Pontiac Senior High School - Quiver Yearbook (Pontiac, MI)

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item--N. I. THE QUIVER'l 29 school product, it will have been more than repaid for any sacrifice it has made. And from what I know of the present Class, the community will receive, in abounding measure. all that it has the right to expect. My greetings and best wishes are with the Ulass of 1910! WHY? CECIL H. LONGMAN. VVhen it comes to discovering' approaching calamity or locating' the real cause of conditions, the human 1'ace is rather near-sighted. lYe receive a blow and immediately get busy with the bruises, but scarcely ever know who hits us, Probably two-thirds of our time. money and energy are spent i11 dealing with effects, while the causes are left un- noticed and unremoved. In this seething pot of pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow, victory and defeat, comedy and tragedy, light and darkness, while our ears drink in merry laughter and our hands wipe tears away. while time with delicate, ponderous stroke is ever changringr the landscape of life with tints of sunshine and shadow, do we ever ask why? We know why the apple falls downward instead of upward, why one race is white and another black. We can explain day and night, the tides and the seasons. We can analyze the earth, fathom the deep, and read the stars. Many of the VVIPYS of life have been answe1'ed. But why is this per- son happy and that one sad L' VVhy so little belief in the other fellow I' VVhy so much dissension in the various walks of life, labor in arms against capital, statesmcn 'slanderingr statesmen, creed warring against creed? Our paths lie side by side in the same direction. Then why fight through the fence? Man is a reasoning creature. That is what makes him a man, and the more rational he is the more entitled is he to the name. If, in the innumerable questions which constanly arise, each would honestly eu- deavor to discover why things are as they are: if he would iinpartially collect and weigh the data and arrive at an individual, unprejudiced conclusion, incidentally encouraging' his fellow man to do the same, many of the problems of life would become comparatively simple, and the word MAN would be universally understood. Life is too short for us to learn all the great lessons by experience andtime Will 11ot permit us to read all of the many books which might be beneficial. Consequently one of the main channels through which Jp i g at ,. P, 0 .Q I .. . .fw-ntQ.,' f',',l. an .A V GW A- nahkdmlisr

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I' lmrif 1 28 THE QUlVER The attitude of the man from Missouri- Y0l1,V6 gOt fc shew me is really a much more valid attitude of mind than our j0kiI'1g iUt9T'PPe' tation of it would lead us to suspect. If we adopted it mme Widely as a working principle we should not so readily accept every Story that we hear from our neighbors, every bit of gossip that comes wanderlng to our ears, every newspaper yarn that meets our eyes, or every noisily heralded 'tdiscovery in science, medicine, or religion. VV6 should hold our minds in abeyanee: we should insist that We be shown,'l As Dr. John Dewey in a recent book- How YVe Think - says: t'The most important factor in the training of good mental habits consists in acquiring the attitude of 'suspended conclusionf And the attitude of 'tsuspended conclusion 'simply means that we withhold ,Judgment or opinion until ALL the facts are in, or until the asserted fact has been corroborated by attested evidence. One of the most humiliating, yet possibly etifective, illustrations of this lack of poise and reserve in passing judgment was seen in the case of our recent hero- Dr, Cook, Here was a purely scientific problem, to be settled only by those who had technical knowledge of the subject and the ability to sift and weigh the evidence, and yet some of our newspapers would settle the matter by a postal card vote! The Cook episode should at least serve as a lesson to us of the wisdom of the suspended conclusion, as over against the ''spontaneous-combustion conclusion. These three things, then, ought the community to expect of its high school graduates: First, that they be able to support themselves and those dependent on them: that they earn their own living and be not a dead-weight on society: that they engage in some useful occupation and thereby serve themselves and render some service to society. Second, that they be good citizens in the broadest sense of that termg not only performing their duty as voters and members of the body politic, but as well in the relations of home, neighborhood, and community, manifesting those fuiulamental every-day virtues, which, as Mr. Roosevelt says, are really the vital things in any wholesome civili- zation. Third, that they possess correct habits of thought and acquire cer- tain retlective attitudes of mind which will tend to control passion, pregudice, and unreasoning impulse, and lead to a 'saner and safer indi- vidual and community life. If the young people who are to graduate this June from the Pon- tiac lligh School shall respond to these expectations and hopeq of the community, l am sure the latter will have no reason to rearet its ex T B , A - Iwlldltllllf Of Illfmey, time, and eau-r, and it will feel that in the in- creased efficiency, civic virtues, and trained intellia-ence of its high C - 4- Y Y ,rxg Y M W Qi ik. L - ll ' 541 Y 'Hp' m e - - - -Y , L., -V ' Eff- .x. - ' 77

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E QUlVER 30 TH we gather knowledge. the ammunition for life's battle, 15 by direct contact. VVe learn, either consciously or uDC'0IiSC10USlY, from those about us, and this dissemination of knowledge should not be retarded by modesty on the one hand or bigotry on the other. Age recognizes .IH youth an equal in intellect, comprehension and ability. The only dif- ference between the two is one of time of Hlllleamnce OH the stagelof action. lVe see one in the introduction and the other in the conclusion of the drama of life, Never before has the line of demarcation between youth and age, maturity and immaturity, wisdom and ignorance, the known and the unknown, been as indistinct as it is today. The b0.Y is 3 man and the man a boy. They stand hand in hand on the infinite plane of human understanding'. Doubt is tl1e keynote of prog'res's. Satisfaction produces stagnation. Doubt, dissatisfaction, investigation, readjustnient, reorganization, con- struction, progress. This is the inevitable development. The twentieth century boy-man is a doubter. Ile requires to be shown. Ile deems it better to ask wl1y and know than to appear wise and remain in ig'norance. Ile submits literature, teaching, and expe- rience to the impartial test of common sense. The profound, apparently indisputable, statements of teacher, sage and philosopher are each and all assigned to the fanning-mill of human reason. He scouts the mediaval idea of authority for truth and substitutes truth for author- ity, with the result that never before in the history of the race has progress been so rapid. VVe hear a great deal about duty. I believe it is absolutely im- possible to do one's duty unless properly informed. Most of the con- fusion in church, state, society, or even baseball, is due to ignorance. Don 't be content to sit on the bank of the stream and dream. Fish! Don 't be satisfied with watching' the troubled stream of events roll by, or with drifting' on the turbulent waters until lost in the vast ocean of results. Make the perilous ascent of the mountain and find the source, Some people are afraid to ask for fear they will find out. Don 't be one. of these. Ask everything' and everybody, including vourself, Effects are of vital importance because they constitute the TODAY of life but causes are intinitelv more im oitant l f , - f ' ' p Jccau th - formed all of the future TODA YS. It is very right tliliitothe iggdtlaieli sympathize with and soothe the weeping' child, but the wise mother The man who investigates that she may prevent further sorrow. erapples with existing' ditl iculties is popular and rin-htly because h ' - f - . e IS doing' a great and necessary work. But the man whin goes deeper who regardless of public opinion, labors in the primeval forests of eausatigyf fr - 1 2 Q.. .. ' . , , - Q 01 tie benefit of htneiations yet unboln, is in the catevory of great men. The man who is determined to know the trutli tllO1lcrh the heavens tall is the man upon whom this country or any othe? must base its hope of stability ' -' ' - ' ' - , ' - .- PIOSDGIIT5 happiness -und ultimate VNIIY is a great word. Use it. l i I Success' . . 2- ' 1 H -. 1 -1 f- --,a.. ,,.. , - -ifw l L r ' su, ,i ' Er?-' I H ' , i ff