Somerville High School - Radiator Yearbook (Somerville, MA)

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O N TUESDAY evening, January 4, as the house lights dimmed and the audience became silent, the curtain rose on our annual Senior play. It was a comedy in three acts, entitled “A Good Egg.” The entire action of the play took place in the living room of the home of Dr. Clayton, in Drury, Connecticut. After seeing our classmates perform so well in their roles of doctor, mother, servant, burglar, teacher, vamp, and policeman, it was quite difficult to picture them back at their desks studiously going over their lessons. The presentation was under the able supervision of Miss Jackson, and the Senior class may well be proud of one of the finest dramatic offerings ever given in our school. Senior Ploy

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'TBju.Ji-|4i favor of the country and its leaders, they are safe. But let them utter one word against the regime, and they will be thrown into a dungeon or placed against a wall and mowed down as grain before the scythe. Even the newspapers in these countries are government owned, and therefore are nothing but propaganda sheets. Moreover the people are not allowed to assemble for any occasion except government celebrations or under govern- ment supervision. To provide against subsequent usurpation of individual rights by autocratic interpreters of this constitution, its creators further declared that no bill of attainder or ex post-facto law shall ever be passed that the privilege of habeas corpus shall not be suspended except in cases of rebel- lion or invasion or when the public safety shall demand it. The citizens of Germany and Russia, if you can call them citizens, denied as they are, these fundamental liberties, live in constant fear that their homes will be seized, that they themselves will be thrown in prison without any knowl- edge of the charge, and without a fair and open trial. We should get down on our knees and thank God that we are living in a country where a man’s home and belongings are in truth his very own. These are the muniments of civil liberty which have come down to us from the struggle of English History. They were included in the English “Bill of Rights,” and were written in our early state and federal constitutions. All the states recog- nize and assert these principles of civil liberty. We have here the very ideals for which the Constitution was drawn up, these are the ideals for which our fathers gave their last full measure of devotion. Among the ideals of American liberty, freedom of religion deserves to be emphasized. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” This principle was written in our Constitution at the very beginning of the first Amendment. It had been included in the State Constitution and in the famous Northwest Ordinance of 1787. This freedom of religion—a free church in a free state—our pilgrim fathers had sought in the beginning. They sought it for themselves chiefly, but they helped to find it for the future generations of their countrymen. There is one great factor that goes hand in hand with these rights. That factor is your duty and my duty to protect these rights for ourselves and for others. No more was ever said concerning this duty than these, my closing words, which were uttered by Abraham Lincoln in 1837: “Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution never to violate in the least particular the laws of the country and never to tolerate their violation by others. As the patriots of ‘ ’76’ died to support the declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and the laws let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor;—let every man remember that to violate the law is to trample in the blood of his fathers and to tear the charter of his own and his children’s liberty. Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babes that prattle on her lap; let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pu’pits, pro- claimed in legislative halls, and enforced in the courts of justice. And. in short, let it become the political religion of the nation, and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay of all sexes and tongues and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars.” Oration

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Class DAY, one of the most eventful and colorful occasions in our school career, took place on Friday, June 3, 1938. The program was excep- tionally well arranged and had as an addition to the usual reading of the Class Poem, rendering of the Oration, singing of the Ode, presentation of the Gift, and the planting of the ivy, a group of musical solos by mem- bers of the class, and the reading of class history. Much credit is due the Class Day Committee, consisting of Isabelle Whitney, Chairman, Ann Conlin, George MacDonald, John Correia, and Umbert Carbone, for their splendid efforts in making this event so suc- cessful. Senior Night was held June 3 in the High School gymnasium. The gaily decorated hall, the favors, good music, and refreshments were all enjoyed by the Seniors, who appreciated the work of the Committee, headed by Dexter Locke, with Janet Flint, Alfred Duca, John Riley, and Ruth Cooke as assistants. Class Day and Senior Might