Malden High School - Maldonian Yearbook (Malden, MA)

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VALEDICTORY The Progress of Woman Through Opportunity ISABEL ELEANOR McNEVIN The recent election of Lady Astor to Parlia¬ ment is of great interest to us, both because she was an American girl, and because she is the first woman to hold such a high political office in England or in any other civilized country. Her election is, without doubt, one of the results of the war, through which woman made more progress than she had in the two hundred years previous. Up to the beginning of the nineteenth century, woman had practically no rights. To be sure an unmarried woman had more freedom, than did a married woman, but even so her privileges were few. Chief among the privileges denied her was the right to a higher education, the right to enter a profession, the right to hold office, and the right to vote. Of course there had been a few women, Lady Jane Grey, for example, or Queen Elizabeth, who were remarkably well educated, but both of these women were of noble rank, and because of this fact alone had access to knowledge. The great majority of women did not even dream of making any effort to improve their status. However, just before the beginning of the nineteenth century there began to appear women such as Mary Wollstonecraft, who demanded for women full freedom and equality with men. At a shortly later period there lived a woman who accomplished probably more for the advance of woman than had any one individual before her. This woman was Florence Nightingale, who, contrary to precedent and against the wishes of her parents, trained as a nurse, and so was ready when Opportunity, in the guise of the Crimean War, appeared. She, with her corps of women workers, accomplished wonders in organization and administration. Her success resulted in the establishment of a number of training schools for women nurses, and in the improvement of conditions in many of the hospitals, both in England and on the continent. In our own country Emma Willard stands out prominently—the pioneer in America who worked for women, and the first person in the world who obtained Page Fifteen

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CLASS BOOK OF 192 0 A MALDEN HIGH SCHOOL shall we say in regard to the anti-oriental land laws passed in California? People talk about our duty to enter Mexico - clean it up and bring peace and harmony out of the present chaos. Alien bayonets never produce “peace and harmony” They can do aught else but produce a deeper chaos and greater internal disruption. It is granted that we can conquer Mexico, but at what a cost! If we make war on Mexico it will not be with a small-scale armament. We will enter with a force of sufficient power and equipment to make any resistance useless, for we will not throw away American lives by carrying on the war with anything approaching evenly-matched battles. If all war necessitated was a seizure of the principal ports and cities, the force required would not be excessively large, but we are to enter a war for the suppression of bandits, and for that purpose we must despatch large bodies of troops throughout the country to crush out all opposition. The time necessary to do this, according to eminent military authorities, is two years; the force, not less than five hundred thousand men. This initial procedure means an outlay of two billion dollars and thereafter a continual financial drain of half a billion dollars a year for the maintenance of garrisons. And when we have finally conquered Mexico, how do the values returned compare with those expended ? The approximate American holdings in Mexico amount to a scant billion dollars. For an expenditure of two billions, one billion dollars are returned and countless, precious, American lives lost. Our interests are bound up not only in Mexico but in all the Latin American peoples south of Panama. The future trade with these nations will be worth many times over the profits derived from Mexican occupation. What will be the result if we go to war with Mexico? We shall incur the hostility of these people, for the South American nations will not calmly see one of their sister republics merged and assimilated with ours. From the time we enter Mexico, the South American people will regard our investments and commercial advances as tools of peaceful penetration leading to ultimate conquest. This is the proposition advanced to the American people—a war, which, for no worth-while returns, calls for the loss of a great many lives beside increased financial responsibility for every citizen in the land. Instead of trying to wage war with Mexico, let us find out something of the conquests which have made her what she is. Let us see some of the ideals for which she is struggling, and the trials which she is undergoing. When we have done these things, then shall we substitute sympathy and pity for our hatred; then will Mexico be understood and allowed to work out her destiny in her own way to ultimate victory over the present existing strife. Page Fourteen

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CLASS BOOK OF I92 0A MALDEN HIGH SCHOOL public money for their education. The founding of her school at Troy, New York in 1819 was followed by the establishment of the schools of Mt. Holyoke and Vassar, and it is only within fifty years that women have had the same educational and professional opportunities as men. With so much gamed, woman turned her attention toward securing suffrage. Immediately as much opposition was raised as there had been to the demand for higher education for women. After a struggle school suffrage was granted to them by most states, and still later several states gave them complete suffrage. However, this was not enough, and the suffragists were striving for complete suffrage for all women with more or less success when the war, woman’s great Opportunity, came. The war found England and France, and later, America practically un¬ prepared. Something had to be done. Men were needed, thousands of them. They had to be taken from every profession, from every trade. Industrial ruin was prophecied, for there seemed to be no one to take their places. It was at this juncture, however, that women stepped in. They filled the factories, the stores, the offices. They entered all the professions and trades. They assumed civic duties. They enlisted for service in the hospitals at home and abroad. No task was too hard for them, no risk was too great. The world was astonished. Then came the end of the war and with it the question, “What will woman do?” The answer has come in the enfranchisement of the women of practically all the civilized nations of the world and more recently in the election of a woman to parliament. The world has been made to realize that “the woman’s cause is man’s,” and although the future is uncertain, if the woman of the future is as quick to grasp her opportunities and to make the best of them as the women of the past and of the present have been, then will come the golden age which Tennyson prophecied years ago, when there will be “everywhere Two heads in council, two beside the hearth, Two in the tangled business of the world, Two in the liberal offices of life, Two plummets dr opt for one to sound the abyss Of science, and the secrets of the mind.” Classmates, Tonight we meet together for the last time as students of the Malden High School. For four years we have recited, studied, and played together as carefree boys and girls and now we are ready to go forth into a new life—a life full of responsibilities and cares, a life for which our High School courses have been preparing us. Our four years together have meant much to us and it is with a Page Sixteen