Smith Academy - Echo Yearbook (Hatfield, MA)

Page 31 text:

SMITH ACADEMY 29 know that there will be people filled with hate and revenge — what of those con- quered people who have suffered under Nazi rule ? In their hearts will be a deep and bitter hate and a wild rush to avenge the losses caused by wanton cruelty. We must not expect the Germans or Japs to be sorry for the harm they have done, or be ready to help rebuild the cities they have knocked down. Human nature is not purified by the sacrifices of war. I imagine some of our soldiers and marines, and even some of our civilians, would like to lay hands on some of the Axis criminals, even after the war is ended. The simple truth is that after the guns of war cease firing, people are left with smouldering hates that do not cool down easily. In Europe, the Nazis will be sullen, and the liberated people will want to punish the Germans without much thought of the danger of planting the seeds of another war. To secure our peace, we must work with all the other nations that share our desire for progress toward a democratic way of life. We shall have to consider part of an international society, after the victory — for aviation makes it possible to measure distance by hours, not by miles. Our nation is no longer cut off from Europe and Asia by miles of vast oceans. After we have saved ourselves from the Nazi system of organized hatred and ter- ror, and the Japanese rule of brutality and savagery, do we want to give into our own hatreds and our own selfish ways ? We want a peace that will last — -a peace that will restore good will among men. Each one of us is needed to play a part in a hard and discouraging job; after fighting off the danger that is now wreck- ing the world, we must start building anew on the wreckage. After victory we want a world where tolerance, charity, and justice prevail. The Four Freedoms of the Atlantic Charter are no more idealistic as aims for a world order, than the safeguards extended to United States citizens in the Bill of Rights of our Constitution. Bitter controversy raged among the framers of the Constitu- tion before that document, with its fa- mous Bll of Rights, was finally accepted. Bitter controversies will no doubt arise when men gather around the peace table, after our victory is won. But let us hope that the unity of purpose which is winning the war for us will prevail among the leaders who write the peace. Madame Chiang Kai-shek, speaking in Philadelphia recently, said: America is not only the cauldron of democracy, but the incubator of democratic principle. At some of the places that I visited, I met the crews of your air bases. There I found first-gen- eration Germans, Italians, Frenchmen, Poles, Czechoslovaks, and other nationals. There they were, all Americans, all devoted to the same ideals, all working for the same cause and united by the same high purpose. This increased my belief and faith that devotion to a common principle elem- inates differences in race, and that iden- tity of ideals is the strongest possible sol- vent of racial dissimilarities. In fighting this war, we and our Allies have devotion to a common principle — the principle that tyranny and enslave- ment can not be permitted in a world where free men would live. After the victory, fel- lowship among all men may well be the common principle upon which will grow a true world peace. The way will not be easy — disillusion and discouragement will be met— but after victory, there can be a true and lasting peace. STACIA SLOVIKOSKI ' 43 Third Honors H Hs A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE The phrase, a declaration of indepen- dence, upon first thought, suggests to us the well-known declaration of that phil- osopher of freedom, Thomas Jefferson. His Declaration of Independence formed the cornerstone of our free democratic way of life. But that is not the independence we here are thinking of. Our declaration of independence arises from this fact: Here endeth our high school days. The companionships that we have en- joyed so fully for the past four years will now be broken up. And if this were only an ending, our graduation would indeed be a sorrowful occasion. But every end is

Page 30 text:

28 PURPLE AND WHITE ECHO he was convinced that it must be watched with a careful eye. He urged, therefore, that government should be fenced in by strictly limited constitutional powers and kept in bounds. This could best be done, he believed, by making the people them-, selves the depositories, to share in the control and influence over the government. Time has proved the wisdom of his words: If every individual participates in the ultimate authority, the government will be safe and the liberties and happiness of the citizens will not be infringed. Today, two hundred years after he was born, Jefferson looms greater than ever. To lovers of liberty, Jefferson is time- less in his inspiration. Today, in particu- lar, hundreds of millions of people through- out the world can appreciate his belief that freedom is the most sacred cause that ever man engaged in. Today, more than ever before, Jefferson lives in the hearts of the American people. For he held that all men are created equal, that they possess certain inalienable rights, and that governments derived their just pow- ers from the consent of the governed. These truths, and the nation founded upon them, are now challenged by the hosts of tyranny. And to defend them, our coun- trymen have taken up the sword of free- dom. It is fitting, then, that the two hundredth Anniversary of Thomas Jefferson ' s birthday should be celebrated as a rededication of tne truths which he first proclaimed and established. For, so long as we cherish and maintain and strengthen the demo- cratic principles of Jefferson, the United States will remain what he conceived it to be — the world ' s best hope. ANNA BURDA ' 43 Salutatorian AFTER VICTORY— WHAT ? On the dreadful day of Dec. 7, 1941, our nation was plunged into a war that we had vainly hoped we might avoid. Great changes had to be made in our national life. Many boys at once joined the serv- ice, and many even stopped going to school in order to enlist. Men started to give up their usual jobs to enter defense factories, and women also answered the call for more hands to increase produc- tion. Everywhere, posters began to appear encouraging people to buy war bonds and stamps, and to enlist in the service. In order to help win this struggle, the government instituted units of the armed forces in which the women could enlist, such as the WAVES, the SPARS, and the WAACS. But still, while we are engaged in all this effort, we are conscious of the question of the future. We know we are exerting every effort to win; we not only hope that we shall win — we have confidence that we will win. But the next problem is: After Victory— What? There are twenty-eight United Nations fighting side by side today to wipe out international gangsterdom. Every citizen in each of these nations knows that he has a stake in winning the war; every- one should realize that he has a stake in winning the peace, too. The kind of world that follows the victory is the world that our generation and future generations will have to live in. If the twenty-eight United Nations, through cooperation and unity of purpose, can win the war, it is reasonable to hope that they can win the peace that follows. A union of nations for the purpose of world peace should not be any more impossble than the union of states that makes up our own United States. The founding fathers found much opposition to overcome when they attempted to form a United States of America. They had many bitter discouragements — so shall we, when the victory brings the dawn of a new peace. Today it is not possible to make a defi- nite plan for running the world of tomor- row, we know. But it is possible to exam- ine the situation and come to some general conclusions about the principles upon which the new world must be built. It seems necessary that the peace to fol- low victory shall be built upon a founda- tion of good will rather than revenge. But this foundation will have to be strength- ened with a realistic understanding of the problems that hate and revenge are cer- tainly going to be placed before us. We

Page 32 text:

30 PURPLE AND WHITE ECHO a new beginning — such as the end of a year is the beginning of a new one. Thus, our graduation day means to us a new life, full of challenge — a life of action, new experiences and high excitement. This beginning is a beginning of independence. Throughout our high school days, our life has been under controls, guided by our parents and teachers. For example, there have been times when homework pre- vented us from going to movies or plays. This might have seemed to us too severe at the time, and unfortunately there were those who could not bear to keep working under these controls. Many left school to go to work, others just lingered to pass the time away. Their judgment has now been proved a false judgment, because we now know that in high school there was an important job to accomplish for our own benefit. Now our big job — to prepare to conduct our lives — is ended, whether done well or not. We are now about to be sent out on our own, to have freedom of action for the f irst time. First, we shall be free from bells that tie us down to a schedule. We shall have no bells to release us from a classroom, no announcements that there will be as- sembly at two o ' clock. No longer shall we wait for school to close for the day. We are beginning to realize that we must de- velop a keener sense of personal responsi- bility. Rather than striving for a passing grade, we shall be looking forward to a promotion in our work. It won ' t be as simple as being told, If you empty the baskets every day for a week, you ' ll be pro- moted. No. Promotion can only be won through our own initiative, and by hard earnest work. There will be no sympathetic interest in us, such as we found in the classroom; it will be our job to arouse interest. Our declaration of independence will mean freedom from enforced learning. No one will care whether we continue to en- large our vocabularies, or whether we de- velop an appreciation of literature. Nor will there be teachers who will warn us that they want to judge us well and can do so only if we learn certain principles well. We shall still be judged for our knowledge, but without slightest warn- ing — whether the judgment be well or ill. Such is independence — responsibility in- stead of routine, indifference from others instead of interest. But the members of our class are need- ed as independent citizens of the United States. We have passed our probation per- iod; now we must begin to do our share in helping preserve and improve the re- public in which we live. Of course, we cannot be legal voters for a few years. But in the intervening years, everyone of us can be training himself to shoulder the responsibilities of citizenship. We have, in our history courses, acquired the essential knowledge. But now, we must put this knowledge into practice. We have not learned how to vote intelligently, and will not learn, until we have actually experi- enced the effects of government by of- ficials that are worthy of holding office. We know the details of certain laws per- taining to hours and wages, but how can we judge their value until we have actual- ly worked and received wages under these laws? We can not talk critically of income taxes and government expenditures, until we learn to judge their necessity. There is only one way to do all this. That is by taking our places in the industrial and business world and determining the good and bad points for ourselves and, finally, drawing our own conclusions. If we devote the next few years to these comparatively simple tasks we should be able, when nec- essary, to fulfill worthily our first obli- gation of citizenship in these United States. We are told that modern young Ameri- cans are the most unsuperintended and the most unsecluded youth of all times! If we are to keep this freedom which is ours without condition, we have but one lesson to learn: Real freedom never con- sists in mere release from old restraints. A bird ' s first step to freedom is to develop and strengthen his wings. So it is with an individual. Freedom can not be won by killing a tyrannical dictator, and will not be won unless each and every one is able to take charge of himself. Without this (Continued on page 37)