Plymouth State University - Conning Tower Yearbook (Plymouth, NH)

Page 11 text:

v He did his very best to makf The billows smooth and bright And this was very odd because it was The middle of the night Lf vlS CMftOLL WAlT-t ALAN SCOTT

Page 10 text:

The President's Message A decade is a long time in youth; it is a short time within an era of change. For ten years our world has been in stress and torment. Your instructors in high school and college have not been so sure of themselves in teaching service, especially in social and economic lines, as were teachers of earlier decades. Perhaps this has been good for you as well as for the teachers. You will go out from Plymouth, I hope, still questing, mindful of a great challenge to find Truth. Wisdom, sophistry, error, hatred and injustice are in high places struggling for mastery. The world is everywhere on the march; but whither? 1939 marches. We who teach have great responsibility especially in the democratic states. In totalitarian culture, indoctrination is easy; it need not involve truth. Indoctrination is easily backed by force; unthinking minds are easily made receptive by emotional propaganda. Even strong minds denied information by censorship and misrepresentation may logically draw conclusions from false premises. Hysteria of almost any kind can result from clever propaganda. Most of us are susceptible. Americans are not ready yet to surrender faith in our democratic institutions, but millions are so confused and so insecure in economic status as to be easily led by those who might advocate fundamental change holding promise of alleviation in some particular way, yet fraught with grave dangers to the fundamental principles of our American pattern. We must never forget that all our teaching aims to develop intelligent citizenship in the United States of America. We shall recognize that nature, the child, human society, and governmental institutions are not static; eternal change makes them all dynamic. Shall that change be progressive, errant or retrogressive? In a democracy everything depends upon the quality of thinking of the people. Which leaders shall be followed? On that following hangs destiny. Because we common people are free to follow, our majority choice must be sound. Out of the schools must come personalities of goodwill because a complex of hate builds undemocratic societies. To goodwill must be added intelligence in judging what is truth, half-truth or error. The wisdom of all the books you teach will be as nothing compared to the personalities you lead along paths of intelligent discovery, social participations, economic sanity and spiritual goodwill. Ernest L. Silver

Page 12 text:

Ernest Leroy Silver President Dartmouth College, B.L.; Pd.D.; Harvard Summer School. Guy Edwin Speare Superintendent of Schools and Director of Training Dartmouth College, A.B.; Harvard University, Ed.M. - N fk Beatrice Ella Hodgdon Physical Education Plymouth Normal School; Posse Normal School; Harvard University, Summer Term; Columbia University, B.S.; A.M. Harry Preble Swett History and Social Science Amherst College, A.B.; Harvard University, A.M.; Harvard University, Summer School; Columbia University, Summer School. Eva Earll Furlong English Cornell University, Ph.B.; A.M.; Columbia University Summer School. Geneva May Smith Mathematics Farmington State Normal School, Maine; Boston University, B.S. in Ed.; University of Maine, Summer School; (Leave of absence first semester, 1931-1932). 8