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

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THE GOBBLER-1944 JOHNSON HIGH SCHOOL with problems found in the United States, but also with those of other countries. This would lead to better understanding and co-operation among the nations of the world. The United States is going to hold a very important position at the peace table following the conclusion of this terrific holocaust. Momentous decisions must be made at the peace conference. Abraham Lincoln said in his Gettysburg Address that the government of the United States was “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Thus it is really the citizens of the United States who are to have this high responsibility. We, the American citizens and our representatives in the government, should start now to prepare ourselves to deal wisely with these problems. Many books have been written by authorities on these subjects and they are available for public consumption. There is a group of teen-age boys and girls at present who realize the need of preparation in this field. They have organized themselves under the name of Student Fed¬ eralists, and are working for a federal union of all nations when peace reigns again. This is an excellent step forward that American youth have taken. I would like to state another motto, that of the Boy Scouts—“Be Prepared.” Be prepared, America and Americans, for in preparation alone lies the strength to overcome our many perplexing problems and to be successful in our dealings with other countries and in our own personal lives. William N. Wilkinson, Jr. CLASS ESSAY Practical Idealism D MILLIONS of people the world over are looking forward to a post-war world of great scientific discoveries and economic improvements—air transports, £ television, helicopters, and many industrial inventions which will increase production and raise standards of living. We talk of reduced armaments and lowered tariff barriers; security from the cradle to the grave for workingmen and their families. Mr. Wallace would like to see a quart of milk per person per day on every doorstep in the world. Blueprints are being drawn for training, free of charge, enterprising youths of foreign nations in the building and administration of industry so that they may apply this knowledge to their native lands and help further the new prosperity. With all these modern marvels, how can we fail to keep the peace that is being won for us? There is much to applaud in this vision of the post-war world. Certainly a satisfied people are not disposed to quarrel with their neighbors; revolutions and wars grow from discontent with existing conditions. On the other hand, the wealthy home is not always happier than the poor one. Riches alone do not create happiness. It follows, then, that these material changes and improve¬ ments in themselves, though important, are not sufficient to bind the world together in such a way as to eliminate all possibilities of future aggression. As Lt. Col. W. F. Kernan has said, “Before the road to victory and peace 22

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THE GOBBLER-1944 JOHNSON HIGH SCHOOL unquestionably the most human of all the arts, and the one that enters most into every day experience—the mother’s lullaby, a favorite hymn, a marching tune or patriotic music of any kind. Religion has never been able to get along without music and it is one of the greatest assets of the church today. Patriot¬ ism, love, loyalty, courage, and all the other human virtues are not only expressed but stimulated by music. The art of enjoying music finds its greatest pleasure in the discovery of permanent beauty, regardless of whether the discovery has previously been made by others. When you have discovered for yourself something beautiful that proves to have passed the test of time, and to have stimulated thousands of others as it stimulates you, then you have enjoyed an experience that is akin to that of the creative artist himself; and, what is more, you have added definitely to the enduring satisfactions of life. Caroline Hayman CLASS ORATION The More Prepared, the More Powerful M HE more prepared we are, the more powerful we are. In the realm of warfare this is very evident. Germany could strike with such force and might as it did in 1939 because it had prepared for war for well over eight years. Japan, with a population of 73,000,000, could afford to attack the United States, with a population of 135,000,000, almost double that of Japan, for two primary reasons. The first was the element of surprise, and the second, but more important, was the extensive preparations that Japan had undertaken to accomplish this pur¬ pose. For years our scrap iron replenished the depleted steel stocks of the Japanese war machine. Long before Japanese naval forces struck at Pearl Harbor, Japanese troops on Formosa, in Indo-China, and on Japanese-mandated islands were waiting to strike at Guam, Wake, the Philippines and British Malaya. It took months to prepare for our invasions of Guadalcanal and North Africa. Think of the months of preparation for the much talked about and much called for “second front.” Our military leaders, the commissioned officers, must take years of military training in school and in the field before they are entrusted with a command. Education and practical preparation are absolute requisites to our military officers. In life itself this motto is just as true. On all sides of us today we hear the familiar phrase: “On the youth of today rests the world of tomorrow.” As this is only too true, the youth of today must prepare now for the tremendous task ahead of them. The young men and women in the service can continue their education, if they so desire, under a special correspondence program set up by the army and navy. But the under-classmen in the high schools today have the greatest opportunity of all to shoulder our post-war responsibilities. Special technical subjects have been put into the school curricula. These technical studies should, however, be supplemented with subjects that deal with modern economic, social, and political problems. These subjects should deal not only J 21

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THE GOBBLER-1944 JOHNSON HIGH SCHOOL can be traversed, it must be discovered.” If we are to find the road to peace, we must first find the road to war and then travel in the opposite direction. Nationalism, power politics, fear, and revenge, were all causes of today’s war, which were themselves caused by selfishness and lack of understanding among nations. Each nation distrusted its neighbor, saw a threat to itself at the least advancement made by another country. This fear was an outgrowth of the unsympathetic attitude and the misunderstanding among nations. People of all nations wanted the same things—a home, security, money to spend, happi¬ ness. But each nation saw only its own people seeking these things. The peoples of other lands they saw as a threat to their own way of living, or as an odd, foreign group whose ways were strange to them and, therefore, to be condemned. We Americans today dismiss the problem of India with its many different tongues, races, creeds, political parties, and castes, as a complex question which will probably never be solved. Yet what would an Indian say of America with its Democrats, Republicans, Socialists, and Communists; its New Dealists and Anti-New Dealists; its Catholics, Jews, and Protestants; its Irishmen, Italians, Germans, Armenians, and Poles; its isolationists and internationalists? What unity could there be in a nation of such contrasting peoples? To India, we must be as great a riddle as she is to us, because neither of us ever stops to consider what the basic desires, needs, customs, and beliefs of the people are. The most serious problem after this war will be to persuade the outraged countries of Europe who have been the victims of brutality and atrocities at the hands of the Nazis that the Germans only in a quest for security and from a mistaken sense of outrage chose this horrible method of obtaining the one and satisfying the other. The first desire, security, is understandable and common to all, but the second, the desire for revenge caused by misunderstanding is precisely what we are trying to eliminate. If Germany is to be punished, she must be made to see that it is not because she sought security, but because in seeking security, she destroyed that of others. She distrusted France because she believed France was working against her. France distrusted her for the same reason, and each built up hard feelings against the other until Germany went to war to destroy what she thought was threatening her safety. This situation developed from the misunderstanding between the two nations. Be¬ cause a national boundary line separated them, each regarded the other as intrinsically different and alien. Instead of working together for their common ends, they grew apart and kindled new grudges and hatreds. We, as Americans, are surely the one nation of all others who should be able to lead the way in the field of mutual understanding and tolerance. America is a living, dynamic proof that boundary lines drawn on a map are not divisions between unlike groups of people; they are all imaginary lines drawn helter- skelter between peoples with similar aims and desires. It is the abiding principle of our American way of life that all men are created equal, that each is entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Under this principle, we have joined all the nationalities, religions, races, and beliefs in the world into one great nation and shown that it is possible for all groups—Armenians and Irish, 23