Warren High School - Hilltop Yearbook (Warren, MA)

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Today this building is greatly in need of repairs. Fascism and Communism appear to be gaining a foothold in the world, When we realize that the personal freedoms our forefathers worked so hard to get are being denied under Fascist and Communist rule, we assure ourselves that we never want to be ruled by either of these two types of government. Very soon, we, the youth of America, will be the leaders of our government. We must prepare our- selves now for our future lives. We must not allow ourselves to become lazy about our duties as citizens, for when the people give up their duties and privileges, the dictator has the opportunity to step in and take over control of the government. Another duty of the youth is to keep well informed on current eventsg for to carry out our ideals we must have a complete knowledge of the political, social, and economic problems of our country and the world. We must build ourselves, as well as our mansion, to be stately and strong. The strength of a nation depends on the strength of its people. This is our problem. No one else can solve it for us. Are we going to build up, or are we going to tear down? After discussing the demerits of the Fascist and Communist countries in connection with the Bill of Rights, l can think of no better way to conclude my essay than to quote the famous words of Henry Van Dyke, So it's home again, and home again, America for me! My heart is turning home again, And there l long to be, In the land of youth and freedom Beyond the ocean bars, Where the air is full of sunlight And the flag is full of stars. r BIBLIOGRAPHY Weekly News Review Vol XVII No. l4, l2fl2f38 pg. 3 lbid lbid No. l9, lf3Of39 pg. 3 lbid lbid No. l7, lfl6f39 pg. 3 lbid lbid No. 9, ll! 7138 pg. 6 The Popular Educator No. 4 Design for a Modern Democracy pp. 298, 299 Scudder, Horace: A New History of the U. S. Butler, Sheldon Er Co., l884 pp. 246-250 Scudder, Horace: Scudder's History of the U. S. Butler, Sheldon G Co. l897 pp. l9l, 205 Sokalsky, G. E. How Long Will We Have Religious Freedom? Liberty Vol. I5 No. l7, 4f23f38 pp. 5, 6 Reynolds, Q. Unwanted ColIier's 2111139 pp. l2, l3, 28, 30 Bloom, Sol: The Story of the Constiuttion 7f28f37 pp.44-46 johnson, W. H. Build Thee More Stately Mansions World Horizons Vol. 2 No. 4 l2f38 pp. I6-l7-49 Bill of Rights Scholastic H7139 Wunderlich, F. 'lt's A Man's World In Germany Reader's Digest 2138 pp. 92-93 Mann, T. The Coming Victory of Democracy Reader's Digest lOf38 pp. 7l-74 Adams, F. P. The Freedom of the Press Reader's Digest 5f38 pp. lO9, llO Roberts, Stephen H. The House That Hitler Built Reader's Digest 5f38 pp. ll2-l28 ' ANNE NELLIGAN '39 WAS FLANDERS FIELD IN VAlN? Another Armistice has rolled around, and with it the eternal round of memories, some bitter and some sweet. Was Flanders Field in vain? To those who say No , What good did it do? , This havoc merely plunged the world into chaos, out of which it hasn't crawled yet , Flanders Field was in vain! In l9l7, three hundred out of the seven hundred enrolled students of Notre Dame volunteered. I wonder how many are alive-and happy. In l9l7, many others volunteered. Brave, weren't they? But they did not realize the true horror of war, nor did they realize what the outcome might beg if they had, one-half of them would not have volunteered. There was the idealistic group who went for patriotism, there was the romantic group who volunteered for the glory of war, but this is medieval. There is no glory in modern warfare! On the Western Front many geniuses died, men who could be put to good advantage now: scientists, great doctors, mathematicians, psychologists, and statesmen. My aunt's sweetheart, a professor at Durham at the age of twenty, a graduate of four colleges lwithout high school educationl, a genius of mathematics and sciences-he was one of all those Dluckv marines pulverized to bits in the Meuse-Argonne. ln l9l7, lthe Americans were already established in Francel the American hospitals had erected bases on the front lines, the Red Cross on the roof of a building was sacred, or they thought so. One

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Perhaps the most important source of reliable news is through the foreign radio. lt is illegal in Germany to listen to Moscow broadcasts, and anyone caught doing so risks being sent to a concentration camp. Some very brave people, however, in the secrecy of their rooms, turn on the radio very low, always cautious to prevent the broadcast from being heard in the next apartment. In Germany, Dr. joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda, has set up Chambers dealing with each aspect of cultural life-literature, press, broadcasting, theater, music, art, films. Membership in one of these Chambers is compulsory. Thus, l5,000 German journalists have become virtually official propagandists, and a deadly uniformity has settled over the press. Quite recently, a journalist on the Borsen-Leitung was jailed for life because he showed foreigners the type of instructions received from the Ministry of Propaganda by editors, the plea being that it was against the State interest to tell outsiders how strictly the German Press is controlled. Goebbels even attempts to control the foreign Press. Since he came into power, he has expelled from Germany sixteen members of the Foreign Press Association, the majority of them for criticisms which would evoke no notice in most countries. As a result of such censorship, the mass of Germans has absolutely no idea of what is happening in the outside world. l shall conclude this topic by quoting William F. Russell, dean of Teachers College, Columbia Uni- versity. Nothing pleases the Communists more, nothing advertises them so much, nothing wins them more converts, than violation of the democratic principles of free speech, free assembly, and free press. We Americans find it hard to believe that accused citizens lif they can be called citizensj under dic- tatorships are denied the privilege of immediate trial by jury. This thought takes me back to the days of the reign of the guillotine in France. At that time there was wholesale execution, without trial by jury, of the common people. We tried to excuse their behavior by using the age-old expression, They weren't civilized. This expression could just as easily be applied to the Fascist and Communist governments, for men are killed, or else thrown into concentration camps without so much as a reason for this action. Day after day we hear of examples of denial of trial by jury. In Germany, the jews and Catholics are thrown into prison by the hundred, without even the thought of a trialg in Russia, those who still cling to democratic ideas and ideals are either thrown into prison-or secretly killed without a trial. The right of a trial by jury makes a person feel that he can defend himself if he is unjustly accused. This privilege is one of the greatest factors in determining whether or not a country is democratic. l doubt if any European can realize until he has been in America how much difference it makes to the happiness of any one to feel that all around him, in all classes of society, and in all parts of the country, there exist in such ample measure so many of the external conditions of happiness, guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. To whom does this denial of the civil liberties of citizens by Fascism and Communism offer a challenge? Throughout my essay l have made reference to the fact that the Fascist and Communist rulers appeal to the youth of their countries. We must fight the dictators with their own methods, The denial of the Bill of Rights offers a direct challenge to the youth of America. Are we going to accept this challenge? Are we going to preserve our Democracy? Are we going to heed the words, Build thee more stately mansions? Or, are we going to succumb to the rule of a despot? That is our challenge! At this point I quote Dr. William H. johnson, Superintendent of Chicago Public Schools. As l came down to my office, yesterday, l paused for a few moments to watch some workmen as they labored in the erection of a new and beautiful building. Great cranes swung the giant beams into place high over my head. Tiny creatures, seeming no bigger than ants, placed brick on brick against a background of floating cloud. At my feet, other workmen sweated as they mixed the mortar that held those distant bricks in place. A hundred other people paused as I did to watch the magic with which a great and good idea unfolded itself into a creation of nobility and grandeur. ln direct contrast to this scene, let us imagine that we are in another section of this same city. l see a building, not a very old one. Several years ago this building was the home of a large and wealthy family. l am told by a passer-by that that family had mingled with an unsatisfactory class of people. The inferior drove out the blue blood. My new acquaintance further assures me that with the taking over of the property by the inferior family, the value of the property has decreased until today the real estate being worthless, it is being torn down for scrap wood. Let us come back to reality. ls the youth of America going to build up, or is it going to tear down? The house that l referred to in my imaginary picture was, in its day, very concrete. lf the building had had proper care, it still would have its mighty strength. Similarly, our United States has been built of fine strong materials-built to remain standing. lt is the duty of the youth of America to do the patch-work when repairs are necessary to keep our mighty building standing, straight and strong.

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November night a buzz of planes was heard. The enemy, of course! Every one else was in a dither, but those under the illuminated Red Cross were snug and secure. The bombing started, the next day members of a neighboring first aid station looked out. Somehow the sky-line was altered. They walked around: since it was their first experience with air-raids, they were curious. They came to a tree, it was decorated with legs and arms of human beings, well splattered with blood and pieces of clothing. A nightmare but true. More Americans bite the dust. This incident was related in the memoirs of an American nurse who was in the nearby first-aid sta- tion. This mere story will not impress many people. lwasn't much impressed, at first, but through personal experience, I have profited. ln Worcester State hospital there are the shell-shocked veterans-the after- math of beautiful manhood. The American Legion Auxiliary of our town visits the hospital every year with an entertainment. There was music. One vet sat there rocking back and forth, going through the precise motions of reloading a gun. When you get home, you are startled by the stark injustice of it all. In Rutland are the gassed remnants suffering the horrible agonies of tuberculosis. The Auxiliary goes here at Christmas. One visits the very sick men with cigarettes and Christmas presents. Some are so bad that they can scarcely talk out loud. They are appalled, two comrades had died that day. As the months go by, more and more die off. The overseas men who are not shell-shocked, who do not have tuberculosis or who have not lost an arm or leg or two, or their eyesight, have very bad nerves. I have seen some go almost hysterical if you should drop a pan cover-memories. Overseas men never talk about the horrors-memories again. I have never heard my father boast of his service, nor have I heard him say anything of the terrors over there . He was in the army in l9l4 and went to Mexico with Gen. lohn I. Pershing-and so overseas. He will revive all the funny stories but nothing of the horror of it. Not everyone has the opportunity to get the precious little of that awful battle as I have. A good friend of our family went crazy a few weeks ago-too heavy a strain on too sensitive nerves. He was a vet . Up the street, a few houses from us, lived a shell-shocked man from New York, who suffered the ravages of tuberculosis as a result of gas. He died last july. He suffered. He would always pace the floor, the street, wherever he happened to be standing, with a wild look in his eyes, an indescribable look of hunted pain on his face as he strained every muscle upward as if to draw away from that ever-present dread. Twenty long years of suffering! Each one a beautiful creation, subjected to that long time! l'd much rather die on the field. Flanders Field was in vain. If it had insured the world's safety for Democracy, we'd overlook the lossy but on the twentieth anniversary of the Armistice, we find the world in just the same condition, if not worse. Instead of Democracies. dictators grew out of the Warg depressions followed. What a hopeless dilemna. ln the event of another World War, I do not believe that our American boys will fight on foreign soil to be blown to bits, snatched right off the face of the earth with no mortal trace of their existence, for that is what it amounts to. We cannot afford to go to war and be among the rest to acquire a dictatorship. What we want is freedom, peace, and democracy, now and forever. We do not want another manslaughter. Flanders was in vain!! GLORIA HAM EL '39 M I RACLES Though the earth slowly revolves, there is never a day that passes without revealing to us the various majestical beauties of Nature. The long icicles, like crystal daggers, hanging down from the trees, the ice- covered lake. sprinkled with snow-diamonds, the sweet incense of newly-budded trees: the gentle waving and tossing of downy pussy-willows in the breeze, the faint chuckles and gurgles of a streamlet trickling through a meadow, the moon, like a silver-robed shepherdess, guarding the winking stars: the trees, in early autumn, waving their brighlty-colored tresses to the world-all these show that beauty is everywhere. FRANCES IURALEWICZ '40 PERSONALITY IN THE HANDSHAKE How few of us realize that many distinct types of people are identified by the manner in which they shake hands. First is the type who nearly crushes your hand. Surprising, but true, this handshake is not generally given by a large person, but is used by very energetic ones. Then we next notice the other extreme whose handclasp is almost clammy, giving you the feeling of having contacted something nearly lifeless, indicating a very timid type. Probably held up to most ridicule is the so-called society handshaker, who insists on grasping the tips of your fingers and lifting them high in the air before shaking. This is very formal and leaves a feeling of insincerity. A type not at all popular might be called the pumper, who after getting a firm grip on your hand, starts shaking furiously in a perpendicular manner. Then we sometimes meet the person who from a sense of superiority condescends barely to touch the finger tips. Not to be