The Pittsburgh Academy - Eagle Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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,X THE EAGLE Commencement Program CARNEGIE MUSIC HALL JUNE zz OVERTURE . Rocereto Orchestra INVOCATION . . Rev. W. E. Howard, D. D. SALUTATORY ...... R. Stanley Smith EDUCATION AS A NECESSITY OF LIFE SONG ........ Hilma Sutter of the faculty VALEDICTORY .... Sarah Naomi Plummer UTHE MODERNISTIC TREND TOWARD MATERIALISMN ADDRESS TO THE CLASS OF 1926 . john G. Bowman, LL. D. Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh SONG ..... . Hilma Sutter PRESENTATION OF DIPLOMAS . President Herbert G. Lytle BENEDICTION . , Rev. W. E. Howard, D. D. FINALE Orchestra THE PITTSBURGH ACADEMY ...Q-,. ,N .., x X i ll Forty-seven

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Q . I X THE EAGLE MY CREED OE YOUTH DEDICATED TO THE CLASS OF 1926, PITTSBURG ACADEMY BELIEVE in the youth of our land. Yes, with all my heart do I believe in the young manhood and the young womanhood of the nation. I believe in the splendid possibilities and potentialities of youth, youth's vigor and vivacity, virtue and veracity. I believe in our youth of today, and see in them a prom' ise for tomorrow. They will make the future, even as we are making the present, and even as our sturdy ancestors made the past. I believe that they will inherit all our knowledge, all our experience, all our industry, all our wealthg and, in doing this, it is earnestly to be hoped that they will not repeat our mistakes. I believe the youth of today need our love, our symf pathy, and our human understanding oi their problems much more than our carping criticism. I believe we should love and understand our youth in all their activities and enthusiasms, in all their trials and triumphs. I believe that the youth of today will measure up to the requirements of the future even better, perhaps, than we have met the demands of the present. I believe that a bright promise awaits youth for the fu' ture, and that at all times they deserve our blessing and a Godspeed to the goal. Such is MY CREED OF YOUTH. -GEORGE W. LYON THE PITTSBURGH ACADEMY Forty-six K ,f-v-l-- ...-,,, vg P I r I A l I ., Ii

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. 'Y THE EAGLE VALEDICTQRY Tlie Motlernistic Trend to Materialism In the past two decades the world at large has experienced an un' precedented trend toward materialism. This materialistic trend is of such vast momentum as to threaten the strongholds of menis highest idealsg and at present we find ourselves facing a possible complete innihilation of man's ability to appreciate spiritual values. By spiritual values I mean not religion alone but rather that happy faculty which enables one to see the beauty in nature, to understand good music, to appreciate good pictures: in short, that state of develop' ment of the soul which puts one in tune with things which, though abstract, inspire noble emotions in us and are motivating factors of right conduct. I - -.av i i :Zi ' P1 ' ff V., ' , I M, 44, . pq. , 'Z Naomi Plummer believe that the term spiritual values may be expressed in the three words4art, sentiment. and religion. In art we have the embodiment of all that is beautiful, such as painting, music, poetry, and drama. Materialism has eaten its way into modern art as a canker worm into the heart of a rose, NVe find its etfect both external and internal. Cn the outside we find an indifferent and ignorant patronage which knows not how to appreciate the beautiful, and worse, is unshamed of its deficiency. The artist, working from the inner circle of his art, claims he must degrade it to meet the popular demand or be doomed to utter failure and compelled to seek a career in some other field of endeavor, As the result much of our music is jazz, our modern poetry doggerel, our pic' tures wholly inferior to the old masters. I I have used the term sentiment to express in a word those iner sensibilities such as honor, magnanimity, reciprocity, and ethics. A well balanced code of hon' or will consist of the two major elements, loyalty, and chivalry. To be truly honor- able one must first be loyal to ones self which inevitably results in loyalty to family, friends, and country, or as Polonius says in Hamlet: To thine own self be true and it must follow, as the night the day, thou cans't not then be false to any man . Chivalry is that grace, which in men, prompts gallantry towards the opposite sex and in both men and women respect for old age. The Dictionary describes a magnanimous person as one of large wholesome soul who would not stoop to anything mean or unworthy, while reciprocity is the spirit of fair play which says 'AOne good turn deserves another. Ethics is the science which treats of mans proper relation with man for mutual benefit and gen' eral uplift. The attainment of these graces is absolutely essential to a true appref ciation of spiritual values, yet the influence of materialism of the present day threatens to make of this an age of shriveled souls incapable of and insensible to the beauty of this higher sentiment, By religion I mean that essential part of the human nature which knows that there is a Supreme Being to whom man owes obeisance. This knowledge, together with the realization of man's duties to the Supreme Being is the foundation upon which is based our system of ethics, and here again we have the tleadily result of niaterialisin. In our own America we have the much heralded contention between THE PITTSBURGH ACADEMY , N Forty eight Mmamai f' , LX