Plainville High School - Plainsman Yearbook (Mariemont, OH)

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Acadlemic

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c- ,, JOHN D. BLACKFORD. Superintendent Historians tell us that from about the time of the beginning of the Christian Era until one hundred years ago the population of the world remained practically the same. Peo- ples shifted as cultures decayed, but warfare! disease, starvation, and the elements contrived to keep the world population relatively constant. We are also told that during the last one hundred years the population of the world has doubled. During this same one hundred years, science, mechanics, industry, agriculture, and transportation have made more progress than in all previous history. We have advanced from the covered wagon to jet propelled transport planes; from muskets to atom bombs; from canal boats to streamlined trains; troma rural economy to an industrialeconomy. The impact of this progress on the minds and souls of a doubled population has re- sulted in two World Warsuand a present state Of delicately balanced armistice. The direct and indirect casualties of World War II are estimated at 296 of the world population. Only in a few favored nations is there enough to eat, enough to wear, enough housing. Malnutrition and starvation are wide-Spread. Disease and pestilence are at a modern high. Man knows how to avoid or combat all these things. He also knows how to destroy himself and his civilization in a iew hours. Three possibilities are before us. We can release the atom bomb with the probable final result being the annihilation of Western civilization. We can continue as we are. in a condition where starvation, disease, and warfare bid fair to combine to stabilize the population for another 2,000 years. Perhaps, by devoting his best talents to human and social engineering for a generation, man may learn to live in peace and plenty in some sort of a world federation of states. Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be found. Your generation cannot escape the responsibility of making these decisions The as- signment is perhaps the most difficult ever to confront a single generation. The decision must be made Within the next twenty years. The nature of the decision will determine the course of all human history from this point on. 14