West High School - Hesperian Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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we cannot oui-RRfii the world Since the beginning of time, man has fought man—at first with his bare hands, and later with clubs, swords, ships, muskets, guns, submarines, airplanes, rockets, and finally with the atomic bomb. In spite of the fact that some nations credit themselves with the power to produce better fighting men and materials, they have always met similar and sometimes superior fighting equipment. The man who first discovered the bow and arrow probably thought he had such a terrible weapon that no man dare attack him, and therefore he would end all wars with this new horrible weapon. Today science is advancing more rapidly than are our political and humanitarian associations; and some day there may be a weapon that will make the modern atomic bomb seem as old-fashioned and futile as the bow and arrow does to us today. There is no limit to the horrible weapons that modern scientists are capable of developing; and as long as there is fear of war, they will be developed. We cannot prevent war by the threat to other nations that we have the weapons to wipe them off the earth. In this new atomic age the big powers are not the only threat to world peace. Small nations, too, will be able to produce powerful weapons that can destroy a whole city, or perhaps a whole country with one blow. Winning a war will be a matter of who strikes first, not who is the most powerful. We cannot hope to keep the atomic bomb a secret! Since we had to bomb German scientists out to prevent them from developing it first, how can we prevent them from discovering it in peace? We have only one hope for world peace. Now is the time to make it a reality. After the next war there might be no America to talk about peace, to say nothing about keeping peace. Remember that the United States was once divided; the North was fighting the South just as the Allies were fighting the Axis. We found that civil wars did not pay just as we found that world wars do not pay. We united America after the Civil War; why can't we unite the world after this war? We found that the only way to have a peaceful country was to have a united country. We will find that the only way to have a peaceful world will be to have a united world. We MUST get along with all other nations, we MUST treat other countries as if they were states in the United Nations of the World. We did not become a United States by having each state armed and threatening the next state to keep its peace or be blown to bits. We united by considering not just our own state but the welfare of the country as a whole. Yes, we had arguments with each other; some states wanted unfair laws to satisfy their selfish desires; but we still stuck together—and developed a co-operative and peaceful country. Each state had to make concessions to the next state, and the world will have to be run on the same co-operating policy. Yes, world co-operation, not national arming and threatening notes, is the only way to a peaceful and united world. —Robert Tenney.

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C 0 n T E n T 8 B. Fay Mills—The World Has Become One City - 5 Marian Baker—How Will You Choose? - - 6 Robert Tenney—We Cannot Out-Arm the World - 7 Faculty..................................11-19 January Class............................21-25 Year's Achievements ------ 26 June Class ------- 27-36 Hall of Fame—January and June 38 Advisories -------- 39-43 Organizations and Activities - 45-51 Athletics....................- ... 53-63 Leisure and Play.........................65-71 Rabindranath Tagore—Gitanjali 73 Acknowledgments ------ 74 9