Polytechnic High School - Polytechnic Student Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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. . . To thine own self he true, And it must follow, as the night the day. Thou canst not then he false to any man. Our former heloved principal of Polytechnic High School, ,lohn H. Francis, made the principle expressed in this quotation the corner stone of his life and that of his stu- dents. His dynamic personality so impressed its significance upon our minds that no admonition received hy us during our lives has had such a profound and lasting effect upon our consciousness. The especial value of the thought grows with the years, for it is true that as age ap- proaches we either show an ever increasing reliance upon truth or else a degradation into untrustworthiness. There is an old proverh to the elfect that as a twig is hent so shall grow the tree. By so indelihly impressing upon us the value of honesty, .Iohn H. Francis has done us a greater service even than that resulting from our material education. lt is my hope that I shall he ever true to the ideal set hefore us hy him. 'IOHN Black, S'O9, fitt11r11qy-111-fi111' Pre.r11Je11l A.l'.l'lILifzIfFtl .S't1z1Je11t lglllfl' Olgrlllfzzlffrlll, .Snug ln our country we are called upon to give hut little in return for the advantages which we receive. Shall we give that little reluctantly? Patriotism calls for the faith- ful performance of the ordinary duties of citizenship in small matters as well as in great. There is no more menacing feature of these times than the disinclination of so- called husy people to assume tl1e hurdens of government. lf we desire to preserve to future generations the high standard of our institutions, we must impress upon our new citizens that ahove all pleasure, ahove all conveniences, ahove all husiness they must plan first their duty to their government. LnoNAno WIl,SL7N, S'12, Att11r11qy-txt-lt111' D1'l211t111g H111mr.r, 1911-1912 To one who has had the opportunity of going to a high school such as Polytechnic, which draws its students from all sections ofthe community, the advantages are mani- fold, hut most important is the experience one gains from friendships with those in school from the different walks of life. A student seldom looks into the future and realizes what the friendships he is mak- ing will mean. But after heing an alumnus for many years, he looks into the past, and comes to the realization that such friendships have proven of inestimahle value. for it will he found that the companions of school days are now husiness associates. One comes to realize further that after all, an important privilege of going to high school is this opportunity of meeting others so that one's sphere of influence may he propor- tionately hroadened and one ceases to he just another person in the life of the com- munity. Therefore, cultivate such friendships while young and your value to the community will increase with time. As a reward you will reap success with the ioy and happiness which accompany it. FRANK FRANK, W'l5, .Tt'L'lll'fli'l'-l'ifl'.l'f Nt1tio11.1l Hank Registrar' Aflllllllf Arrociutiazz

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uotedfrom the Alumni Books will never lose their interest, but they have lost much in charm by the substi- tution of machinery for hand-copying. The reason why the stalls of second-hand dealers never lack for wistful Caryatids is that most book-lovers want volumes mellow with experience as well as wisdomvrich not only with the considerations of the author but with the opinions of former readers,though it be shown only in an excla- mation point in the margin here and there .... And so it is with the manuscripts of Chaucer's great bouquet of stories. None of the scribes or readers, or writers of spuri- ous lines, can give a grain of what the poet accomplishes in a single phrase, and yet the master's revelation of his age in its learning and muddle-headedness, its piety and grossness, is enforced and emphasized by the additionsgyes, and the blundersfof these lesser men. From Readers and Writers of Chaucer, a study of manuscripts of THE CANTERBURY TALES. Delivered before the Philological Association of the Pacific Coast, 1925. MARGERY BAILEY, S'O9, Ph.D., Yale Anociate Prafenor of Englixli, Stanford Uf1i1'tfJifj' Stajf of the P0lj'fECl9l1fC Student and Poly High, IQ09 Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference. These lines, taken from a poem by Robert Frost, epitomize the lives of those men and women . . . the few in each generation . . . who shape their lives less according to the pattern ofthe many, than to a design of their own making, who determine upon a career, the road to which may be rough but which appeals to their imagination and expresses their idealism. I fear that most of us, when choosing a profession, follow the line of least resist- ance, provided it promises in due time a reasonable assurance of financial advancement and personal success. And by taking this road of comparatively safe travel, have not some of us, perhaps, shut our eyes to the alluring by-road, abandoned our dreams of those other and more ideal walks of life in which our essential idealism might have found expression? Only the rare ones among us have the courage to take the road less travelled by. The young person who dreams a dream and insists upon making that dream a reality has the difficult by-road to travel, with little encouragement from his skeptical fel- lows, yet the bright blade of his own shining ambition will serve as an instrument to cut his way through the tangle of the untrodden roads and bring him ultimately to high, clear places. From an address by ISABEL FOTHERGILL SMITH, S'09, Ph.D., Bryn Mawr Dean and Pfofcuor of Gealagy, Scripps College Prexident Girlf' Self-Government, 1909

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Labor is embodied prayer. Labor is dignified. Labor is sacred. The workman's tool is the symbol of humanity's splendor. Animals never use tools. But man is a creature of God's own divinity, and that divinity in man is illimitable. It constantly strives to extend its scope, and the tool, the machine, is the means by which that is done. By means of the tool man makes his arm a little longer, a little sharper, a little heavier. Shall we then regard the use of the tool as a thing of shame? Yet there are those who, in their ignorance, conceive the notion that there is something particularly noble about luxurious idleness, and something degrading and low about manual toil. And so, the tool, the badge of man's transcendence, becomes an object of scorn. Have they forgotten that the Son of God made His home in a carpenter's shop and labored with chisel and saw and hammer? If these words mean nothing else to you, remember at least these two thoughts: first, the tool is the emblem of man's emergence and superiority over the brute. There- fore honor and respect him who can use it skillfully. Second, a tool once rested in the hands of Him who is the Saviour of the World. Therefore be not ashamed of being like l-lim, the Most High, a Maker, a Creator, a Producer, a Worker. From Behold Him, the Carpenter, Sermon, St. Alban's Pro-Cathedral WIALDEMAR BRAY, S'17, Porto! Department Ifditor The Pobftetluzic Stzzdeflt, I9 I7 Intelligent and profitable reading might well be viewed as a mining venture in search of the permanently valuable in literature. Was not the Wise Man merely la- menting the unsatisfying nature of barren and effusive writing when he characterized much reading as conducive to weariness? There is something about certain passages which unfailingly refreshes. Age is unknown to them. Temporal customs neither constitute nor mar their charm. Men of all times read them with delight. Their mes- sage can be successfully translated into any language, for they are universal. They are words litly spoken. They are a joy forever. From an essay, What Endures in Literature, Christian Science Monitor ROLAND SHARP, S'21, Editorial Stuff, Clvriftimz Xcience Mofzitor Preiident Ayyoriuted .Ytuderzt Body 0f1Q6llIfZtlff07l, W' 31 just as the World War had its origin in the schoolroom, so must it be outlawed in the same place. War will be eliminated, not in the palaces of Versailles, not at Geneva, but in the schoolroom. However, jingoistic newspapers and a few psuedo- patriotic instructors today incline the mind of youth to a belief that participation in the World War was necessary, inevitable. With this propaganda they are laying the foundation for future wars. There are those who yet preach the dogma, In time of peace prepare for war, not realizing that nations, like individuals, usually get what they prepare for. I would substitute for this a new, less harmful dogma, In time of peace prepare for peace. From An Appeal for Mental Disarmament, Valedictory, Univ. of So. Cal.,S'3O CHARLES WRIGHT, S'25, Imtructor in Latin, Santo Paula High School Prefident Auotidted Student Body Orgenziqution, .Suzf