money. Theodore Roosevelt’s last, plea was for Americanization. He said : “If he (mean- ing the immigrant) tries to keep segre- gated with men of his own origin and separated from the rest of America, then he isn’t doing his part as an American. There can be no divided allegiance at all. “We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against civ- ilization. We fiave room for but one lan- guage here,, and, that is the English lan- guage, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out Americans, of Amer- ican nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding house ; and we have room for. but one soul loyalty, and that is loyalty to the American people.” Since., Americanization is necessary to the welfare of our country, let us consider its aims, and , the w:ays in which they can be realized. Americanization aims to make English the universal language of this country, to preserve the best contributions of the Old World, to add to them the ideals of the New World, and to produce a united people, loyal to America. The English language is the first neces- sity. Is it right for foreigners to read papers in their own language, papers which tell them to “Fight for Italy,” or “Fight for Greece”? We must show the foreign- born who have settled here, that America, and not the land from which they came, is the country to which they must devote themselves. The immigrants in an English-speaking country must know English. It is a handi- cap to be ignorant of the language. They must be able to address English-speaking people, read common signs and warnings in the streets, and write letters. They can-