Windsor Locks High School - Herald Yearbook (Windsor Locks, CT)

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THE HIGH SCHOOL HERALD. 21 OUT OF SCHOOL LIFE INTO LIFE’S SCHOOL. What a world of meaning this motto holds for everyone of us! Four years ago when we entered the W. L. H. S. we were a class in name only, but with one common purpose; to-night as we meet here, having attained the goal of the ambition that spurred us on for the last four years, our thoughts carry us back over the past and ahead to the future, as we stand on the threshold of Life’s School. Life is a ladder—and every rung rep resents a step toward success: sometimes it is hard to climb, sometimes very, very easy to fall back a rung, but if we are to reach the heights we must endeavor each day to develop within ourselves the qualities which best fit us for our own proper niche in Life’s School. In order to be success¬ ful we must persevere and keep on perse- vereing to the end. During our school life we have worked together, played together and striven to¬ gether to make our class one that should bo worthy to be graduated from the W. L. H. S. Always we worked hard in School Life but there were happy moments also. What other class has left the school with memories quite like ours? During the last year we have been con¬ fronted by many serious tasks—problems of importance were before the world as never before—for the greatest War of History was raging. We became familiar with War Activities, Red Cross Work, Patriotic Rallies, and similar gatherings, young though we were, and in Life’s School we shall meet with many more dif¬ ficulties; but we have already learned that patience and perseverance will overcome the hardest obstacles. Our ambition will lead us bevond petty grief and strife to the summit where our High School teachings will manifest themselves in fruitful results. During School Life the problems we had to solve were difficult, in our opinion, but stop a moment and consider some of the questions that now confront and will continue to confront young people of our ages and a little older—the citizens of the immediate future. One very serious question, which must be settled and settled right, is the break¬ down of American transportation through war or internal upheavals. It was consid¬ ered a terrible horror in the Old World where bullet and bayonet slew their tens and hundreds but now hunger and disease are killing their thousands and tens of thousands. Unfortunately, the present conditions of the Western copper industry, for in¬ stance, will give you an idea of what will have to be done. Thousands of men in the copper districts of the Northwest are idle. In a few months they, like their European brethren, will be starving. Why?. Because Europe will not buy our copper. If we are to build up and enlarge our industries, we must have buyers for our products. In normal times Germany bought one- third of the American annual output of copper. The Germans certainly did not use all this copper for bronze monuments of the Kaiser’s ancestors. A larg« part was worked up into electrical machinery which was sold everywhere in the world. These electrical workers are at present idle and rioting. They have no copper. Our copper miners are idle and will be rioting soon. Who will be benefitted if these German workers die in riots and through hunger and disease? Will their elimination help our miners? If we want to keep our mines, mills and factories going full steam we must see to it that all the industries throughout Eurone resume operation at the earliest possible moment. Unemployment in Europe means unemployment in the United States, and idleness is the hand-maiden of red-terror. This red-terror is nof a ghostly spectre, a figment of imagination. It has bones, flesh and sinews. It must be checked im¬ mediately. before ' it obtains foothold in this country as it has in European countries. Last year the Supreme Court passed the federal law through which it was sought to reach the obstinate southern states whose legislatures had failed to adopt measures that would make it impossible for mill owners to employ and exploit young children. Now the federal law is coming back in a different form, but with it is com¬ ing the realization that not all children who work in factories are driven there by the poverty of their parents. On the contrary, the high war wages have stimulated the employment of children to such an extent that the Department of Labor has consid¬ ered it necessary to organize a special back-to-school drive. It is not a problem of underpaid and poorly-fed children toiling in factories, but of well-fed and overpaid boys and girls doing light work.

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20 THE HIGH SCHOOL HERALD. to develop that character we must always bear in mind the value of an ideal. An ideal is above price. It means the difference be¬ tween success and failure; the difference between a noble life and a disgraceful career, and it sometimes means the differ¬ ence between life and death. If man meas¬ ures life by what others do for him he will be disappointed, but if he measures life by what he does for others there is no time for despair. Our ideal should be far enough above us to keep us looking up toward it all the time, and it should be far enough in advance of us to keep us struggling toward it to the end of life. Our ideal should be permanent; it should not change; therefore it is im¬ portant that the ideal be a worthy one. Plans may change and even ambitions will change, for circumstances will alter them, but our ideal should never change. An ideal determines the character and man’s place among his fellows. Many labor¬ ing men have been able to support them¬ selves and many of them have been able to lay aside enough to gratify their ambition for a college course. What has enabled them to resist tempation and press forward ? It is their ideal of life. Not only must the individual have an ideal, but we mtist have ideals as groups of individuals and in every branch of life. We have ideals in domestic life. Whether a marriage is happy or not depends not so much upon the size of the house or the amount of the income as upon the ideals with which the parties enter the contract. In business it is necessary to have an ideal. It is as impossible to build a business without an ideal as it is to build a hone? without a plan. Some think it impossible to be strictly honest in business; some also think it necessary to recommend a thing not as it is. but as the customer wants it to be. Never was there a time when it was more necessary than it is to-day that bus¬ iness should be built upon a foundation of absolute truth. In the Drofessions also, an ideal is necessary. Take the medical profession for example. It is proper that the physi¬ cian should collect money from his patients for he must live while he helps others to live. The physicians who have written their names on the roll of fame, however, have had a higher ideal than the the making of money. They have had a passion for their gt.udv. They have searched diligently for the hidden causes of diseases and the rem¬ edies for such and they have found pleasure in giving to the world some great discovery. True it is also that political parties should have an ideal. No party can hope to succeed in a campaign unless its members have an ideal to fol¬ low and look up to. Our nation has its ideal; an ideal that has made it known throughout the world and which has car¬ ried it successfully through its wars and struggles. So it is with our class. Before we be¬ come members of Life’s School we should decide upon our ideal and follow that ideal through life. Having made our choice, we are fitted to go forth into the far-reaching depths of to-morrow. We should always work for success, remembering that it is attained by continued labor and watchful¬ ness. We must struggle on and not for one moment hesitate nor ever take one back¬ ward step, but push on and on knowing that some day we, too, may be looked up to as an ideal. No matter how many struggles and hardships we encounter during life, they should never cause us to forget that we must continue our journey in truthfulness and trustworthiness, and in the long run we will be honorably rewarded; for it is only the trustworthy man who wins in the be¬ ginning and end, for he does not become the prey of impending evils. Many young peo¬ ple starting out in the world sometimes for¬ get in the ambition of their youth that they must not undertake too great a task at the outset for if they do their efforts usually end in a complete and disastrous failure. They should begin at the foot of the ladder and gradually ascend it instead of trying to start at the top and finally landing at the bottom. Therefore, dear classmates, keeping our motto and ideal well in mind we are pre¬ pared to enter upon further duties in this life. We will be well able to fulfill these duties faithfully if we bear in mind that “Honesty is the best policy,” and that the formation of character is a work which con¬ tinues through life. Again, dear friends, we wish you to know that you are most welcome here this evening and we assure you that we shall always strive to live up to our highest ideal so that you may never be ashamed of our class, but ever ready to shower upon us your interest and respect. Anna L. Oates, ’19.

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22 THE HIGH SCHOOL HERALD. The present-day problem not only in¬ volves the need of keeping American chil¬ dren in school, but it includes the determi¬ nation to induce them to return to school and finish their education. It is shameful that autocratic Japan should be able to show a far smaller per¬ centage of illiterates than the United States. Illiteracy must not be the team¬ mate of Democracy. Perhaps some of you wonder what I mean by illiteracy. Well, in wealthy America it is a national crime— the inability to read and write. The schoolroom is the cradle of Lib¬ erty. and the ability to speak, read and write a common language is the mortar of national unity. As the fate of Democracy hung in the balance a year ago, so now the fate of European civilization is being decided for generations to come. A challenge has come to the people of our land and everyone must respond. The way in which the youth of America answer¬ ed to the call of arms in the recent war proves that the blood of the first settlers of this land, our Puritan forefathers, still flows in our veins; the spirit and courage of that little band which braved the perils of a “stern and rockbound coast,” urged us on to victory and will aid us in solving these serious national problems of to-dav. Perseverance will carry us through safely and help us to achieve success as we pass “Out of School Life into Life’s School.” Four long years have passed away; How we treasure the memories of school days. And when the burden of Life’s School is on shoulders And the heart is fretted with its care— When the glory of ambition moulders. And our load seems more than we caji bear, When our School Life is over and we go our different ways May our thoughts carry us backward to review these by-gone days. Teresa B. Rooney, ’19. CLASS GIFT. We, the graduating class of 1919, of the W. L. H. S., feel that we owe a great deal to the school that has been our home for the oast four years, and we wish in some way to show our gratitude and appreciation. As other classes before us have left with their Alma Mater some gift, in memoriam, so we have decided to do the same, hoping that the custom of presenting a “Senior Gift” may be one never to be forgotten. The starting of a “Senior Fund” has long been under consideration; it has been felt that there should be such a fund, made up of contributions from each successive Senior Class, and left in the charge of the principal, to be drawn upon each year for necessary graduating purposes. So to¬ night we are leaving in Mr. Jackson’s care the sum of - dollars, to serve as the beginning of the “W. L. H. S. Senior Fund,” and we hope that each year this fund will increase steadily, as classes con¬ tinue to realize that the things we do for others are the things that count. And so we wish you, Undergraduates, all success in the years to come. May you ever work faithfully and well, striving up¬ ward and onward through life’s school, with the view in mind that success is won only by those who work for it. FOUR YEARS. Four waves of that wide sea which rings the world. Broken upon the shore of eternity. Upon whose crests, like waifs tossed by the tide, We neared, touched, floated side by side, and now Sad is their murmur on the shadowy sand. And sad our parting as we drift away From happy, bygone, High School Days. Helen L. Groves, ’19. ACCEPTANCE OF SENIOR GIFT. Members of the Senior Class:— For a number of years it has been the custom for the graduating classes of the W. L. H. S. to present their Alma Mater with some gift. You mav ask—why present a gift? Just because it is customary, or because school life teaches us to work for others as well as for ourselves? Our school days teach us the value of sacrifice—we have to spend in preparing our lessons time and energy which so many times we would give to recreation if we were not working with a goal before us—to obtain an educa¬ tion. Something can never be obtained for nothing; and things worth while almost in¬ variably necessitate sacrifice on our part. Our parents sacrifice to send us to school, the men and women of the town