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

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THE GOBBLER-1945 JOHN.SON HIGH SCHOOL I will conclude by saying that there will always be a task before us, so why not do a thorough job? This can be accomplished by preparedness, cooperation, and the use of common sense. Carl W. Schofield, Jr. VALEDICTORY “I Ain’t Goin’ to Study War No Mo’ ” PME are graduating at a time when all the world is in an uproar and confusion, i ij I Nation is fighting against nation; man against man; and machine against LU machine. Sometimes we wish we could get out of the confusion- of these times and view ourselves from somewhere in space and realize that we have lowered ourselves to the level of beasts fighting needless death struggles. Yes, war with its far reaching results is terrible, but science has made it even more terrible. It is needless to say that science has advanced very rapidly during the last century, and that as a result our standard of living has also increased rapidly. We now have untold thousands of modern conveniences which our grandparents never dreamed of, and also have a much longer life expectancy. We now can sit calmly in the front room before the radio and listen to voices from all over the world, go for a ride in comfortable cars, have our work practically done for us by electrical appliances, and travel from one end of the country to the other in a few hours—to name just a few of the conveniences that science has brought us in the last few years. It seems that the nations who produce the greatest number of scientists and scientific discoveries are the ones whose standard of living is the highest. In peace science is a wonderful thing. Before the war it accounted for a large number of jobs as well as being beneficial to society in its application. Television was being perfected, disease was being conquered, new and bigger airplanes and ships were being built, household appliances were being improved upon and new ones being invented constantly—all for the benefit and improve¬ ment for society. And then came the war. Immediately all scientists turned attention to the tremendous task before them—to win the war and to outmatch the enemy in the fight for scientific superiority. With vigor never seen before scientists of all countries worked and turned out new implements of destruction and man¬ slaughter. The radio was turned into an implement of lies and propaganda; peaceful airplanes were turned into flying guns and carriers of deadly bombs to eliminate whole cities; ships were built to sink other ships, to bombard and destroy shore installations and to launch dive bombers and torpedo planes; radar, a development of the radio, was perfected to seek out enemy obstacles in order to destroy them; poison gas, although it fortunately has not been used in this war yet, was nevertheless perfected in case of emergency; automobiles were turned into large and powerful tanks; and now with the development of the German rocket bomb, the V2, even the United States is a possible target

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THE C-OBBLER-1945 JOHNSON HIGH SCHOOL CLASS ORATION Finished Yet Beginning I T is said that a man’s job is never done. These words were well spoken, for as soon as one task is completed, another, usually resulting from or connected with the first, is at hand. Yes, a man must work hard and stay on his toes to keep up with the world. ■ This class of 1945 is finished with its basic education only to find itself con¬ fronted with a new and much harder education; the education of life where mistakes are so costly and situations arise where the individual has to tax his brains ten times as hard as he had to in solving his most difficult theorem in geometry or his most perplexing problem in physics, with much more at stake than a zero on a report card. The jump from high school to earning an inde¬ pendent living is a terrific one for which the individual must be thoroughly prepared. But this is nothing compared to something I’d like to mention, something that concerns everyone: the finishing up of this war, a giant task, and then afterwards, an equally great task, the reconstruction and policing of enemy and occupied countries. It is evident that the period after this war won’t be the Utopia some people have the idea it will. It is another case of working hard and using brainwork. Think of the system that will be needed to control the actions of 3,000,000 men of ours plus a far greater number of allied forces. Supplies and food will be a great problem. War-torn Europe can’t offer much, nor Russia, nor Asia, nor any of the countries near the battle fronts. It will be the Western Hemisphere that will have to feed and equip the world. Cooperation with our allies will be another problem and the hardest task will be to utterly destroy the Nazi element down to the last instigator. If an international police force is established, which seems rather probable, this will involve much expense and experienced leaders. This again will be the beginning of another task resulting from the finish of the war. But we must be thorough in our work. Everyone knows that this war re¬ sulted for the most part from a poor and inefficient mopping up and policing of Germany after the last war and no doubt the same thing after this war would lead infallibly to a World War No. 3. So let us be prepared to do a good job. Cooperation with our allies is a “must” in keeping peace and world order. Pessimistic commentators tell us something like this: “A war with Russia is inevitable” or “England will be done out of her power by the United States and Russia” or similar talk. Whether they mean to or not, these critics have stirred up, or will stir up suspicion among the allies. If we try to trust and have confi¬ dence in our allies (and they do the same), think of all the unnecessary trouble it will save. But on the other hand if we go gossiping that England is no good or Russia is not to be trusted or France will stab us in the back, then the world will return to the chaos from which it will have just arisen. Indeed, cooperation with our allies will be essential to post-war peace. 21

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THE GOBBLER-1945 JOHNSON HIGH SCHOOL for bombing from across the sea. This could go on almost indefinitely. The world is getting smaller and smaller, and also countries are becoming more and more interdependent, so this war of science must stop. While I was turning this subject over in my mind and forming the ideas, I went to a service in which a Negro quartet was singing spirituals. One of them immediately caught my attention and I realized that it was just what I wanted to bring out—that it expressed exactly the theme of my talk. “I Ain’t Goin’ to Study War No Mo’.” If science could only use that as a theme and turn to a study of peace with such vigor as they study war! Of course someone will say that all the discoveries in this war are not for destructive purposes and many of them can be used effectively for the good of mankind after the war. Radar can be used to guide ships and airplanes for safety, rocket bombs may be made into meteorological rockets and experimental space ships, jet propulsion will prove to be a new era in engines, and the compli¬ cated bomb sights may be turned into mechanical brains. Also great advances in medicine and in the control of disease have been made which will prove very helpful after the war. But what a price in human lives, property, suffering, and destruction we have paid for these advances! This spring when our beloved President passed away, all the networks of our country canceled all commercial broadcasts and for three days we heard nothing but music, songs, and tributes to our late President. When we hear of things like this we realize the tremendous good that science can do and our faith in it is strengthened greatly. But when at the same time we realize that the German radio was broadcasting lies, insults, and rejoicing over his death, we begin to doubt again. Scientists must cooperate with each other and humanity, because in the future science can mean a great benefit to mankind or its eventual destruction. We have now reached the day we have been looking forward to for many years—the day we could rejoice and say goodby to all the teachers and the school. But now that it is here we aren’t half as glad as we thought we would be. In fact we are actually sad, because we are going to miss the good times we had together, the acquaintances we made, and the happy-go-lucky life of high school. The road ahead will not be easy. Some of us will go on to college, some of us will see service in the armed forces, some of us will start our life’s work, but whichever road we take will involve much hard work. We wish to thank Mr. Hayes and all the teachers at Johnson who have shown us splendid cooperation and thoughtful interest during our four years here. Their leadership and guidance have made our days here successful and they were always ready to help us out if we needed it. We shall always remember them and our happy days here at Johnson as we bid them a sad farewell. Roger S. Smith 23