St Marys High School - Blue Mantle Yearbook (Milford, MA)

Page 26 text:

IN DEFENSE Of WORK OME day,” Bill said sardonically, ,f I shall be holding the whip hand. When I sit in with the Big Bosses and you’re one of my clerks, then you’ll do what I want and when I want it. This somewhat cutting speech was directed at Bob Burke who occupied the next seat to Bill Cummings in Room 2 at St, Mary’s High School in the small but thriving town of Midfield. They were exact opposites in habit, temperament, and dis¬ position. Bill was liked by everyone. He was more than well-liked, he was the most popular boy in school. He had a ready smile for everyone and everything. His teachers had great respect for his quick thinking and keen mind and if they did not notice the way he leaned over Bob’s desk and copied during examinations, of if they could not see that his homework was the duplicate of Bob’s, well that was their hard luck. Bob, on the other hand, was merely taken for granted by his classmates,which bothered him not at all.. He was a plodder, the type of boy who was always on time with assignments and though he wasn’t brilliant,he succeeded in getting slightly above the average marks by sheer effort and hard work. All through their school life Bob had been the one who had copied. Bill, who could absorb know¬ ledge more quickly than Bob, had always been accorded the highest grades because of his fluent tongue and his ability to influence people. On this particular day. Bob had rebelled and refused to carry his friend any longeri This is what prompted the former re¬ mark. Several years passed and one day in the office of the lar¬ gest business concern in. Midfield, two men were greeting each other. Evidently one was a clerk and the other an executive. Well, Bill Cumming’s old prophecy had certainly materialized. One detail must, not be neglected, however. Bill, the cheerful, sponging friend was the one who occupied the clerk’s desk, while Bob, the plodder, was sitting in with the ' Big Bosses.’

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can people will attain ever greater successes in political fields It does not only delineate and balance justly the powers of na¬ tion and state but as well the rights of government, and indi¬ vidual. It defends the integrity of the human soul! In other governments, this responsibility rests upon the conscience of its legislative body. Under the Constitution, it is part and parcel of the fundamental law of the land, enforceable by judges sworn to defend it faithfully. But, again, let us insist that the law recognizes our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi¬ ness, and the judges are sworn to defend them faithfully because God gave them to us long before ...laws. or a system of courts to de¬ fend them were ever heard of. Although the ink with which this venerable compact was inscribed has nearly faded from the yellowed parchment, its prin¬ ciples should be etched indelibly in the heart of every American worthy of the name. The Declaration of Independence sought to make the world safe for democracy, but the Constitution attempted the far greater task of making democracy safe for the world by encouraging a people to impose themselves the salutary restraint of the right use of their liberties. Edmund Burke has aptly phrased this idea: Liberty to be enjoyed must be limited by law, for law ends where tyranny begins, and the tyranny is the same, be it the tyranny of a monarch, or of a multitude, - nay the tyr¬ anny of the multitude may be the greater since it is multiplied tyranny.” AC

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7 book that purports to give a true view of the activi¬ ties of St. Mary’s would be lacking in an essential feature if it failed to say a word in passing, as to how far the Church and things religious,bear upon the life of her students. For St. Mary’s, modern and pro¬ gressive as she is, is distinctly a Catholic High School, never having sacrificed anything for the alluring advantages of the hour; the atmosphere of religion that has always enveloped her like a garment of light,, gives her a distinct personality of her own. So it happens that we, who are under her care now, are subjected to very much the same discipline from the religious point of view as were our predecessors several years ago. There are the daily devotions,the short prayer at the opening and clos¬ ing of class, and other practices which are really only a small part of the great force that makes for religious training at St. Mary’s. It is hard to define just what that power is. It is as subtle as it is certain, and as potent as it is concealed. It is in the air. It is in the tone of the place. The character of St. Mary’s is revealed by even a casual glance, for she has all the marks of a Catholic High School, St. Mary’s is an institution,and not one item of proper high school life, whether serious or gay, does she lose through her stand as a religious institution. Athletics and all that per¬ tains to the development of the physical well-being of her stu¬ dents, she does not and never has neglected. In fine, the force at work here centers in the making of character---really only an¬ other name for the process of education.This religious atmosphere is a synthesis of all the best forcc-s that human knowledge and ex¬ perience have found conducive to that end.The purpose of the Holy Father in placing every Catholic child in a Catholic School finds its acme of perfection in St. Mary’s of Milford.