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

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THE CLASS OF 1941

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ADDRESS TO THE SENIORS X For the past twelve years you have studied, among - other things, the history of your country and the framework of your government. Your teachers have attempted to inspire within you a spirit of patriotism, loyalty and devotion to that country, and a respect for its laws. But these are essentials. No nation can endure for long without adherence to these virtues. They are as essential in a dictatorship as in a democracy; as necessary in Germany as in America. However, in addition to these virtues there are certain other virtues which a democracy alone requires. The citizen in a democracy, in addition to patriotism and loyalty and a spirit of obedience, must have the power of wise decision. He not only obeys the laws but makes them. Con¬ sequently he must be able to look over his country, see its problems, and hear a thousand voices crying in discord, and calling for contradictory solutions. Not only must he hear these voices, but he must also add his own to the chorus and then make up his mind in the light of facts and reason. Through this inevitable confusion of ideas, inherent in the democratic form of govern¬ ment, he must be able, through practice, to stand on his own feet and to act as a courageous, well-informed and independent citizen. I trust that your schooling has provided you with these virtues, for that is certainly one of the major reasons for a school’s existence. If the seed of independent thought and action has been implanted within you, your school has succeeded ;— if not, then it has failed. N this message I wish to express a thought which is not new, but it is a thought which assumes increasing importance as the years roll by. ALVAH G. HAYES

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TKe Class of 1941 Class Colors—Maroon and Gold -‘It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.” —Invictus