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

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JOHNSON HIGH SCHOOL Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt— great names certainly. Lincoln studied by the open lire in a log hut; raised himself by sheer force of character, energy, and will-power to his position of high honor. All are examples that show our motto is indeed true. Most of us shall never have our names engraved in the Hall of Fame, nor have our deeds expounded in the annals of time, but all of us in our own way are capable of truly great things. And do you know, a person does not have to be famous to be just and generous and to be blessed with the virtues of Christian charity and kindness? It is not necessary to be rich to be great. I like to think of it in that way. I like to think that greatness is a quality of every common person which only needs to be cultivated in order to manifest itself. But if we of the graduating class are to do the great things of life, if we can be good neighbors, if we can be fair in our relations with other people, happy in our work, considerate of others, we must remember that these things will not be easy to do. Some of us will succeed. Others will fall or stop to rest by the dusty roadside, because it is hard to be just in the midst of preju¬ dice, to be generous when we have little ourselves; it is difficult to be cheerful and friendly when we are worried or weary. But if we do succeed, if we can look back up the hill of life and be happy and satisfied in work well done, if we can say, “I have done my best,” and say it with a clear conscience, we have accomplished one of the greatest things possible in life. And since it will not be at all easy, remember— “Nothing Great is Lightly Won.” CHARLES H. FOSTER, Jr. CLASS ESSAY Propaganda HAT is propaganda? Although this word is uttered frequently in these times, many people do not know the real meaning of it. Some always connect “propaganda” with war and anything bad. But this is not always true, for propaganda can be good as well as evil. Originally it meant spreading the faith, and was then used only by the church. In recent years, however, since the World War, it has acquired another meaning. It is now defined as the mere advocation of special interests, or as an attempt to gain credence for statements partially or wholly untrue, and thus to influence opinion and conduct. Propaganda is of the greatest interest to us especially in these times when we are besieged by it on all sides. There are several types of propaganda by which we are influenced. We find commercial propaganda on practically every billboard, in magazines and in newspapers. We are all familiar with the method used by Hollywood in drawing crowds to the theatres. “Screen Gossip” columns appear daily in the newspapers, describing the lives and personal traits of the favorite movie stars. Marriages and divorces of the actors and actresses are probably men¬ tioned most frequently. The public then is attracted to the films, influenced by such articles, which are not related at all to the stars’ acting, but empha¬ size the interesting trivialities of his or her daily life. Obviously, the fact that an actress is divorced, and feeds her pet canary six times a day has no relation whatever to her acting in the films; yet that is the method of adver¬ tising their products. 18

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1 9 3 9 YEAR BOOK CLASS ORATION Nothing Great is Lightly Won © O m; ny of us tliis expression might seem barren of any great philosoph- mw t ical truth or proverbial saying, and to be just another motto chosen carelessly by a graduating class. But upon a little closer observation and meditation a great deal of truth and common sense can be gathered from this, our motto. For, as we review the truly great things of our world, we find that they have resulted only from great effort and continued struggle. Take for ex¬ ample any democratic government that exists in the world today, for such a government, upholding freedom of speech, religion, and representation of the people, is truly a great thing in this era of “isms” and dictatorships. How has such a great thing become possible? How many of us know of the hard¬ ships and struggles to break away from serfdom, to overthrow the dominating power of rulers? How many of us know the centuries necessary for changes to bring about the growth of leaders, and for education to enlighten and in¬ flame the passive, ignorant minds of the common people, so that finally they were able to take up the burden of self government? Think of the orgies of blood-letting in our own and the French and Russian Revolutions. Think of all the lives lost, the genius sacrificed to the cause, the effort required before the goal of representative government was reached. How can we say that democracy was easily won For another example take Christianity, the greatest institution that the world has ever embraced. We all know of the sacrifices that were made be¬ fore Christianity was accepted universally. We all know of Him who died upon the cross to prove to us that this is the one supreme faith. His was not the only sacrifice. The followers who were left after Christ s death were few in number, and little do we realize the difficulties they encountered in spread¬ ing the faith, in convincing and persuading the rulers and the people, and in converting them. Whenever we say the Lord’s Prayer, or sit in our places of worship upon the Sabbath, nothing can be more fitting than for us to remem¬ ber our class motto, “Nothing Great is Lightly Won”, and to observe how aptly it can be applied to our religion. Who indeed can say that it was easily attained ? Mere fame (whether you regard it as a worthy end or not, and I do not) demands its sacrifice. Think of Napoleon, greatest soldiei and leader of the modern world ! Look at the price he paid for his fame and glory. Throughout his life he was a lonely man, solitary in his ambitious quest for power and glory. The cold hand of ambition kept him a stranger, and pushed from his heart the only woman who ever loved him. We cannot but pity him as we sec him at St. Helena, disheartened, restless, exiled, with an accusing conscience reminding him of lives he had needlessly wasted in his numeious and b oo v campaigns. Napoleon’s glory was dearly won indeed. We find our motto applying even more to men great in the sense of being just kind, considerate, and charitable. All owe their success to continued study diligent activity and effort, more often than not in the face of extreme adversity and misfortune. They never got “something for nothing as many of us try to do. Washington, Bell, the Wright Brothers, Benjamin Franklin, 17

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1 9 3 9 YEAR BOOK Social propaganda is often interwoven with political propaganda, but still it is a definite type. Whether the objective be good or bad, the propagandists appeal usually to the traits of generosity, consideration for others, and good will. Some propaganda is undoubtedly devoted to good ends. Most of us are in sympathy with the basic purposes of those who advocate social security, old age pensions, and unemployment insurance. But observe the methods by which each reformist attempts to convince us that his plan is the best. He gives a vague and general outline of his scheme, which he claims is the best and is necessary for ideal conditions, since he is fighting against everything that is evil. He gives a heart-re nding picture of the conditions that exist now among the less fortunate, but fails to give a detailed description of his solution to the problem. The readers are therefore led to believe that they must choose between two alternatives, the existing conditions or the reformist’s excellent plan that would solve everything. The papers and magazines are always flushed with propaganda when state and national politics come into the limelight. This was true back in 1916, when Wilson was running for reelection to the presidency. Those favoring him emphasized his success in keeping America out of war for the previous four years of his term. “Don’t change horses in the middle of the stream,” they cried. “Let us keep out of war for the next four years!” The propa¬ gandists used these slogans and catch-words so that the people would infer that, the administration would, and no other party could, keep us out of war. As is known, the people were led to restore the administration to a second term. Then, four months after the second inauguration, the administration had plunged us into the great European conflict. When the recent bill for a strict neutrality policy was introduced in Con¬ gress, we saw how the propagandists began their tactics of flooding the news¬ papers with their ideas for and against the bill. The advocates of the bill proclaimed their love of patriotism and references to Washington’s Farewell Address were repeated again and again. The opponents stressed the oppres¬ sion of certain European powers and the helplessness of the weaker nations. They stated it was necessary and reasonable to aid the oppressed and they expected the people to believe that it was only logical to make alliances and fatal to remain neutral. The propaganda which surely interests us most, but still is carefully con¬ cealed, is international propaganda. Look in the papers and try to find com¬ pliments and flattery pointed at Hitler. It cannot be done. Whatever Hitler does is wrong. Every advance he makes is a threat to the democracies. He was only a paperhanger from Austria, so naturally, he has no knowledge of managing the affairs of a country. Who is so cruel as this tyrant who is persecuting and slaughtering the Jews? Such assertions are so plentiful that the majority of Americans are led to despise and hate Hitler. If you stop and consider, you would realize no human being is so entirely bad as the propagandists claim Hitler is. These war-mongers and hate campaigners have brought to life the cry to save democracies, in these times, by fighting the dictatorships. The nations we are to fight are Germany, Italy and Japan. Germany and Italy, we admit, are dictatorships, but Japan is no more a dic¬ tators hip than England. Among the “democracies” we are supposed to fight for and save are really more dictatorships than the two dictatorships we are to oppose. For instance, to read descriptions of advances of Hitler and Mus¬ solini in central Europe, one would think Russia was one of the endangered democracies; in fact Russia has been included in that list of democracies who 19