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

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JOHNSON HIGH SCHOOL armaments? We certainly have no fear of invasion. No nation is powerful enough to invade our country. We do not need a larger navy to protect our possessions for they are not worth the expense war would involve. While huge battleships are built one-third of America remains ill-housed, ill-clothed and ill-fed. American democracy stumbles. Another depression threatens. You cannot feed the hungry or clothe the naked with battleships. You can¬ not win national stability by war. You cannot confirm democracy with hate. American plunges into Europe and Asia will not, unless experience lies, yield gains to the world or to the United States. The one and only thing that will preserve democracy is to practice it here in our country. Why then are we entering the armament race? To help protect the demo¬ cratic countries of France and England against the fascist countries of Italy, Germany, and Japan? Perhaps. However, no European country is our ally nor has been since the last war and no country but one’s own is worth fight¬ ing for. Never again should this country be put into a European war through the desire to back our creditors. No nations, any more, pay their debts. When a country does not pay its debts you cannot take its word on anything. So we may discard any declarations of intentions to help out any other country. We won some things from the World War that were not on the program. For example, we had a complete demonstration of the fallacy of the old tra¬ dition that preparedness prevents war. Preparation will not prevent war. It only creates suspicion and fear among the countries. As a result, everyone speedily joins in the armament race. When nations are armed to the teeth, the militarists are in power. They are impatient with talk of compromise. There is no time for any attempt at a peaceful settlement of disputes. Armies are quickly mobilized. Battleships stand by. Aeroplanes zoom overhead. A shot is fired. And war begins. The only way to prevent war and preserve peace is by cooperation and ar¬ bitration. The chief cause of war seems to be economic in nature. Every na¬ tion needs something which some other nation produces. Not until we have learned to forget national boundaries and make it possible for nations to ex¬ change goods freely will we be able to remove an important cause of war. In¬ ternational machinery, to be efifective, must also consider problems of over¬ population, adjust political difficulties, revise treaties and establish a world system of law and order. This could have been accomplished had the United States joined the League of Nations at the close of the World War. By re¬ maining out of the League, we weakened and discredited it, and now it has failed. It has been successfully flouted by two great aggressor nations. Now which does the world want? Peace or War? If she wants Peace she can have it by accepting Arbitration and Cooperation. If she wants War, she can have it by not accepting Arbitration or Cooperation. Arbitration and Co¬ operation are substitutes for War. To combat the war spirit, a public opinion outlawing war must be created; press propaganda which thwarts public opinion must be curbed ; the horror, not the glory of war must be impressed upon the minds of the people. When we have done this,when we have replaced our hatred and jealousy with love, when we have made peace and happiness, not money and power, our highest aim and our highest ideal—then and then only,— “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. And nation shall not lift sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war any more.” FRANCES DEBROWSKI 20

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1938 YEAR BOOK thought we had succeeded in following George Washington’s advice to avoid any foreign entanglement that might get us into war. From then on we par¬ ticipated in world affairs until the World War. It is an interesting fact, which is often forgotten, that the object of War is to impose Peace. This is the reason why we entered the World War in 1917. When we learned that our ships were being sunk and that American lives were being lost, we were determined that we would have to fight to defend our rights and “to make the world safe for democracy.” This was the Great War to end wars! This was the Great War to preserve peace and “make the world safe for democracy!” Today there are fewer democracies than there were before the war. All around the world war drums beat and soldiers march. Nations launch new warships, build new airplanes, invent new poison gases, buy more guns, train more men. Twenty years ago the World War ended. When it was all over, we made up our minds that we would not let it happen again. But today, again, we are threatened by another war even more destructive and more deadly than the last. Militarists are accustomed to say that “so long as. human nature is what it is” we shall never be able to renounce war, and that “only when we are all saints” will there be any hope of settling our differences by friendly agree¬ ment. We need not be saints. It will be enough if we stop being criminal luna¬ tics. It is insanity for supposedly Christian nations to concentrate all their efficiency, ingenuity and strength on the business of tearing at each other’s throats. At the same time they all call for help and power on the same God—■ through His only Son, the Prince of Peace. Since war is a part of human nature we always have had wars and will continue to have them ; this is the opinion of the militarists. However, at one time, many diseases were considered a part of human nature. Nothing could be done about them, but to die horribly in many cases until modern science found many cures. Maybe there is no cure to prevent war, but I do believe that if everyone who has any feeling in this matter said what he thought and felt and kept on saying it—the sheer power of public opinion would go far to make war impossible. War of defense can be justified but war as a policy is wrong and unjust¬ ified. War of this kind is wrong as cruelty to children is wrong; as slavery, the exploitation of the poor and the corruption of the innocent are wrong. Way is silly. Sometimes a comedian in a theatre will do something so di¬ vinely idiotic and so completely and gorgeously silly, that one sinks back in¬ to one’s seat in helpless laughter. A few minutes later he does it again—and then again. Gradually one ceases to laugh. And so with war. When the band strikes up and the uniformed soldiers singing merry tunes come marching down the street with banners waving in the breeze, the crowd senses a pa¬ triotic spirit. This spirit wavers and disappears ?s does the helpless laugh¬ ter. The continual beat of drums becomes sickening and monotonous. The false atmosphere created by this spirit crashes, and all for the first time see the horror and the stupidity of war. War, therefore, is the ultimate expres¬ sion of man’s wickedness and man’s silliness. There are times when man’s childish silliness for glory which is not glory but horror and disaster is more heartbreaking than his wickedness. The United States is preparing for war whether we like it or not. At least two-thirds of the people do not like it, but that is to no avail. President Roosevelt hates war and covets peace. He has said so, and yet Congress ap¬ propriates more money in order to enlarge our navy. Why the increase in 19

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1938 YEAR BOOK 3 VALEDICTORY HE peace, the security, the development of our country and world are directly dependent on the subsequent development and knowledge of youth. This is not only true of our present day, but has always been a fact, though not generally realized. When this statement is made, many people are inclined to scoff and say, “What effect can the youth we see around us, the young, the inexperienced, have on so vital and farreaching problems as the security and peace of the world?” These people are correct in their contentions in a very limited sense only. The importance of youth lies not in its years, but in the views, the ideals, the realizations which are awakened within it during its most formative period. Washington, Lincoln, and Edison did not aid greatly to cure the world’s ills during their ’teen years, but the spirit of democracy in Washing¬ ton, the love of mankind in Lincoln, and the ideal to improve the lot of man in Edison, all were instilled and nourished while they were yet in their youth. The growth of these ideals and others during their youth, gave them the in¬ sight and realization which in their later years made them truly great. To realize this, one must then realize that youth must be protected, edu¬ cated, and aided if civilization is to progress, and if progress is to endure. At various times in our history, the public as a whole, through either over¬ developed bigotry or simply because of lack of a clear understanding, would not grant that youth had its major problems. Though this idea seems rather far-fetched today, earlier in our history it was true to a certain degree. Youth was not individualistic then. It was dictated to by staid ideals, steadfast doc¬ trines, was expected to obey them and usually did. These rules usually con¬ sisted of disposing of a son in his father’s business or trade and the marrying off of the daughter to a person of the family’s choice. Thus were youth’s problems of fifty years ago obliterated. Today, however, it is not as simple. Youth has its major problems and now through education and social advance¬ ment, these problems are appreciated as existing. Though this realization was a great step forward, the problem cannot be solved until the people—par¬ ents, friends advisers, understand exactly of what these problems consist. Taken as a whole, they seem rather remote and insignificant since they may be considered non-material, and in this mercenary world non-material things seem relatively unimportant. The obstacles against which youth must battle are: the resentment of a cold, unwelcome population ; the refusal of admit¬ tance to our economic order through the pathways of employment at a re¬ spectable position ; the distrust with which youth is shadowed by those fear¬ ful of youth’s individualism and desire for change; and the battle against a terrifying disillusionment which arises from being roughly shaken from the glowing thoughts of future, nurtured and instilled through approximately twelve years of school protection. A brief explanation of each will perhaps be instrumental in rendering a still more clear understanding. The graduate of today leaves school which has been his haven for many years and goes into a world which is jealous of his knowledge and advancement. His very presence is a sign of evil in the eyes of men who fear they are to be replaced perhaps by the younger, more intel¬ lectual person. Even if this attitude is absent, often the newcomer is repulsed when he offers a suggestion, perhaps a new idea. These repulses frighten him, bewilder him, and he, in turn, to shield himself from the barbs of an un- 21