Lincoln High School - Quill Yearbook (Jersey City, NJ)

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The Letter Mrs. Johnson flashed me a friendly smile as she opened the door. L'Hello, Mrs. Johnson, I said. L'Is Ed at home? l'Why, yes, Frank. He's down in the cellar puttering around his shop as usual. Go on downf' Thanks, I replied, and I went down the ramshackle cellar stairs of the young machinists home. Ed, at the lathefbench of his hardfearned cellar workshop, looked up with a cheery Hello, and then resumed his work. As he set the lathe, he began to talk enthusiastically. Say, Frank, have you seen that new kind of carburetor that they have in the 'Popular Mechanics' this month? 'LSure, what about it? I replied. Well, nothing much, only it gave me an idea that I've since worked out. Take a look at these plans. He held out the bluefprints for me to see, his blue eyes twinkling under his rather bushy brows. Well, what do you think of that for a new kind of gas feeder? he Vqusetioned me, after I had looked over the bluefprints for a moment or two. I was amazed by what I saw on those sheets of paper. Why, it's great! I told him. You're a made man if you can patent that. But a moment later all my enthusiasm deserted me as I saw the twinkle go out of my friend's eyes and give way to a wistful frown. Fat chance of my doing any patenting, and you know it. Me, a twentyfdollarfafweek machinist. Why, it'd take me fifty years to get enough money. What do you mean, Ed? You can borrow some money on the house, can't you? I haven't a thin dime or I'd back you in a flash. All you need is five hundred dollars, and you can borrow that at the bankf' Say, listen, -he fairly jumped on me. Have you ever tried to get money out of that old chiselfface down at the bank? You might as well try to chew nails as try to get money from the great Phelpsville National Bank. Well, that isn't the only place, is it? I asked him. There are plenty of other sources from which you could get capital. He seemed for a few moments to be sunk in reflection. Ii think I'll try it, he cried suddenly, and then he jumped to his feet. But say, let's go upstairs and have a little game of checkers. I feel in a winning mood.

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What Now? On or about the thirtieth of June, a large number of seventeen and eighteenfyearfolds are going to be ejected from schools all over the country with rolls of paper in their hands which will certify that they have received an education. We of the class of June, 1935, will be of this number. Some of us will spend four years in what pass for institutions of higher educaf tion, but at the end of that time we still shall be faced with the question, 'sWhat now? We shall be entering a world which apparently has no use for us, a world which can not or will not make use of even experienced people, a world in which even now those students who have gone before are unsucf cessfully looking for jobs. What chance have we to get work, to support ourselves? In this country onefsixth of the population are in part or in whole on relief. There aren't enough jobs to go around, and what jobs there are are only for those who have had experience. Statesmen and politicians are running hither and thither like decapitated fowl. Bankers walk around in a jittery daze. The Whole system's crazy, but nobody wants to change it. The only hope for us young people to get anywhere seems to be to rear up on our hind legs, rip open the existing system, see what makes it act so queerly, and fix the blasted thing. It may no-t be necessary to scrap the present system, it may not indeed be necessary to change the system to the degree that our radical friends vvishg but something must be done, and it seems that the only ones willing or able to do it are the youngsters with the chalkfdust still under their fingerfnails. And that means us. We must find out why people can starve and freeze in the same counf try that ploughs under its corn and cotton. We shall have to discover how a group of men can get so much power that they can plunge a country into war just so that they can sell their steel and powder. We shall have to find out why competent men who want to work have to go on relief rolls. We must determine the why, the where, the who of graft. We shall have to know the whys of all the other peculiar things in this country. Then, after we've found out all about these things, it's up to us to fix the works. We'll have a harder time correcting the abuses. It'll be a tough job. We'll have some setbacks before we're through. It won't be a job for softies or loafersg but it's a job that has to be done and done soon, or the jig's up for the whole system. T America depends on us! A

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I was somewhat taken back by this change in my friend, but since I was glad to see him cheerful again, I said no more about it. Yeah, I said jokingly, 'Lthat's what you thought the last time. I started up the stairs, with Ed trailing me. - - Ik Bk Pk Pk Sk Pk wk Pk Since I was very busy at my own job, it was quite a few days before I saw him again, but in the meantime I began to hear things about him. It seems that he had taken up my suggestion of looking for backing. Almost everywhere I went in the little town, I heard o-f his trips to banks, to rich people, and to every other place where there was even the scantest hope of getting money. Finally I heard that his quest had been rewarded in the form of a mortgage on his house. On the very evening of the day on which I learned this news, I went to his house and received aflirmation of the rumor. I found him working on the plans and the necessary working model. As I went down into the old cellar, he bounded toward me to tell me the good news. A I got it! I got it! he exclaimed. The Robertstown National Bank gave me a mortgage, and look -he led me over to his bench, where there was the usual litter of tools and materials- I've almost got the model fin' ished. The plans are all drawn up, and I'm sending in my application to the patent lawyers in the morning. I was as excited as he was, looking over everything to see if all were in firstfrate condition. I found a few minor errors, which he easily cor' rected. We worked like demons, so that by twelve o'clock everything was packed and ready to go into the mail. - H4 S4 Sk wk wk P14 H4 if After that night came a long period of watchful and anxious waiting. Every evening on his arrival home from work, the first thing that Ed did was to ask if the letter had come from Washington. I was as eager as he. Every evening I would gulp down my dinner as if my life would end if I did not get over to his house before seven o'clock to see whether that message of success had come. For three months this went on and Ed, his family, and I lived like lunaf tics. Finally, one Wednesday night after he opened the door to my knock, I found the answer in his face. No good, eh? -I wanted to be certain.