Oxford High School - Ravelins Yearbook (Oxford, MA)

Page 24 text:

20 THE RAVE LlN'S, 1936 loids and scandal sheets, by the way in which they make heroes of criminals, make it neces- sary to have a larger force of G men. Whom do we find in the headings of our most popu- lar scandal sheets? Robbers, kidnapers and criminals of every type. Instead of a rogues gallery exhibit we should be finding pictures of those who have rendered noble service. This practice of giving prominent place to crim- inals not only has a bad effect upon the public but it also robs those who deserve newspaper space for recognition. Then too. if young peo- ple read these papers they are likely to be in- fluenced by the paper's views on questions, and believe that crime is an easy way of making money. The paper's policy is to agree with the sub- scriber's beliefs. The faults of the press and the people react on each other. The news- paper is a mirror of life which reflects the joys, sorrows. comedies and tragedies of all people. In spite of the fact that newspapers have been lowered in standard due to public de- mand they still perform very useful functions. The Sunday paper gives many additional pages which appeal to various members of the family. Some of its offerings in addition to local and world news and pictures are the comics, radio, stage, and screen articles, sports, household ideas, fashions, and financial advice. An intelligent reader, however, should be in- terested in all of the sections. A person is not well informed if he reads only sports or recipes. The modern papers are divided into three main groups: the non-partisan, the partisan and those dealing in scandal. The Christian Science Monitor is an example of a non-parti- san paper. The Boston Herald and Boston Post are partisan, representing the Republi- cans and Democrats, respectively. The Tab- loids such as the Daily Record and the Mirror are the scandal sheets. The partisan papers have the power to sway people's votes by presenting only their party's side of the question. If the people read only partisan papers they are likely to become con- fused and elect the candidate who was given the best writeup, even although he might not be the best one for office. Some papers are bribed by the parties to support their nominees. By doing this and by giving bad people good characters the papers are going against their first principle-presentation of the truth. In order for the newspapers to be run suc- cessfully the publisher must comply with the customers' demands. If the people enjoy gos- sip and the evil happenings of the world rather than news of the good that people do, that is what they will get. If one paper does not give the people what they want another one will. It is impossible to reform the press without first reforming its readers. The paper must be ready to tell the truth at all times regardless of whether it is good or bad, because that is what the people want. As it will take some time before the newspapers can be reformed, we, the readers, must in the meantime accept them as they are. ODDITIICS OF THE LAXV By Eugene Schofield. In spite of the fact that there are too many laws in every state, there are not enough en- forced laws in any state. Why have laws if they are not going to be enforced? Why en- force laws if, in one day, the enforcement of these laws could cause any person among us to be imprisoned for five years. There are, with- out a doubt, enough laws broken by each one of us, each day, to cause several years impris- onment. These laws, however, are not en- forced, which saves us. Let me cite a case, which involves, for a peri- od of twenty-four hours, a man in the largest city in Pennsylvania. I am using the state of Pennsylvania for an example, but our own state, like all others, is equally guilty of hav- ing strange statutory enactments,. Statutory enactments are those appearing on the books of a state, and are not to be confused with common or constitutional law. To resume the case of the resident of Philadelphia, let us look in as Mr. Clark is walking into his bedroom early in the morning. During his absence from the room his wire-haired terrier had been mis- using a volume of poems by Edgar Guest. In puppy fashion the dog had made a bone of the

Page 23 text:

THE RAVELIN'S, 1936 19 been, nor ever will be, true, yet it represents the opinion of several circles. Teaching is one of the oldest and most important professions, but it has not always been looked upon as an attractive one. Even in the early days of our own country teachers were often slaves or common servants. It is also believed that teachers are usually impractical idealists, who can't meet the complex problems of real life in an effective manner. This has been illustrated by the statement, Those who can, dog those who can't, teach. Teaching is not only a business of vital im- portance, but it is a growing enterprise. In 1900 there were only sixteen million children in the schools of our nation and today we have nearly twenty-eight million. Enrollment in public schools has doubled and college and uni- versity growth has been more than fifty per cent in the last ten years. Don't enter the profession of teaching un- less you are sure you can fulfill its require- ments. No one should enter it who does not feel called to it by the spirit of divine guid- ance. It is a profession too holyg its sanctions are too nearly divine and its objectives are too spiritual in their nature to have its precincts entered by the unworthy, the unprepared, or the uninspired. But to those who are quali- fied by nature for its exacting requirements and who prepare themselves fully for its vari- our services it offers reasonable financial re- ward and a life of lasting satisfaction. OUR NEWSPAPERS By Katherine Chapman. Why do we need newspapers? The reason is that people like to know what is going on in their home towns and in the world. By listen- ing to people gossiping on a street corner we find that this desire to know other people's business is a very common human character- istic. Ever since the world began people have been anxious to get news. It was first carried by the freemen of Rome who sold the news in the form of letters. These news-letters at first told only of political events but later they also contained news about court trials and prom- inent citizens. In Julius Caesar's time all the news of the city was posted on a board where the public could read it. Later it was collected by jour- nalists and given in soap box orations, after which a collection was taken. In England in the 17th century news-gather- ers wrote ballads about current events and sang them in the streets. Newspaper history in this country began in 1690 when Harris published the paper called Public Occurrences. It was condemned be- cause of its criticism of the government. Ben- jamin Franklin, who bought the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1720 from Keimer, was famous as a newspaper man. Franklin printed the first almanac in 1732, which, although it was not really a newspaper, contained facts about the weather and wise sayings-the same material we find in our newspapers today. The first paper was printed to supply news and not to entertain, or to criticize government. Its second and only other purpose was to ad- vertise. Our newspapers today have doubled their original functions. Their function now is four- fold: fiirst, to give the newsg second, to explain and comment on current eventsg third, to print entertaining and instructive material, and fourth, to sell advertising space. The first two functions are necessary. ele- ments in keeping the people well-informed and intelligent in regard to our government. The press and the government react on each other. The government uses the press to reach its citizens and the press uses the government to secure political news. The people's views and votes are inHuenced by the paper which makes the press very important to the government. The newspaper influences the government in more ways than by getting people's votes. Tab-

Page 25 text:

THE RAVELIN'S, 1936 21 book. His master picked up a bed slipper and beat the pup, which caused the pup to cry. Clark, if prosecuted as deserved, might have been fined the sum of two hundred dollars and imprisoned for one year. An hour or so later the wire-haired terrier whined to go out. Clark opened the door and, after the passage of the dog, closed it, leaving the dog at large, unat- tended, unmuzzled, and in the street. By this act Mr. Clark violated four ordinances of the city. A moment later, he broke a well-known nuisance act by assisting his son in flying a kite. At the usual time Clark started for work and while walking along he lit a cigarette. In his course of journeying he passed by a public square. He must either stop smoking or avoid the public souare. Again he offended, he en- tered the public square smoking, which was punishable by a five-dollar fine. Lighting a cigarette later in the forenoon, he used the last one in the package and threw the package into a wastebasket without destroying the rev- enue stamp. If Clark had been properlv penal- ized for this act, he would have lost fifty dol- lars and gone to prison for six months. If this act were strictly enforced, I think the Prisoner's Song would be hit number one until there weren't any men left to imprison. Taking out an hour for lunch, Clark walked toward a restaurant. Along the way he was asked by a tobacconist, from whom he had just purchased some smokes. to drop a letter in the nearest mailbox. This letter contained a lot- tery ticket, and even though he was ignorant of the contents of the letter. if he had been discovered there would have been a penalty of one thousand dollars Hne and two years in con- finement. On Clark's return to his business he or- dered his clerk to distribute hand bills, by which he broke another ordinance of his city. This disregard for the law should have cost him twenty dollars. At closing time, Clark returned home to find his son, Robert, struggling to carry a veloci- pede from the porch to the sidewalk. Running up the steps and gathering the boy under one arm and the velocipede under the other, he placed the child astride the vehicle. He had caused his son to break a civic ordinance for- biding the pedaling of velocipedes on public ways. That evening he entertained a friend. When the friend departed, Clark found that he was weary. He discovered that the house was grow- ing chillyg all day there had been a hint of the season's first snow. Even after Clark had gone to sleep he couldn't abide by the law. By mid- night the snow had fallen and ceased, leaving a white blanket upon the sidewalk. When Clark awoke at eight o'clock the next morning, he had broken a law while sleeping. He had failed to remove the snow from his sidewalk within six hours after it had ceased to fall. You law abiding citizens may graphically un- derstand the total delinquency of Clark, a type all too common in our unhappy land. Within a single twenty-four hours he had committed crimes and misdemeanors for which he should have paid a penalty of 52,895.67 in fines, and five years in a penal institution. Therefore, it seems fair to conclude that in the course of a single year, which should, if there were such a thing as law enforcement in this nation, have penalized him to the extent of S2,052,919.55 in fines and 1825 years in im- prisonment. Let me add that in some states it is illegal for a man to kiss his wife on Sunday, and that in other states a farmer could legally graze his cattle in public squares. I believe by now you have seen the dis- crepancy in our law enforcement. Let us hope in the near future that these laws may be na- tionally revised so that there may be more at- tention placed upon the few really important laws. Perhaps, too, if the statutes were revised, people would have more respect for law and those laws really in need of enforcement would find public favor.