Marine City High School - Mariner Yearbook (Marine City, MI)

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THE FUTURE OF MARINE CITY By Reuben Prange Much may be said regarding the disadvantages of a small town like Marine City. In fact, too much may be said. But Marine can boast of advantages that are not common to towns of its size. One of Marines greatest assets is the beautiful St. Clair river. More ships pass through this strait than through the Panama or Suez Canals. And Marine is a marine town — its men are sailors engaged in the world’s greatest movement of commerce. There are shipyards close to the city to take care of the demand for repairs to these great boats. The river also gives Marine the opportunity of being a resort town of the first class. Every summer the geniality and hospitality of the people attract an increasing number of outsiders to spend their leisure hours in Marine. The fish- ing, too, is wonderful. No city can boast of a better location for angling than Marine. This has brought many a disciple of Izaak Walton back again and again for just one more successful catch. Marine has transportation facilities which are not common to towns of like size. It has adequately taken care of the growing need for better streets and better fire protection. It has a pure water supply system. In this age of speed, of progress, of growth, which has done so much for Detroit, our cosmopolitan city to the south, we shall soon feel the greater influence of the big industries at our very door. Detroit is the most rapidly growing city in the world, thanks to the automobile industry. It is safe to say that within the next decade or two it will have spread out much farther than it has the decade before. Even now Marine is contributing a share of business to the world s greatest auto center. And the fact that the live men of Detroit are trying to make that city the aviation center of the United States will greatly add to this spreading influence. Deroit is what it is today because the men of that city had vision. And it would profit Marine if its men, too, had vision. Because of the unfortunate centralization of labor and wealth of the great factories now so common, Henry Ford desires to build many small ones to replace them. Marine is just as good, or better than any other town as the site of such a factory, and it also is a very fine residential city. With the sailors busy only nine months a year, an industry like this would provide for work the remaining time. Wide awake citizens should do their utmost to induce manufacturing interests to come here. Many people object to making Marine more of a manufacturing center be- cause of the foreigners the change will bring, for we have prided ourselves on the stand we have taken towards the foreigner and negroes and the way that stand has been enforced. But after all, is this not false pride? It is undemocratic and un- American. History shows that the main reason why America has been so prog- ressive is because of its mixed races — because it is the melting pot of the world. 18

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storms as well as our freighters of the present time. Neither did they have the lights to guide them, nor the machinery to load and unload them. It took the schooners about three weeks to go from Buffalo to Chicago. Now a freighter will make it in about four days. Our largest- freighters of today carry from 350,000 to 375,000 bushels of grain, which is loaded on in from three to four hours and unloaded in about six hours. There are two different kinds of freighters today, the common freighter and the whaleback, or pig boats, as they are called. These whalebacks have a bow shaped like the nose of a pig, and are just about round so the waves will wash right over them. Then there is one freighter, the William McDougall, which has a bow like the common freighter, but the rest of her is like the whaleback. The passenger boats of today which operate on the Great Lakes and connect- ing waters are very fast and have the very best of accommodations. The White Star Line, which has been carrying on the passenger service between Port Huron and Detroit, has sold out, but we are to have a new company operating boats on the same route. The largest of the passenger boats to be made for service on the Great Lakes are the Greater Detroit and the Greater Buffalo, which were built at the Great Lakes Shipyard at Ecorse, just below Detroit. They are over six hundred feet long and have as many staterooms as the Leviathan. New types of boats and engines are constantly being turned out, so it is im- possible to tell what is going to be invented next. Last year Henry Ford turned out two boats, operated entirely by electricity, which can be heard coming a mile away. What will be the next kind of boat that will be as great an improvement over the present type? 17

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Marine should welcome the foreigners, for it would show that the people are broad- minded, and it may bring forth an era of progress that would not be amiss here. Marine City has great advantages over other towns of like size, and if the citizens are broad-minded and far sighted enough and have vision to see the possibilities of Marine, we may yet see in the near future a prosperous, progressive and growing city with varied industries and with work for all. Those who call themselves citizens should take for all time the motto, ‘‘Boost Marine.” Here’s to our future! PROGRESS OF THE YEAR IN OUR HIGH SCHOOL (As Seen by One of Our Senior Reporters) Boys ' Trade School — In this departmen t, introduced into our school for the first time last September, there are five branches of the tradework offered — namely, masonry, plumbing, carpentry, electricity and wiring, decorating and painting. This course was opened mainly for eighth grade boys, but since this is its first year and others have not had a chance, some in other grades have been included. Each day one period is spent on one of the trades and one on trade mathe- matics. This year’s course is of an exploratory nature — that is, it is planned to give the boy a chance to get some training in each of the trades, so that he can better decide which one he wishes to go on with. The next year, the work will be more extensive, and he can concentrate on the one he has chosen. Under supervision of the instructor, the boys have done actual work in our school bu ilding, such as plastering, placing of sinks and radiators, making tables and blackboards, electrical wiring, painting, varnishing, etc. At the same time that the sixty boys in the work are getting valuable practical training, they are saving the district about $550 in doing it. Household Economics — During this year, this department has been conducted to meet the requirements of the Smith-Hughes law. This means that the school will get State aid amounting to $550 a year, beginning with next year. This course gives more than just the common cooking and sewing instruc- tion; it gives instruction in practical and scientific home management. For example, the pupil is taught millinery, laundering, etc., as well as how to make a dollar go farther, with the expectation that many mistakes can be avoided in the future because of this knowledge and training. Library — The former library, accommodating only five or six readers , has been moved to a much larger, lighter, and better ventilated room. The new library now accommodates about thirty pupils. This, coupled with the fact that new books have been added, making the number of volumes about twenty-five hundred, makes it possible for pupils to do their reference and outside reading work more easily and quickly. Science — The physics room has been changed to the west side of the building, where there is better light, and equipment is more easily accessible. It has also been connected with the chemistry room by a door being cut in the partition, so that both branches of the science work can be carried on at the same time under the supervision of one instructor, thus increasing the efficiency of the department. 19