Milford High School - Oak Lily and Ivy Yearbook (Milford, MA)

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• ' THE OAK, LILY AND IVY. 29 SALUTATORY. As a member of the Class of 1933, I wish to extend to all a most cordial welcome. We desire to take this oppor¬ tunity to express our sincere apprecia¬ tion of the efforts made by our teach¬ ers and parents during the past four years. For their aid and encourage¬ ment, which have made this happy oc¬ casion possible, we are truly thankful. WOODROW WILSON. “We are not put into this world to sit still and know; we are put into it to act.” Such were the words of Woodrow Wilson in his inaugural ad¬ dress at Princeton University. How well they express the character of one of our noblest Americans, known to the world as an apostle of democracy and peace! From his boyhood to his death, Wilson knew and loved the happiness and security brought by concord. His memories of the Civil War taught him the horrors of conflict. He must have wondered at the transformation of the great Church, where his father officiat¬ ed as minister, into a hospital, and the churchyard into a prison camp. When it became necessary to dispense with Church services in order that the mem¬ bers might make ammunition on Sun¬ day, Wilson must indeed have realized the seriousness of war, for he was very religious. At the opening of the great World War, if Wilson was slow in entering, it was because he knew what such i struggle meant and realized the im¬ portance of neutrality. As he said at the time of the Mexican War, “It is easy for me as President to declare war. I do not have to fight, and neither do the gentlemen on the Hill, who now clamour for it. It is some poor farm¬ er’s boy, or the son of some poor wid¬ ow, or perhaps the scion of a great fam¬ ily who will have to do the fighting and the dying. I will not resort to war until I have exhausted every means to keep out of this mess.” It mattered not to him that he might be called a coward and a quitter, for he believed in the wis¬ dom of his stand. Throughout the war he dreamed of the security of peace brought about by a League of Nations. He wished to be present at the Peace Table and felt that he could send no delegate to take his place. When he formally announced his intention of making the trip, an avalanche of criticism was unloosed, but all efforts to detain him were un¬ availing. At the Peace Table he was the dominant figure, and his idealism pre¬ vailed. He won the fight after many strenuous days and sleepless nights, during which his strength was nearly exhausted. Returning in triumph to America, he was accorded a tremendous ovation. After urging the Senate with all his heart and soul to accept the League idea, he suffered a cruel and bitter blow when that body rejected it. Wilson, though worn to a shadow, resolved at once to go through the country on a whirlwind campaign. In vain Admiral Grayson, his phy¬ sician, protested. Wilson felt, however, that it would be a stain on the flag to ignore his obligations, and that it would not be keeping faith with the dead. And so, in devotion to his ideal, he left Wash¬ ington on the triumphal tour which had so sad an interruption. The same courage and devotion to an ideal which Wilson showed toward the League of Nations marked his whole life. It took courage to face the laugh¬ ter of a crowd, but he never lacked that. Instead, he went serenely on his way, for who has not been laughed at? “They laughed at David, but he slew the Philistine giant. They laughed at New¬ ton, but he discovered the law of gravi¬ tation. They laughed at Field, but he laid a cable under the sea. They even mocked the Master in the hour of His

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28 THE OAK, LILY AND IVY. MILFORD HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATING CLASS—1933—Continued. Ada Blanche Macuen Jean Gloria Marino Charles Harold Mattson Dorothy Christine May Louis John Mazzarelli Catharine Louise McAvoy William Arthur McKinley Helen Lucille Meomartino Hyman Miller Angelo Carmen Minichiello John Robert Moloney Esther Teresa Morelli Helen Louise Moriarty James Edward Mullin Margaret Mary Murphy Mary Norma Murray Catherine Frances Naughton Joseph Eben Neal Sylvia Neckes Susan Ohanian Gertrude Hildegarde Oldfield Barbara Edith Perkins Adeline Davis Petrini Lena Adele Piteo Joseph James Platukis Carmella Rago Angelo Vincent Ragonese Lena Lillian Ramelli Joseph Rebecchi Ernest Allan Richards Regina Frances Rizzi Mary Terese Rooney Dorothy Elizabeth Ryan Edith Elinor Samuelson Stephen Louis Sannicandro Dorothy Smiley Lena Solomon Evelyn Dean Spindel Leona Pearl Stoddard Lucy Margaret Testa Helen Leona Thiebault Armando Albert Todino Biagio Joseph Tomaso Pauline Teresa Trotta Francis Lawrence Walleston Dorothy Rita Warren Clifton Eugene Wheeler Edwin Monsen White Pearl Wilma White Alyce Margaret Youngson Edward Joseph Zarach

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30 THE OAK, LILY AND IVY. Crucifixion. They laughed at all these, but now their names are immortal.” What courage was needed to reject a gift of $3,000,000, bequeathed to Trinceton while he was President there, in order to maintain an ideal! He re¬ jected this otter, as he did other gifts in an effort to make Princeton more aemocratic, for democracy was his ideal, ' these gifts had conditions attached to tnem, providing for clubs to which only the wealthy students might belong. With the trustees and the alumni both against him, Wilson proposed to resign, rather than give up the vision for which he had worked so whole-heartedly. To mm, principles and ideals were para¬ mount, even outweighing personalities. W ilson was a maker of precedents, a man not waiting to be shown, but tak¬ ing the lead himself. He fought in the open, eye to eye and face to face. Never were such drastic and beneficial reforms made as when Wilson was at the helm. One of his greatest achievements as Governor of New Jersey was his de¬ struction of the trusts and “bosses.” Before his election New Jersey had been known as the “Paradise of the Trusts”, but with his election it be¬ came a “Paradise Lost”. Before his first term as President was over, he had reduced the tariff, reformed the national currency system, established an anti¬ trust law, and repealed the Panama Canal Tolls Act. In such things as these was Wilson a maker of precedents. But what of the personal character¬ istics of this idealist, this leader of men? One of the things Woodrow Wilson was proudest of was his heritage. He was of Scotch-Irish descent, a “strain perhaps the most alert mentally, the most vigorous physically, and the most robust morally of all that have minglec in shaping the American character.” His obstinate jaw, his half-shy, half- challenging manner when meeting strangers, and his caution and blunt¬ ness come from the Scotch strain. His bubbling humor, his repartee, his love of frolics and children come from the Irish strain. Once, with a twinkle in his eye, he said to a class at Bryn Mawr, “No one who amounts to anything is without some Scotch-Irish blood.” In all his life, Woodrow Wilson never neglected his religious devotions. He read his Bible daily, and actually wore out two or three Bibles in doing so. He also prayed daily and said grace before every meal. He once wrote, “I do not see how anyone can sustain himself in any enterprise of life without prayer.” He admitted that there were many things which he did not understand, but he always believed that right would eventually prevail. Speaking of this, he once said to his secretary, “I would rather go down in defeat with a cause which will one day be victorious than to win with a cause which will one day be defeated.” In the use of his mother tongue, Wilson had no superior. During his youth, his father had insisted that everything he said be expressed in per¬ fect English. If there was any doubt, young “Tommy” Woodrow was sent fly¬ ing for the dictionary. Thus were de¬ veloped the habits of accuracy and clar¬ ity which mark his best literary work. This knowledge of the correct use of English served him well in his public life where it was necessary to make many speeches. He always spoke with full understanding and a sincere belief in his subject. Never did he talk over the heads of the audience but always in a manner that might be understood by the masses. He seldom spoke with great passion, but his sincerity was so evident that the average listener never missed the “calmness of white heat.” Even Calvin Coolidge, his political op¬ ponent, said that “no one could doulbt the sincerity of this man.” It is said that his ideas “patrolled the world like battleships, bearing at full mast, and in bold defiance, the American flag.” To be a really successful leader of men, one must be able to lose cheerful¬ ly, and Wilson, as Gamaliel Bradford tells us, knew the meaning of sports¬ manship. As a Southerner, he might have harbored resentment against the people of the North because of the out¬ come of the Civil War. Instead, as a wise man, he saw the benefits of a Northern victory. He said, “I yield to no one precedence in love for the South. But because I love the South, I rejoice in the failure of the Confederacy. Sup-