Pittsfield High School - Yearbook (Pittsfield, MA)

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Alma Mater Song Words by Esther Kierstead '38 and Friend Kierstead,jr. '39 Tune: All Through The Night Guardian elm trees cast their shadows A O'er thy ivied wallsg Sons and daughters ever loyal Throng thy honored halls. Pittsfield High School, Pittsfield High School, Alma Mater dear, Help us to preserve thy honor Through each coming year. Great has been thy former record, Greater will it be As the future generations Sing their praise to thee. Proud are we who through thy portals Into life do passg Help us ever to be worthy, Each and every class. Pittsfield High School, Pittsfield High School, Alma Mater dear, Help us to preserve thy honor Through each coming year.

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How Much Security Is Fnougln Maplewood Prize Essay Written by Barbara E. Myers t ecurity is mortals' chiefest enemy, croaked Hecate, plotting the downfall of Macbeth. The old witch had reasoned rightly, too, for Macbeth's feeling of false security was to cause him to forget that he must ever be on guard lest his dearest treasure, his power, be taken from him, and consequently he lost that power. Yet people everywhere in our country today are seeking security, even demanding it, from the government, forgetting always that with that security they may lose their most prized possession, their libertyg that freedom may slip away while they devote themselves to the search for security. Liberty and security walk different roads and lead to opposite goals. As our security increases, ac- cordingly will our liberty decrease. From the seventeenth to middle nineteenth century, freedom, not security was the keynote of American life. The Pilgrims left the security of their homes and hearths in England, seeking greater freedom, and when they touched the shores of New England, they brought more to America than ships and supplies and men. They brought an ideal -- an ideal of freedom. America grew and flourished in that ideal. In 1775 an ill-trained group of soldiers fought for it, daring the strength and might of England, risking their positions, their homes, their lives, for their liberty. America became a country of freedom-freedom of the press, of speech, of endeavour. In America a man was free to try and fail, as well as to succeed. Americans believed it was the right and duty of every man to shape his life for himself. In 1838, in the midst of a growing movement westward, the editor of the New York Sun remarked, Boys and men are educated in the belief that every man must be the architect of his own fortune. The true American neither sought, nor desired, security. As Kipling wrote of him, He greets th' embarrassed Gods, nor fears To shake the iron hand of Fate Or match with Destiny for beers. Immediately after the Revolutionary War, the United States was torn by a period of turbulence and agitation. It was a time of economic, political, and social instability, which affected all classes, rich and poor. Only one group re- mained unshaken by the tumult of the nation. The slaves, submerged, as james Truslow Adams says, at the bottom of society, were undisturbed and uninterest- ed in the state of the nation. They were secure, working, sleeping, eating, as their masters commanded. When Lincoln freed the slaves by the Emmancipation Proclamation, they were indecisive, unreliable, bewildered by their liberty. Security had weakened them, made them dependent, unable to think and work for themselves. It took many years for the slaves to comprehend and appreciate their freedom fully, so far had they walked along the diverse path of security. In 1931, in the deepening depression, there was a widespread cry for more security. Matthew Woll, acting president of the National Civic Federation, echo- ed the thoughts of thousands when he issued a plea for permanent security for the nation. Charles Beard, in America in Mid-Passage, notes, That America 76