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

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THE GOBBLER-1945 JOHNSON HIGH SCHOOL and secure justice in better jobs, better working conditions, and higher wages. They are denied the right of membership in a labor union. In some parts of the country, particularly the South, the Negroes are segre¬ gated from the whites. They are forced to live in small Negro settlements. These areas are so badly congested, the recreational facilities are so run down, and the associates met are so bad, that it is not surprising magistrates declare, “They are unruly, and overflow the courts and jails.” Living quarters, recrea¬ tional space, parks, hotels, amusement houses, railway coaches, street cars, and even churches are plainly marked,“For Negroes Only,” or “No Negroes Allowed.” We talk about the injustice of German law, but never consider the injustice of American law as applied to the Negro. Actually hundreds of Negroes have been lynched or sentenced to death by good, sound, honest citizens for “Talking back to a white man, testifying against whites, destruction of property, threat¬ ening to sue a white man, and allowing dogs to chase white men’s sheep.” True, many of these lynchings and sentences of death were carried out in the heat of anger and mob violence, but our American law provides for an unprejudiced trial by jury, and protection while under the custody of the agencies of Ameri¬ can law. Negro suffrage was obtained by Abraham Lincoln, but, in some states, it is practically impossible for a Negro to vote. He is required to pass educational qualifications and tests which are not applied to any of the whites. In the words of Langston Hughes, a negro poet, the Negro frequently “must pay taxes but refrain from going to the polls, must patriotically accept conscription to work, fight, and perhaps die to regain or maintain freedom for people off in Australia, when he hasn’t it himself at home.” In certain quarters the Jewish find it just as difficult to obtain work as the Negroes. Hotels and residential districts refuse to permit Jews to room or live there. Then there are the propaganda agencies which start whispering cam¬ paigns to prejudice us against the Jews. They maintain that the Jews are in control of big business; that they own a large section of the press; that they exert a great influence over public opinion; and that they are very powerful in the government. The magazine “Fortune” recently made a survey which proved conclusively that with only a few exceptions, such as the clothing busi¬ ness, the industries are in non-Jewish hands. If asked my opinion for the reason behind the prejudice against the Jews, I would reply, “Jealousy.” The Jewish range, like all races, from the very poor to the enormously wealthy. They make their money and increase it by thrift, economy, industry, and frugality. That is their privilege, and most Gentiles could learn a hard lesson from the Jew’s unceasing industry. We should not condemn the Rothschilds and Bischoffscheims any more than we are willing to condemn the Rockefellers and the Astors. With such events as these race riots and racial discriminations taking place commonly in our own dearly beloved democracy, I do not think we have any room for criticism. Mr. Eric Johnston states, “Race hatreds and group intolerance simply do 18

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THE GOBBLER-1945 JOHNSON HIGH SCHOOL JUNE M. CHAMBERLIN June is a quiet little miss with a smile for everyone. She is only five feet two, has blue eyes, and a brown feather cut. In her spare time she sews and cooks. Her ambition, how¬ ever, is in the business field. PHILIP RUGH Quiet Phil spent many of his happy hours at Hampton. In the few months he stayed with us we liked him. Good luck to him in the Navy. DAVID PICKLES Ass’t Sports Manager 3, 4 Dave’s a friendly carefree sort of fellow who is a little shy where girls are concerned. He left us at the half year to join Uncle Sam’s navy. Our loss, their gain. SALUTATORY □ N behalf of my fellow students present tonight and those who are now in the service of their country, I wish to extend a sincere welcome to the School Committee, to our principal, Mr. Hayes, to the faculty of Johnson High School, and to the parents, relatives, and friends who are present this evening. Racial Tolerance From all sides voices are raised to urge on our leaders to secure unconditional surrender. Nazi barbarism, and the treatment of the Jews are only two of the arguments raised against the Germans. I have never seen any Nazi barbarism. I could only repeat stories you have already heard. But before we condemn the Germans for their acts against the Jews, I would suggest we clean out our own back yard. The proverb, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones,’’ applies to the American people as a whole. Democracy is our ideal. That is the purpose and entire aim of the war for most of the American people, and yet we permit race riots and racial discrimi¬ nation through the entire country. No one section can be blamed. It is a com¬ mon failing. Negroes compose approximately one-tenth of the citizens of the United States, and approximately three per cent are Jewish. Negroes find that there is a great deal of job discrimination in both the North and the South. If jobs are scarce, it is almost impossible for them to obtain a position for which a white is in competition, and the jobs which they do secure almost entirely consist of menial tasks. They are even denied the right, except in rare cases, to rise from the social and economic caste to which they are born because they are unable to plead their wrongs with a labor union 17

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THE GOBBLER-1945 JOHNSON HIGH SCHOOL not jibe with any of the formulas of freedom so dear to the American heart. To the extent that they are allowed to flourish, they threaten to change the Amer¬ ican Dream into another European nightmare.” We can certainly disregard such evidence as a riot in Detroit or Harlem, or anti-Semitic action in and around Boston, but we’re just putting off the day of reckoning. Eventually there will be an outburst, an eruption on the part of the Negroes and the Jews. They came from foreign countries, that’s true, but so did you or your an¬ cestors. You pay taxes to live here, abide by all the laws to the best of your ability, but so do they. They have contributed to our economic, social, and religious lives. George Gershwin, a Jew, and Dr. George Washington Carver, a Negro, have contributed as much to our American way of living as Knute Rockne, a Norwegian-born football player, or Dutch-born Edward William Bok. Intolerance is the foundation of totalitarianism which our boys and girls are fighting and dying to destroy. If we allow ourselves to be rotted from within by the seeds of intolerance, I do not believe that democracy will survive, and I do not believe that democracy, under such conditions, has any more right to survive than the Nazi Reich. Betty G. Morton CLASS ESSAY The Needs of Youth in the Postwar World P11 HAT will the peace bring for youth? This is a questi on that many of us | j I here tonight are wondering about and yet no one can foresee. What we hope to see is a world of harmony and justice, a world free from the stress and strain of war, but to have this, youth will need much help if he is to take his place in carrying out the plans for peace. The problems are many; solutions have yet to be mastered. Our young people will need guidance, not only in schools, but in the home, and in the church. Hitler has deeply impressed into the minds of his youth the ideas of Nazi supremacy and the belief that Germans were created to rule the world. If these boys and girls had had as strong a guidance toward what is right in life as they had in all that is cruel and vicious, our world today would be a better and more humane place in which to live. Their guidance was evil; now they need training in the humane ways of living and tolerance for their fellow men. Without this, can we carry out our plans for a lasting peace? Will we be able to avoid a third World War, still more terrible than this one? Only the future will reveal the results of our guidance, but that guidance must destroy this feeling of hatred and distrust which has been ingrained so deeply. The character of our youth is built at home. It is here that we find the sym¬ pathy for problems and the advice so badly needed by a young person. We have a great amount of juvenile delinquency in our world today and we blame much of it on the fact that parents have left youth to himself while they worked in jobs essential to winning the war. Lacking the restraining hand and the loving advice of the parent, many have chosen the wrong path. Doesn’t this show how 19