Ipswich High School - Tiger Yearbook (Ipswich, MA)

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lead the world to international well be- ing . And clearly that is America’s duty. As she has led in other projects, so must she make the initial move toward world ])eace and harmony. The entire world acknowledges that America holds the key to the world’s future. Should she not then unlock the treasure chest which contains mutual fellowship and world brotherhood? Europe merely awaits America’s initiatory move to join toget- her under God as a world wide race rather than as continually contending factions. This then is the outlook that America has for the coming years. Her star is still ascendant. More and more will Ameri- cans as a people dominate the world. Nor do we wish this domination to be- come the arrogant, autocratic, overbear- ing lordship of previous world leaders. Rather do we desire it to be a true lead- ership copying after the general who never refused to lead his men wdiere he ordered them to go. With that guiding principle of leadership, not compelling authority, America will proceed and suc- ceed. That ideal originates from the over- whelming supremacy of the fair-minded Anglo-Saxon element in our country. That element has influenced all immi- grants to such an extent that today America is characteristically Anglo-Sax- on. At the present time the Anglo-Saxon race is more firmly knitted together by the recent war than ever before. More- over, that race practically controls the world by holding the greater part of the world’s minerals. Great Britain, the other Anglo- Saxon nation, went into the war mistress of the world. Through that ungodly combat the leadershij) devoted upon our own country which contains two-thirds of the dominant race of the world. The power was transfered from London to Washington. 1 heodore Roosevelt, ])reeminentlv an American, said. “The golden hope s of mankind can be realized only by men who have iron in their l)lood ; by men who scorn to do wrong and equally scorn to submit to wrong; by men of gentle souls whose hearts are harder than steel in their readiness to war against brutal ity and evil.’’ Could any people fit this statement more finely than our own? Certainly, then, they will realize the op- ])ortunities presented. Wdien Napoleon drew up his troops before the Nlame- lukes, under the shadow of the ])yramids, he pointed to the latter, saying to his soldiers, “Remember that from yonder heights forty centuries look down on you.’’ Fellow Americans, from the sum- mit of the pyramid of o])portunity we look down upon forty centuries. Again in the words of Roosevelt, “We are not only custodians of the hopes of our children, but in a peculiar sense we are custodians of the hope of the world.’ Opportunity comes but once ; let us seize it while we may. Therefore, let us repeat with Admiral Decatur those thrilling words, “Our country ! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be right ; but our county, right or wrong!’’ “O beautiful for i)atriot dream. That sees beyond the years Thine alabaster cities gleam Undimmed by human tears ; America ! America ! God shed his grace on thee. And crown thy good with brother- hood From sea to shining sea.’’ Karl P. Raupach. “VIRTUTE, NON VERBIS” “ irtute, non verbis,’’ by virtue, not by wordsjs the motto which we, the class of 1927, have chosen. T- are all indivi- duals, have our own thoughts, and com- municate them one to another by the wonderful gift of language. In the home those who know us best are able to in- terpret our thoughts by a nudge, a nod, of a lifting of the eye-brows; but outside we make our thoughts known by our vords. e study English through long years at school; we try, by reading, to enlarge our vocabulary and to perfect 29

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stoiH of the United States still endure; and the ri. ' hts established by the Puri- tan fathers remain unaltered in spirit and coni])letely permeate the entire race of Americans, d ' he first of these is per- sonal freedom. This does not provide for selfish abuse of ])rivilei es by egotistic individuals. It does provide for general security of ])r()perty and liberty of per- son restricted only by demands neces- sary for the ])ul)lic welfare. Morevoer, it allows freedom of s])eech and ])ress, and the ri 2;ht to worship according to de- sires. It may here he stated that with all this freedom, the United States is funda- mentally a Christian nation. Yet it does not believe in any inter-relation of church and state. Our great country has thrived through its policy of church se])arated from state. Even in the present age of speed and thoughtlessness when dogmatism is fast disappearing, the American people remains steadfastly a God-fearing race of as steady and trust-worthy type as that of generations ])ast. Equality is closely allied to personal freedom inasmuch as it embraces it. The expression of this ideal includes as well as racial equality several other phases. In America every man is entitled to justice. Efe is given a trial before a jury of his peers. Therefore, naturally every man is entitled to own property that he can rightfuliy support. But perhaps most of all in the American mind, every per- son is entitled to an education. The United States is reputed to have the UKjst perfect system of free public schools in the world. Many of the indivi- dual states now support universities for those who desire further training. Of course, the many colleges and univer- sities throughout the country were founded because of this same American l ride in this phase of the ideal, equality. Lincoln explained it all for us when he said. “Advancement — improvement in condition — is the order of things in a society of equals.” “Make the world safe for democracy!” Who will ever forget that war-cry? Democracy is closely related to both per- sonal freedom and ecjality. Democracy is that fellow-feeling that is America, It was the spirit of that ideal that heli)ed New York City gain its name. “The Melting Pot of the Nations” ; that enables America to take unto herself aliens and transform them into true Americans ; that ultimately settled the slavery question in the ‘ 60 ’s. Patriotism is all embracing. Its fine, unconcpierable spirit upon occasion over- helms all desire for personal liberty. I.ove of country results in a willingness to submit to self-imposed authority to { reserve the government, and is fur- thered, doubtless, by “the intense faith which Americans have in the soundness of their institutions and in the future of their country.” These ideals then have built up a strong, self-reliant people. As a country the United States is very nearly a world. There is no need here to relate how America’s unlimited resouces enable her to be self-supporting. Hence it is clear that the people and the country make the nation. The people are neces- sary to develop the country ; the coun- try, to support the people. However, the United States also to a degree over the rest of the world for her rapid progress. She has taken ad- vantage of the work of German scien- tists and militarists, of Erench and Ital- ian artists and authors, of English re- search men of every type, of the wealth of the occult Orient. In a different way she owes the Allies in the Great W ar for their protection of her interests until she was on the field. Our country gained about thirty bil- lions of dollars and a tremendous amount of exi)erience from the war period. Other nations were not so fortunate and did not escape unscathed. Should not Ameri- ' a do the magnanimous thing and turn to help those countries? She could never hope to pay for their millions of dead but she should do what she could. America is considered essentially a material na- tion. Europeans picture American ideal- ism as a continual grab for the “almighty dollar.” It is not through her finances alone, however, that this republic must 28

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oiir composition in order that we may he al)le to express ourselves more clearly with reiifard for the fine distinction of meaning so that others may understand us. Ilow we should a])preciate and de- veloj) this marvelous gift of words! i iit sometimes we find one who makes them an end in themselves and then the i)ers- pective is entirely wrong. No truly great man ever reached greatness by mere words ; the deeds that prom])ted those words really decided whether he was great in the highest sense of the word or not. The tendency in this modern Avorld of ours is to give too much credit to pomp and show and too little to the more simple but worth while things in life. Tt Ralph Waldo Emerson recognized this same trend, for it was he who said, What you are speaks so loud I can’t hear what you say.” W ' ords without deeds are fruitless but one can give deeds without words and his life will be well spent. The truth of this is seen through the life and actions of our present president, Calvin Coolidge. Although one o f the most quiet and re- served men we know, he is almost uni- versally loved and esteemed. No nation would have elected a president by popu- lar vote simply because of his eloquence of expression, though, of course, some men have more ability in this art than others. Throughout President Coolidge’s career — as a lawyer, as mayor of North- hampton. as governor of Massachusetts, and in the various other public duties which he has performed, until he at- tained the office which he now holds, his accomplishments, and deeds, and quiet strength have attracted men to him and made them love and honor him. He is a man who surely possesses virtuous qualities, for he displays both purity and firmness in all that he attempts. Honesty is certainly another quality of virtue, and one that cannot possiblv be neglected. It is no recently dis - covered need, for we remember Dio- genes. the cinic ])hiloso])her, who is pic- tured as searching with his lantern for an honest man. W ' hen Mathew Scott Sloan, at the age of twenty-seven, ac- ce])ted an im])ortant ])osition with the Prooklyn hklison Com])any and found that one of the employees was receiving large amounts of money through graft, he realized that he must have honest hel])ers, first of all. lie remembered a ' ■ollege friend, one of whcxse oustanding traits was honesty, who, when his mates would ask him to indulge in a certain ])rank. would always tell them to do it by themselves, — he would have none of it. After sufficient inquiries, he learned that this fellow was holding a moderate- ly successful ])osition in the Middle WTst ; he telegraphed him to come to New York and then offered him a $10,000 salary with promise of an increase as soon as he had learne d the business. Add to these qualities of strength and honesty, that of self-forgetfulness, a mark of true nobility which everyone admires. This world would amount to very little if each one of us thought only of himself, disregarding everything and everyone else. Sir Philip Sidney was an author of the sixteenth century, yet people remember him, not so much for his “Arcadia” or for his daring and splen- did deeds as or his one act of forgetful- ness of self. When he lay mortally wounded on the battlefield, a cup of water was passed to him, and although he was faint and thirsting, he offered it to one who was lying near him, saving. Thy necessity is greater than mine.” The story of the fearlessness and hero- ism of Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, has great attractions for us all. What was it, if not bravery, another of the es- sential qualities of virtue, that she dis- played throughout her whole life? She was the j easant maid who delivered her country and was a martyr in its cause. Her earnestness in carrying out her mis- sion, her power over the soldiers, her courage in battle, her simplicity amid triumph and splendor, and her blameless and holy life all help us to realize the real character of this martyr. W e might mention, as a modern exam])le of bravery and fearlessness. Colonel Charles Lindbergh who re- cently made the first non-stop flight 30