West Paris High School - Nautilus Yearbook (West Paris, ME)

Page 14 text:

SHALL WE. KE ARM ? The United States hasn't a defense large enough to hold the respect of aggressive nations and she must rearm to hold her place. The United States is a large nation but once, she is weakened other countries will look down upon her as inferior to them. Nations are much like people, in fact, they are exactly like people for it is the rule of the survival of the fit- test that governs the world. The United States would not be justified in not rearm- ing. What are the other countries doing? They are rearm- ing, why should not the United States. I admit that pre- paredness often brings on war because a nation wants to prove superiority, but why be the victim by not rearming. Leagues have been formed, alliances, treaties signed but to what avail. It is only human nature to want to be the stronger and no promise written or oral can survive in the greed for supremacy. To hold one's place in the world he must fight his way, no one will help him, for long, un- less it is to his own good and so it can be said of nations. Hitler, for example, has made numerous promises to the effect that he would ask nothing further but what has he done? He has gone on and taken what he pleased with other nations afraid to intervene because they were not strong enough. His promises existed for s short time only, then, they were cast aside in his selfish conquests for power. The World War was a war to end wars, it was said, but humans learn noth ng from war except more ways to kill more people more quickly. Will we be the innocent victim? One nation cannot oppose a score and survive. Is the United States so situated that she can ignore the rush for armament? Can she sit back? Forces stationed at Panama are not strong enough to withstand attack and to send aid would mean weakening our coastal defense. In other words there would not be defense enough to go around if any portion were attacked. The only solution is to rearm and rearm we must if we are to remain the independent nation we are. f The President himself hhsioutlined a plan for rearm- ament and the strengthening of our defense.

Page 13 text:

SECCJNIQLXIQI' SCHOOL EDUCPQFJON A common school education may be enough, perhaps, for a person to earn a living on, but a secondary school education increases very much the income of a person during his life- time. It has been estimated that on the average, everyday spent going to high school is worth forty-five dollars in future income. Years ago, secondary education was unthought of. A per- son who had completed common school was fortunate, and the people who had barely learned to read and write were in the majority. Later, in Grandfather's youth, the so-called nHigh Schooln came into being. It was held during the summer months while the common school was not in session and was at- tended by the more ambitious young men and women. It was de- voted chiefly to grammar, mathematics, and Latin. The school was held in a different section of town each summer. After a person had attended was considered able Gradually this it today. At first several seasons of this school, he or she to teach school. developed into the high school as we know many towns did not support a high school but paid tuition for pupils to attend a high school in some other town. Some small towns do this now. In our town we are fortunate in having two high schools, one serving the south section of the town and one the north- ern section. Although this is more expensive than operating only one high school, it means that many more boys and girls are receiving the benefits of a secondary school education. H. A. '39 l-lui .1

Page 15 text:

' 12.61, Wartime is a time of tense emotion and it takes but a little friction to set off a great explosion. Will a few lost lives be the cause of our entering another war, causing the loss of millions more, as it has in the past? We cannot say. It is impossible to predict anything of this sort in advance. We stated that never again would the United States en- ter a war on foreign soil but will we? We may not, true, but what about our own territory? We must defend it against invasion even though we remain neutral. It is the law of self preservation that justifies re- armament though we do not intend to enter war. There is the argument that forces could not be landed on our coast in sufficient numbers to harm this country, but this argument is ancient. with the high speed of trans- portion an air fleet could take over one of our outlying possessions and make it their base for attackg it would ': within striking distance. They could engage a part of our country while their forces were forming and cripple a part of our defense. This may seem like a dream but it could be a reality in the modern age of machinery. If we had a strong defense,would a nation attempt at- tack? They would not,but our country is too extensive to be adequately protected by the present defense. In brief, I sum up my whole argument by saying that we must rearm since, though it may not be aggressively, we have not enough resources to enter war at a moment's notice, defensively. ' V W We Ao '59 y y vt w ty,e l fggggiamn:wFMQ mk