Reading Memorial High School - Pioneer Yearbook (Reading, MA)

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Page Six The Pioneer anew? Don’t be like the teacher who said: ‘ 1 At summer school I should like to take the courses given by Dr. Bagley, but I have decided not to, for I am afraid he will make me change my opinions. ” This teacher, this student of truth, might just as well have said, ‘ ‘ I will close my mind. I will live with my prejudices. I will accept no new truth. I will not attend the foot-wear exhibition for fear I will become dissatisfied with my old shoes.” This same reactionary frame of mind accounts not only for the hostile attitude between individuals, but also nations. In our own history before the Civil War, that period when co-operation be¬ tween sister states was notably lacking has well been labeled “the Era of Hard Feelings.” You in this later day recog¬ nize what a great awakening, what a decisive step in the progress of mankind, took place when the fog lifted and pa¬ triotism stretched to what they termed the “boundless limits of the United States. ” The world has grown and life has expanded, and whether we wish it or not, we belong now to a great sister¬ hood of nations. The patriotism which broke down provincialism and cleared the human horizon, is again pressing against its barriers,—your narrowness. Do you think “my country against theirs,” or “my country with theirs” for the peace and progress of mankind? Dr. Henry Fosdic-k believes that mankind’s real conflict of interest is not between this nation and that, but between the forward- looking, progressive, open-minded people of all nations, who have caught a vision of humanity organized for peace, and the backward-looking, reactionary, militaris¬ tic people of the same nations, who use their heritage of patriotism as a cloak for their narrow minds. It has changed as it were from an enlightening to a blinding force. Just as that great mon¬ ster, the squid, sends out his inpenetrable, inky-black substance to blind his enemy, Avhile he envelopes him with his far- reaching, irresistible tenacles, so man’s narrowness and intolerance blind him with his false patriotism. Such prejudices, such intolerance, the young people of today hope to break down. You think they are exasperating. In just such a way they have been ex- exasperating their elders since the days of Cain and Abel. But have you ques¬ tioned your position? Perhaps some of you unconsciously have the attitude of the Pharisees. They were the good people of their day, only they were so sure of their goodness and so positive that they were right, that they tried to force the others, and in that way became set in self-righteousness. You object to the apparent boldness and openness so prevalent among the younger generation. But which is better: society resting on a great and sure, but growing and broad¬ ening, platform of truth, and living in an atmosphere of sincerity, frankness, and open-mindedness; or one hemmed in by narrowness, hyprccisy, intolerance, and useless formalities—founded upon truth to be sure, but on a platform which is small, stationery, and unacljustable? The former is the goal of the younger generation, the latter will be the condi¬ tion of the older generation if it does not hasten to change its policies. Now that the facts are becoming more ap¬ parent to young people, and they realize that there has been a wholesale conspir¬ acy to deceive them in many ways, and to cover up many of the facts of life, leading to their tragic disillusionment later on, it is inevitable that they should undertake a revolution of ideas. Why not join them in this and give th em the benefit of your riper judgment and great¬ er experience, acting as a balance-wheel or gyroscope, and make it a more speedy and more sure success? I believe with Judge Ben Lindsay, that “in the mighty rebellion of modern youth, that is the glory of our time, they will come to know the good as well as the evil, the true as well as the false, the superstition and the savagery, the wisdom and the folly of their fathers. ’ ’ This worthwhile revaluation is not for the young generation alone, nor for any one person in any one lifetime or epoch, but for all—young and old—working harmoniously toward an ideal society. To think with the method of the scientist in the ideal way. He no longer by chance meets with a new idea. He methodically gathers his information, and by a process of elimination, of trial and I

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The Pioneer Page Seven success, gradually approaches the truth. None of you are living in the world in which you were born, scientifically or in¬ tellectually. The break with many stan¬ dards of the past has been abrupt, but the work is not complete. The task of scrapping must continue until our entire household of ideas is freed of its bur¬ densome furnishings and new T and better ones added. Voltaire said: “We only half live when we only half think.’ ’ Are you not only half thinking and therefore only half living when you are fanatical, or fear to meet with ideas which frankly scrutinize the value which is so easily ac¬ cepted as final? When you are breaking the fetters of conformity and oppressive standards and seeking the highest and fullest levels of thought, you will be liv¬ ing. There is nothing too sacred to be investigated. Listening ungrudgingly and considering radical theories and statements may leave you tingling as from a series of electric shocks, and your mind awhirl with combined astonish¬ ment, pleasure, anger, and bewilderment, but it will force you into active and for¬ ward-looking thought, and help you to clarify and refresh your ideas. The belief that final judgments are futile and human standards perishable, Shelley expressed when he said: “Naught may endure but mutability.” This is not a forboding, but a prophecy of good for¬ tune. It may mean the substitution of impartial politics for party politics, free¬ dom for limitation, knowledge for igno¬ rance, peace for war, and better and better generations. All of these miracles will be accomplished only by a revision of the ideals of each individual. Why not take a part in this onward movement and join the forces of progress wdiich will bring about this revolution for freedom, —freedom of the mind, that consummate freedom ? Valedictory Address And now to all of you—Mr. Safford, Mr. Sussman, teachers, all, school com¬ mittee, parents, and friends—who have made it possible for us to enjoy so many wonderful opportunities to gain knowl¬ edge and wisdom throughout our school course, it is my pleasant privilege to ex¬ press to you the sincere and heart-felt appreciation of the Class of 1926. This a pitifully inadecpiate expression of our feelings in view of what we have receiv¬ ed, but though we have no way of knowing what we shall accomplish in the future, we hope to hold our standards so high that you will be proud, and feel repaid for your effort and sacrifices in our behalf. Classmates, with confidence I hav e represented us tonight as champions of free thought, of sincerity, of progress. It is a glorious attitude, but not un¬ usual, for so youth has always been and will be. But no special credit is due us. Not through any wisdom of ours do we find ourselves less hampered by the standards, the prejudices, and the fixed ideas that bind our elders. We have merely inherited the eternal torch of free- doom and progress carried by the youth of all ages. We can easily see the flaws cf our elders, but we cannot boast until we have taken their places and have suc¬ cessfully met the problem of scrapping our own worn-out ideas. With this in view let us determine to continue to think, and prove ourselves superior by a perennial willingness to investigate new ways and to distinguish between them. That will be our answer to the cpiestion as to whether we are degenerating and lowering the standards, or are indeed seeking freedom and truth. The past four years that we have spent together have brought satisfaction, as well as disappointment, in some measure to all of us. The future will bring the same. These things need not concern us particularly, since we cannot control them, if with unswerving determination we keep the attitude of service ex pressed by Carl Sandburg in these lines: Loy me on an anvil, O God. Beat me and hammer me into a crowbar. Let me pry loose old walls. Let me lift and loosen old foundations. Lay me on an anvil, O God. Beat me and hammer me into a steel spike. Drive me into the girders that hold a skyscraper together. Take red-hot rivets and fasten me into the central girders. Let me be the great nail holding a sky¬ scraper through blue nights into white stars. Frances Porch ’26. I