Ipswich High School - Tiger Yearbook (Ipswich, MA)

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portant factor in regard to the tenth Olympiad was its position as a “depression buster.” Six million dollars was spent in preparation for it, and many thousand men were given employment in preparing for and producing the games. In these games “equality” is the slogan. A small town boy has as great a chance to make good as a city-bred boy. A fine example of this “equality” is the case of David Colwell of Byfield, who is a relative of one of Manning ' s recent gradu- ates. He made a remarkable show- ing in one of the recent Olympiads and was highly honored. The Olympics are rapidly spread- ing over the entire world and many small countries hold games every four years which are similar to the world-wide Olympics. These Olym- piads are producing a group of husky, healthy champions who are nearly as great as the true Olympic victors. In gazing back into the athletic history of yore, one cannot but be impressed by the manifold advan- tages the youth of today has over his athletic ancestors of twenty cen- turies ago. Likewise, it becomes clear that the modem Olympic Games have become, in all human probability, a permanent feature in the world’s calendar of sport; and athletics is making better men and women of the present-day youth. American Shipping By John Alexander, Jr. A merican shipping had its birth with the coming of the Pilgrims. These adventurer s were financed by English merchants who were interested in the possibilities of building a new commerce with a new land. Every boatload of new emigrants brought manufactured articles to the colonies and re- turned to Britain laden with raw materials from the new America. The Puritans were even more ambi- tious for commerce with England, for their larger settlement needed more supplies. The Dutch in New Amsterdam, of course, carried on a lively trade with their own mother country as did the Swedes, Danes, Norwegians, and Germans, who came to the new land in increasing numbers. Every ship brought more immigrants, and thus the supply of imports increased to meet the ever growing demand, and the colonies exported all surplus products. Be- sides this need for trade the new Americans were people from great seafaring nations, and they turned naturally to the sea as the element with which they were the most familiar. Thus the American mer- chant marine flourished and grew. As the years passed, the Yank- ees began to branch out in their commerce. They developed a trade with the West Indies in rum and molasses. They sent their vessels di- rectly to the Cape of Good Hope, to Hindustan, Java, and Sumatra. They carried on a lively trade with 29

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This committee consists of repre- sentatives from each of the sixty- five competing countries. Each na- tion has its own Olympic council. This council contains one or more representatives of every association governing every sport in the coun- try, and a few other co-adopted members chosen for their special knowledge or experience in organi- zation. The funds necessary for the nation’s participation in the Olympics is raised through this or- ganization. Although there is not supposed to be any special classifi- cation of results which show any nation as “the winning nation,” the national councils have a great ten- dency to find the exact position of their nation in each Olympiad. The Olympic Games which should be of the most interest to us. as American people, were those of the tenth Olympiad, held in Los Angeles, California, in July, 1932. Tn preparation for this grand event, it may be said, a city was built to order. “Olympic Village.” as it was named, sprang up almost over night. This was the headquarters and residence of athletes, coaches, and trainers from all parts of the world. The village consisted of a series of two-room houses, each ac- commodating four men. In addi- tion there was an administration building and a main dining-room, which was approximately twelve hundred feet long. The dining- room was divided into separate rooms, so that each team could make its own eating arrangements. Each team also brought with it its own cooks, so that the contestants were enabled to adhere to the diets to which they had become accus- tomed. The feminine athletes, their coaches, and trainers were housed and entertained in the residence halls of the University of Southern California. The major portion of the events were held in the Coli- seum, which was reconstructed as the Olympic Stadium. It is the larg- est athletic arena in the world up to the present date. The athletes were stationed thirty-five feet below ground level, and the famous quar- ter-mile track was constructed around this space. Dressing-rooms and showers for a thousand con- testants were an integral part of the structure. One noteworthy fea- ture was the system of tunnels which led to the dressing-rooms, un- der the seats to the “pits” adjoining the edge of the playing field. Here other tunnels connected and led under the track to trap-doors on the field itself. Added to all the other comforts of home, physicians, dentists, and American Red Cross nurses and workers were present to carry out a well organized program of health and sanitation. The tenth Olympiad was held for sixteen days — from July 30 to Au- gust 14, inclusive. Over seventy thousand spectators were present in the huge Olympic Stadium to wit- ness the event. Every day during that period, the crowd was fed on thrills ; but as the program came to an end, it was still hungry for more. The Olympic Games are import- ant for many reasons, but one of the greatest is because of their position as an instigator of world peace. Few can appreciate the friendly feeling created among nations by this world-wide gathering. An im- 28

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Japan through the Dutch in the East Indies. They were among the first to trade along the east coast of South America, and for a long time they had a monopoly of the West African trade. In all their commerce they followed the same plan, that of exchanging what they had that somebody else needed for what somebody else had that they needed. As the traders ventured out into the ocean, the builders ventured in- to new fields of construction and built more and better ships. In 1769 the colonies were launching approximately 389 vessels a year. One out of every six vessels built was sold to foreign concerns, and this led to disputes with English shipbuilders. A vessel could be built for twenty dollars less a ton in the colonies than it could be built in England and built better in the bar- gain. Business dropped off sharply for the English shipbuilding firms, and many of the workers left Eng- land to come to work in the Ameri- can shipping industry. The ship- builders demanded legislation to protect them from the rising Amer- ican building, and their demand was answered by the Government in the law forbidding British sub- jects to buy ships built in the colo- nies. Then the ambitious Yankee mer- chant-ship owners began to tread on the toes of the British merchants, and the Americans began to look towards liberty. To crush the free- dom movement and to aid the bleat- ing British merchants, Parliament passed laws limiting and hampering American commerce. By this legis- lation they aimed to destroy the direct trade of the colonists with Europe and their trade with the West Indies. However, the colonists entirely disregarded these laws, sometimes successfully, and some- times at the loss of a beautiful ship and her cargo. American shipping slumped de- cidedly during the Revolution, but maritime initiative was kept alive by privateering. These privateers took more prizes than the United States Navy did, and they made great sums of money from these ventures. The Revolution ended, our mariners, feeling secure in their newly won independence, planned more adventurous voyages than they had ever dreamed of be- fore. They fared forth and found that the sea was not the freeman’s paradise of which they had dreamed. Preying on American commerce became an international maritime sport. England stopped American ships on the high seas and impressed American seamen into her navy and passed legisla- tion at home which allowed her subjects to buy only the crudest of American products. During the Napoleonic wars our shipping was ravaged severely, many ships and their crews being captured by the opposing factions. Each side for- bade neutrals to trade with the other, and each side seized vessels caught doing so. Yet under these conditions our shipping attained its most rapid growth. The Yankee shipowner with his fast, fleet ves- sels was able to carry cargoes to the waring nations at high profits to himself, even if he did lose a vessel now and then by confiscation. 30