North Andover High School - Knight Yearbook (North Andover, MA)

Page 24 text:

JOHNSON HIGH SCHOOL CLASS ORATION The Old Order Changeth—Yielding Place to New U NDER three headings , let us consider how the old order has changed. HI These three headings are science, business, and liberalism. Let us take iMzl the first of these, science, and see how it will revolutionize our coun¬ try in the future. Until 1850, science had concentrated its efforts on the dis¬ covery of new sources of power, such as steam and gasoline and the founda¬ tion of such fields as chemistry, bacteriology, and mechanics. The application of these discoveries is evident in the great industries of which our country is so proud. But science today has taken an entirely new aspect under the imagination of the modern pioneer. The house of tomorrow will be made of glass. Beds and floors will be pneumatic; the closets full of revolving shelves; and dish¬ washing will be done automatically. Amelia Earhart predicts that airplanes will zoom at the rate of six hundred miles per hour on intercity routes. The Vic e-president of General Motors visions the car which will run eighty miles on the gallon. Or maybe it won’t use gasoline at all. Radio-transmitted power is the vision of today’s prophets. But modern scientists aren’t entirely dreamers. They have contributed much to the welfare of you and me by the utilization of waste products. Who would have thought that the vanity of modern woman could be appeased by a spray of perfume made from ill-smelling coal tar? Who would have thought this vain creature would be satisfied in powdering her shiny nose with ? pea¬ nut shell derivative? From the lowly sweet potato, scientists have produced more than a hundred products, ranging from shoe-blacking to molasses. The organic chemist of today will undoubtedly boost progress by the utilization of white elephants. In the field of surgery great strides have been made. Repair work on arter¬ ies is a surgeon’s most ticklish job. But not long ago surgeons actually joined two arteries together as a plumber might join pipes. Their accomplishment was part of a spectacular operation upon a boy which made a new thumb out of his big toe. Day by day the products of the modern laboratory are being consumed by a hungry nation. And thus we find science relieving our pains, adding to our comforts and finding new markets for formerly useless products. Now let us turn to the business aspect of our changing order. Business has changed in three ways during the last century. First, industry has been stepped up by the installation of machinery; second, industry has be¬ come specialized in an effort to increase production ; and third, competition in the larger industries has been partially reduced by the formation of trusts. The addition of power machinery to our civilization has worked great changes. Enormous populations have invaded the manufacturing districts. Thousands of farmers have left the plow to guide fascinating machinery. The bewildered tradesman abandoned his workshop to enter the red-brick build¬ ings and become a machine himself. However, this transition is by no means to be regretted. Industry has done its part in making this a better country. Working hours are reduced ; a high¬ er standard of living is obtained and our natural resources are opened up. 20

Page 23 text:

1937 YEAR BOOK clay, capable only of being moulded into the warped and makeshift forms of confused, chaotic, and desperate paternalism. Those who today would think for the youth of our time, who would dictate their routine and solve their problems have left us a heritage of three hundred billions of dollars in public and private debts in the United States of America. Our federal public debt has been increased in the past four years by sixteen billions of dollars, in tax-exempt, interest-bearing bonds which will double the payoff — and the net result is that today there are, by generally accepted statistics, the same number of unemployed that there were four years ago, in spite of some employment pickup. ' The reason is that in the past four years over two millions of youth have been graduated into the futility of economic wishful thinking on the one hand and capatalistic avarice on the other. National youth administrators, C.C.C. camp enthusiasts, and Youth advis¬ ers stand ever ready to cooperate with political leaders in the vast expenditure of money to keep rebellious youth in check, but nobody stands ready to strike at the root of a diseased and dying system which has deprived youth of the God-given heritage to make its own destiny. The United States of America is following in the way of the dictatorial governments. Our leaders are coming to us, the youth, saying nothing of our inherent rights as the men and women of the future, nor apologizing for the heritage of disaster out of which we must make some sense in our time, or all civilization will collapse into barbarism. Instead they come offering truce, bidding us to join this and join that, to sublimate the zeal of our years and consecrate our strength to helping keep aloft the pillars of a structure built on quicksand. Twenty years ago, this same leadership led its youth by the millions into a world war. The sacrifice would have been well spent had it formed the foun¬ dations of a new order, but the same rulers who started it survived it and multiplied its causes a hundredfold- Twenty years from now not a shred of the civilization which existed in 1914 will remain if the military egomaniacs, the materialists, the devitalized social and economic collectivists, and the political squanderers can confine, as they now attempt, the energies of the coming generation to the sterile pro¬ gram of justifying failure. Not a major government today rests upon a footing of security. Not a world leader can look with equanimity and satisfaction upon the scene about him. Youth, deprived of its natural outlet of ambition and energy has puzzled its adults by turning in shocking numbers to crime, which is a step fully as false as the example it has been set by world leadership. Conscience alone can control the spiritual destiny of man. The will to ven¬ ture, to challenge, to change, which is the will of youth, alone can bring 1 a- tionalism into the’economic structure. Self responsibility alone and not group responsibility can develop a civilized social order. We repudiate the arrogation of such leadership to shackle us to the defens¬ ive defeatism of youth movements. The youth of today intends to build a new structure of national and inter¬ national society, of national and international morality. The failures of the past twenty years cannot and shall not be perpetuated. Unhampered by the fetters of fretful falsehoods which surround us today, we shall arm ourselves with the weapons of truth and reason and march for the victory of a new order ‘ THOMAS D. McKIERNAN 19

Page 25 text:

1937 YEAR BOOK The rapid progress of industry was made possible by the expansion and de- elopment of the frontier. But now the frontier is gone. There is no great outlet for dense populations and factory products. In the development of this vast continent industry became capable of very rapid production and built up a powerful inertia which must be slowed down if machines are to con¬ tinue to serve men. Now that the frontier is conquered this enormous cap¬ acity must be diverted from the hit-or-miss quantity production and directed into the channels of quality and improvement. This leads to the third way in which the old order has change—namely, liberalism. By liberalism I mean the adoption of new ideas The spirit of liberalism is an outgrowth of the problems created by the unplanned advance of science and business. 1 he severity of the last depression would seem to indicate that there is need, in our economic system for some new ideas. This generation has learned that prosperity which appears in spots cannot survive. When big business thrives at the expense of smaller enterprises, when wealth accumulates and men decay, then there can be no question of national policy. The spirit of reform has made its debut in the “New Deal.” Whether we approve of the “New Deal” or not, we are forced to admit that the era of national planning has begun. This generation looks with disgust at the enormous debts which are forced upon us. We stand with our mouths agape before the hideous slums and poverty stricken areas. We gaze with horror at the denuded hillsides, the gluttonous floods and dust storms, the rapid erosion of soil and the exploitation of natural resources. These are huge problems which the new order has thrust upon us. But it was man who made these problems and it shall be man who cures them. Whatever the future may hold for us, we cannot face it if we have come to distrust our own powers. We need the will to overcome and the determina¬ tion not to be downed, whatever may happen- But let us hope that in the midst of these external changes our sense of fair play, of duty, honor and the dictates of conscience shall continue to govern our spirit of progress. PAUL BIXBY CLASS ESSAY Horace Mann, the Pioneer of Education T would not be possible in these few minutes to review in full the life of wro ' Horace Mann ;— whole books have been written on it. Still more im- aSfiSal possible would it be to attempt to draw even in outline the immensity of his educational work and ideals. There is however one tribute we can pay this great educator. We are finishing twelve years of public school life,— years filled with every advantage,—and have considered them our heritage and due. Now on our graduation, we can pause to recall, with appreciation, the milestones in his career, and to consider some of his ideals and accomp¬ lishments which have so benefited us and will continue to benefit generations to come. His was the American dream,—his the thought of free education for all. In his own words, “If there ever was a cause, if ever there can be a cause, worthy to be upheld by all of toil or sacrifice that the human heart can endure, it is the cause of education.” 21