Norwell High School - Shipbuilder Yearbook (Norwell, MA)

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1,2 Tim .s'H1PB1'1LDEJ.' ' Root, and Charles G. Dawes for their contributions -to the cause of world peace. Four women have won Nobel prizes. Madame Curie, one of the women, is the only person who has been distinguished by more than one Nobel award. Madame Curie was a chemist and physicist. She and her husband, Pierre Curie, discover- ed radium. In 1903 she shared with her husband and Becquerel, the Nobel prize in chemistry, the first woman scientist to win it. Perhaps more lay persons are acquain- ted with the Nobel awards in literature than any of the others. The most recent award in literature was made last year to that prominent English novelist, John Galsworthy, who has since died, for his Forsyte Saga and Modern Comedy. The United States has received this recognition of literary merit only once, in 1931, when it was given to Sinclair Lewis particularly known for his novels Babbitt and Arrowsmith. This a- ward has been the cause of much con- troversy since that time, but there is no question that the mere reception of the Nobel prize gives Mr. Lewis real claim to the title of outstanding Ameri- can novelist. Elizabetn Lincoln VAI ,EDICTORY CAN AMERICA UTILIZE HER PRODUCTS? Like the famous question never yet satisfactorily answered, the classic ques- tion of the hen and the egg, is the ques- tion, Which came first-production or demand? Did man in the dim, dark days of his early history, realizing his needs, seek to obtain the results of his brother's toil, or did some ancient cave- man discover his own store of stone axes to be greater than his needs and scheme to force his surplus on some un- suspecting fellow caveman? Whatever the cause may have been, we are today confronted with an un- balanced ratio between supply and de- mand. It is a fact of doubtless truth that the present financial stress is due in part at least to this lack of equilib- rium, the cause of which is as much a mystery as its solution. Few people realize that the time was when supply. not demand, was the problem confront- ing the layman. Today, however, we are faced with a stagnancy in business resulting from overproduction in the past. Various efforts have been made to ov- ercome this situation. Perhaps the most outstanding of these are the attempts to instill within the people appetites con- dusive to greater demand. By the ex- ploitation of these divers wants, people are driven to believe that they are ina- dequately supplied, hence opening the way for the over burdened producer. With this method of righting the econ- omic malajustment, there is one fallacyg demand should be the desire for the goods, plus the ability and willingness to pay for it. However, it may be easily understood that the creation of a desire for the product may not necessarily be accompanied by the ability to pay. To meet this condition the producers have striven to inflate the buying power of the consumer by the well known time payment plan, by which one may take possession of the goods before actual pecuniary ownership. Although this may temporarily remedy the unbalanced re- lationship, it is inevitable that the con- sumer will eventually be forced to meet his obligations to the producer. In spite of the optimism of the manufacturer, in fostering such transactions, it is poor business to trust to future financial ben- efaction without sound basis for that expectation. The question confronting us today is, Can America utilize her products? That is, granted we desire the goods, have we sufficient buying power to just- ify the produce of the American laborer? It is difficult to comprehend the uncom- mon state of affairs now existing in our country. There are, for instance, many who desire food and clothing, while still others would have goods of a diierent nature. Since the desire is pnesent,

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gp -p rfm SHIPB out milk and 110 chance whatever of raising a cali. And even it they do raise a cow they are worried, for what would happen in the case of a severe grain collection? The local oflicials took matters in their own hands and proceeded to socialize livestock. In retaliation the peasants slaughtered livestock to escape this law. The higher authorities quickly interven- ed, but not before many cattle were needlessly destroyed. The peasants therefore, faced with all these difficulties, grow discouraged and do not do their work properly. There have been many instances Where peas- ants have deliberately sown thibly and plowed badly, partly out of sheer indif- ference and partly out of revenge. 'ine attitude they take is that the land is left in the village, but the Soviets take all their labor, so why toil L? Recently the communists have extend- ed some concessions to the peasantry that has slightly eased the tension, but the conditions are still very bad and the peasants will have to be assured, not verbally, but by deeds on the part of the authorities. Although the Soviets have sadly mes- sed up the form situation, they have pusehd way ahead in cultural and intel- lectual development. There is not a village, however small it may L-e, that has not a schoolhouse and library, and every city has at least one technical school and a university. The younger Russian generation has shown a great apptitude for knowledge and they are given abundant opportunity to satisfy it. The Five Year Plan has ended, with the cultural standard of the Russian masses much higher than it has ever been but with the standards of living and the cost of food lower than it has been in a decade. Russia has laid her foundation for future development, and at the present her main task is to raise the standard of living of the masses. Florence J. Hamblin THE NOBEL PRIZE Distinguished contributions to the fields of science, economics and literat- ure to-day receive attention not only ll'll,llEli' Il from scholars in those particular fields but also may receive international recog- nition through various substantial mon- etary awards famous throughout the civilized world. Without a doubt the best known and most valued of these awards are the world-famous Nobel Prizes an- nounced annually. The Nobel Prize was given by Alfred Bernhard Nobel, a Swedish chemist and inventor. Nobel was born at Stockholm in 1833. His father, a mechanician, be- gan in 1862 to manufacture nitroglycer- in. some of it accidently spilled into the sand used in packing the casks. Nobel found that this combination made a safe and manageable explosive which is dyn- amite. He experimented with several different explosives and invented blast- ing gelatin and several kinds of smoke- less powder. He had patented more than a hundred of his inventions and estab- lished factories in various parts of the world. At his death at St. Remo, Italy, in 1896, he left over 259,000,000 for an- nual awards to persons who, in different fields of activity, have made the greatest contributions to ine progress and the welfare of the wfrld. These prizes .ire awarded for distin 5- uished work .n chemistry, physics, phys- iology or medicine, literature and the cause ff international peace. In chem- istry and physics, the awards are made by the Swedish Royal Academy of Sci- cncesg in medicine, by the Caroline In- stitute of Stockholmg in literature by the Svedish Academy: and for peace, 'oy a committee appointed by the Nor- 'vegian Parliament. The awards were first made in 1901 and have continued since then, although during the period of the World War and in certain years after its close, a num-- ber of the prizes were not awarded. In some cases two or more people have ear- ned a prize and it has been divided bet- ween them with equal honor. The total amount of the prizes given in one year is 340,000 The number of awards given at the end of 1925 was 138. Three of these were peace prizes to institutions instead of individuals. Of these 135 awards, the United States has received nine. Four eminent Americans, two of whom have been President, re- ceived the peace prize. They are Theo- dore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Elihu

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g THE ,S'lIfl-'BUIIJIEIF IJ Why , one may well ask, do we not exchange commodities to satisfy the wants of both parties '? If we were to return to the barter system, the entire body of consumers would cease their demand for the output of the American manufacturer. For not only would those unable to pay for the goods prefer this type of exchange, but also those form- erly possessing adequate purchasing power would rather pay for the goods in produce than with money. We should soon find that the consumer would cease to buy from the large manufacturer and instead merely trade in small quantities with his neighbor. Such a system would undermine our entire financial basis, up- on which the industrial mechanism is constructed. Hence we would in this manner sacrifice desire on the hand for the ability on the other, resulting in no advance towards closing the gap between supply and demand. Some persons would have us believe that the present ebb in business is a natural sequance Of events, and inevit- able. Yes, and they would speak truth- fully if we were to look upon the past financial malajustments as a matter of of course, as cogs in the vast industrial machine. Is it not more logical, how- ever, to consider them as defects, hind- ering the efficiency of our complicated mechanism? This mechanism may be compared with a clock, both of whose mainsprings, supply and demand, are kept wound. While the springs are tight the clock fnuctionssmoothly, but if one or the other were to become unwound, the results of the inequality would be- come immediately visible. Therefore, eliminating the barter sys- tem as impracticable, and condemning the time payment plan as an unstable and momentary remedy for our present economic conditions, we face the quest- ion of how to establish a balance bet- ween supply and demand. America is at the cross-roads. Form- er methods have been tried and found wanting. The problem of financial re- adjustment confronts both our nation as well as our neighbors across the sea. At present the cry of the distressed is being answered by a hitherto untried system, known by some factions as the New Deal. Whether the radical steps recently taken by our government will solve the problem, is as yet unknown. However, it remains for us, the citizens of the United States, to co-operate with all the resources at our command, to help to make the new industrial venture a success, that we may once again re- turn to a state of peace and prosperity, founded upon a more sound and lasting basis than that of former times. Gordon Robbins CLASS l-IISTGRY SENIORS In the fall of, 1929, a group of twenty bright and promising Freshmen confer- red the honor of their presence upon the rest of the inmates of Norwell High School. The members of the class were as follows : Ruth Appleford, Pearl Gaul- ey, Harland Farrar, Vincent Travi, El- eanor Joseph, Barbara Smith, Sylvia Pike, Helen White, Geraldine Tibbetts, Rosemary Haslett, Stella Gotreau, Ruth Winslow, Gordon Robbins, Byram How- ard, Edward Joseph, George Osborne, Harold McCarthy, Frank DeFabio, and Elizabeth Lincoln. I cannot relate the royal ducking in the brook as other classes have, for the year before we entered, a school law was made prohibiting ducking. As soon as we were organized, We held an election for class officers. The fol- lowing were elected: Harold McCarthy, President, Ruth Appleford, Vice Presi- dent: Stella Gotreau, Secretary and Treasurer. When basketball season arrived, our class was able to furnish five players: Gordon Robbins, Vincent Travi, Byram Howard, Pearl Gauley, and Eleanor Jo- seph, a most unusual achievement for a Freshman class. When June arrived we took a trip to Mayflower Grove, accompanied by Miss Anderson and Mrs. Daggett. A good time was a pleasant close to our first successful year. The following September found us back in school ready for another suc- cessful year. When we had settled down once again we found we had lost three