Manchester High School - Somanhis Yearbook (Manchester, CT)

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30 SOMANHTLIS EVENTS keeping she readily secured a position with an electric light company. Her uncle, after hearing that she was bent upon becoming a business wo- man, sent her to one of the best business colleges in New York. Ajfter being graduated she accepted a position as bookeeper with the firm by which she is now employed. By becoming familiar with all office details, whether they happened to have any particular bearing on her specified la- bors or not, she showed an interest in the firm and each day meant a forward step toward personal improvement. Mrs. Helen Kenny Holmes or the ticker girl of Wall Street is earning over $10,000 a year. She began her career as telephone operator at $12 per week, but because of her determination to learn the business and her loy- alty to the firm’s interest, she has now become one of the firm. Nowadays, there are not only women doctors, lawyers, lecturers, den- tists, and policewomen, but there are bankers, farmers, milk brokers, man- agers of railroad administrations, mine presidents, and voters. It is a splendid thing to live in the twentieth century. We who enter life these days are going out into a world busier than it has ever been, and no genuine twentieth century girl can feel that she is “every inch a woman” unless she is prepared to “amount to something” in some line of business. MABEL ROBB, ’20. SOUTH AMERICA, THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITY The war as we all know, has had a great effect upon the world in gen- eral. Not only the social and political, but the financial and commercial! situation is far different from what it was before. The United States has found that the time has passed when only problems at home are to be dealt with; world-wide conditions must now be considered. This country, although a great commercial nation, had never entered into the foreign trade of the world to any great extent up until the time of the war. It then became necessary for us to do so, because the great commercial nations, that is England and Germany, were both at war and had no time to devote to their foreign trade, Both of these countries had a great hold on the trade of the Latin American Republics. At the beginning of the war, this country was called upon to promote the trade of these republics. Then we began to open our eyes and see what a great opportunity we had overlooked. People never realized that our sister continent held any place in the world whatever. This country during the war increased production in all lines in order to meet the needs of the warring nations. At present most of the factories are rushed as they were in war time, but the time will come, and it is not far distant, when the United States will have an over production of goods. Then we will look for some foreign market. South America is the field, and now is the time to establish such a market. srazil, the largest of all South American countries,, is often called the, “Storehouse of the World.” Here we have a country larger than the United States with about one fifth the population. Everything can be raised there that grows in both the tropical and temperate zones. Brazil abounds in natural resources. In the northern part we find the great lum- ber and rubber forests for which she has been noted through all ages. In the central and southern part agriculture is the principle industry. Coffee, the most important of all, is raised on a large scale, but now it is not suf-

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SOMANHIS EVENTS 29 be trusted not to talk about her employer’s affairs, for the position of pri- vate secretary is essentially a confidential one. The fundamental requirements, truthfulness, honesty, industry, kind- ness, self-reliance, courage, and trustworthiness, must be met by the girl who is to enter the ranks of the world’s workers and march: forward to suc- cess. Sincerity of purpose, habits of industry, punctuality in performing work, alertness in seizing opportunties, zeal in performing the task assigned, and a willingness to do more than the required task—these are the qualifica- tions of the successful worker in every vocation. Personal appearance also goes a great way, and while every girl cannot be beautiful, any girl can be neat and clean. Most people know something of the work done by women during the war, The first ambulance on duty in the first Zeppelin raid on London was driven by a woman. They were not ashamed to don overalls and to clean locomotives and carriages in England. At one time while the war was raging there were between 800,000 and 1,000,000 women in the munition works. Who of us a few years ago ever thought there would be police-women ? Since the inauguration of factory-police work for women in England, in July 1916, a marked success has attended the organization which has re- sulted in almost daily application for policewomen in every part of the United Kingdom, Not one single woman has failed at her post or shirked her duty in the hour of danger. The leading professions are today inviting women as never before. From primitive times women have been interested in the administering of medicine. Now we find the number of women physicians in reguiar practice rapidly increasing in both Europe and America. Those European countries which, a decade ago, frowned upon the practice of medicine by women are now sincerely regretting that there are not more of them quali- fied to serve as physicians. Even as recently as thirty years ago, the Pres- ident of the British Medical Association said, “I am not oversqueamish, but 1 almost shudder when I hear of the things that ladies now do or attempt to do, One can but blush and feel that modesty once inherent in the fairest of God’s creations is fast fading away.” Dentistry also is open to women, although it does not seem to attract as many as do the medical profession and nursing, On the lecture platform there are many women who have a large place in the appreciation of the public. There has been quite an advance in the last three quarters of a century. We are told that when Miss Lucy Stone Was announced to speak on anti-slavery at Malden, Massachusetts in 1847, the announcement read as followes: “I am requested by Mr. Mowey to say that a hen will undertake to crow like a cock at the Town Hall this after- noon at five o’clock. Anybody that wants to hear that kind of music will, of course, attend.” When Miss Stone died in 1893, just forty-six years later, the Boston Herald said: “She goes to her grave honored, beloved, and mourned by the whole American people.” Today women lecturers, provided they are good speakers, are welcomed just as cordially in a public gathering as are men. I have mentioned only a few of the professions in which women are engaged. There are numerous others. Miss Mary Haynes holds a very responsible position as law-expert in one of the widely known New York real estate firms. When a senior in high school her father died. The heavy burdens, both of home-making and financial worry fell on her mother. It was necessary for Mi ss Haynes to leave school. With one year of book-

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SOMANHIS EVENTS : 31 ficient to supply the demand. Land lies plentiful and all that is needed is the modern method of tillage. The foreign trade is immense, being about fifteen dollars per capita. This amounts to something when we consider that there are about twenty- three million people in the country. The greatest setback is the lack of transportation facilities. A few more railroads in the country would bring it out among the great financial nations of the world. Argentina, the second in size, lies almost entirely in the temperate zone. The cattle and leather industry is the most important. Already “Argentina Beef” is known the world over. The foreign trade is about fifty dollars per capita, the country has a population of eight million. What the people of this country and in fact the whole continent de- mand in the line of automobiles is a rugged inexpensive light built car which will stand the wear of the country roads. The United States is well equipped to supply such a demand. The countries on the western coast of the continent must not be. overlooked. Here we have Peru with its extensive grazing and agriculture plateaux, and Chile with her great nitrate fields. There are numerous other smaller republics in which the same condi- tions, which have been illustrated, exist, only on a smaller scale. South America will always be in the market for foreign goods because the fuel for manufacturing purposes is not to be found. All that is needed is for- eign capital and investment, and the whole land will shine forth in prosper- ity. It will be some years before Europe can supply this capital, because of the great war indemnities. America should step forward, conquer the foreign trade, and develop the natural resources of South America before it is too late. MARTIN E. ALVORD, ’20. WAR’S EFFECT ON LITERATURE Can war really affect literature? Is not that the first question which springs up in our minds when we hear literature and the war discussed? Up to the present time warfare has inspired many writers, but if we look back to history we see that it proves that the supremely great literature of any war has never come until the final “battle’s lost and won.” One great war which served the poetic art most handsomely was the “Trojan War.” This furnished the subject for Homer's “Iliad,” and unless a person were wholly illiterate he could not regret this war. In France ai- ter the seige of Sedan, the Commune and the loss of Alsace and Lorraine, there sprang up a host of young writers, many of whom must have drawn their first inspiration from the smoke of battle. And did not the French Revolution give us that “transcendant group of writers,” whom it is not necessary to name? Then, in connection with our own Civil War, the Uncle Remus Stories and Marsa Chan are masterpieces, whose loss would have left a permanent gap in the literature of the South; indeed the last named has been held by more than one critic to be the best of all stories dealing with war between states. These are but three instances, out of many, in which warfare has been an inspiration to writers.