Woodbury High School - Warrior Yearbook (Woodbury, CT)

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THE WIDE AWAKE Page Eight POSSIBILITIES OF WORLD PEACE Perpetual peace can be brought about only by getting the real causes of war and taking steps to eliminate them. To get at the real causes of wars we must look back in history. England’s unintentional misunderstanding of our economic problems and conditions was the real cause of the Revolutionary war. The war of 1812 was caused by the desire for gain and the jealousy of the ruling classes inEng-land. The Civil War caused by the South's fear of economic loss or ruin, the South would have been willing to free the negroes if they had thought that by giving the negroes their freedom they would not imperil their economic growth and prosperity. They cannot be blamed for not wanting to free the slaves. The southerners depended upon the slaves to produce their only crop, that of cotton. Before the World War jealousy and fear of economic loss of power caused England to watch Russia more closely than Germany for fear that Russia would gain an outlet to the sea thru Persia. Italy for the same reason was watching closely the moves of Austria, fearful that Austria would gain a seaport on the Mediterranean by some deceitful move. We all know Turkey and Russia have always been enemies just because Russia wants an outlet to the Mediterranean and Turkey is bound Russia shall not have this outlet. These jealousies have caused and will cause many wars unless they are removed. The World War had many causes such as the ambition of the Kaiser, the desire of Germany for economic gain, the greed of the German bankers and their distrust and jealousy of France were the chief contributing causes. Now how can these causes be prevented? Economic need is the most important cause of war and this divides itself into three main divisions:—agriculture, commerce, and industry. Uneven distribution in any one of these three fields may start a war. There is nothing that secures peace so much as economic interdependence, so to create this plain commercial policies and treaties should be made between nations. These treaties should be minus political prejudice and most of all red tape. By political prejudice I mean that commercial treaties between nations should not be constructed on party lines so that there will be economic unrest every Presidential election. The nations should see that their commercial relations are not hampered by excessive, unnecessary, or arbitrary customs or formalities. They should revise customs laws with a view to simplification and adaptation to the needs of foreign trade and the avoidance of all hindrances to such trade. To produce economic interdependence the farmers should be advised on conditions in regard to the production of crops thruout the world, and a means devised to help the farmers of the entire world to find markets for their crops. This would create an international spirit and interdependence. You do not see us fighting Canada or making high custom tariffs against Canadian goods. Why? Because there exists between Canada and the United States an economic interdependence. Canada is more valuable to us economically than in any other way, that is why there is no war between us and if we create this same economic interdependence thruout the world the chances for another war are greatly reduced. Suspicion and distrust between nations can be gotten rid of only by the abolition of secret treaties. The manipulation of natural resources by individual financiers is a similar cause of trouble and the only reason we have not had war on this account is that the South American countries and Mexico have not been strong enough to fight us. The oil barons of the United States have been manipulating the natural resources of these countries for many years and today we have troops stationed in these countries to protect their property while they speculate to our risk and danger. The control of natural resources must be kept out of the hands of speculating financiers who point out mythological reasons for sending troops to South and Central America while the real reason is to protect their selfish interests. Jealousy between countries produces rivalry, hard feeling, and then war. To prevent jealousy we must be frank and outspoken and not try to evade questions when we are asked to explain our actions. A minor cause of war is the ambition of rulers but we have practically nothing to worry about from this source. We need not fear the expansion ambitions of President Hoover. King George. Hindenburg, Poincare or Kemal; only Mussolini is to be feared as an ambitious ruler and it is very doubtful if he would start a war unless he were sure that Italy would benefit greatly economically. We had better keep control of our ambitious bankers and brokers who are more liable to cause a war than any of the men just mentioned. So we find that the real causes of war are; economic need, or greed, jealousy and distrust between nations, ambition of rulers on a small scale and the ambition of our bankers on a large scale. Some people believe that our disarmament conferences are accomplishing a lot toward peace, but they are not because they do not get at the real causes of war. Their work is comparable to taking one machine gun away fro ma Chicago gangster who has four. He can still be as effective at his trade with three machine guns and kill his victims with as much regularity as before. So in the case of nations half hearted disarmament is of no value. President Hoover has become disgusted with these half hearted attempts at securing peace and gave Ambassador Gibson a warning to give to the Geneva Preparatory Disarmament Conference to the effect that all nations lay their cards on the table, have real reduction of all armaments and stop bargaining. Today our newspapers are full of supposedly master mind creations for the purpose of securing peace. These are the efforts of some fame seeking politician and do not go into the real cause of war. All they propose to do is to make some half-hearted attempt at disarmament or to stop using certain weapons in war, such as poison gas or submarines. This plan is the most hopeless for obtaining peace. What is accomplished by forbidding the use of poison gas in war? Does that make it any more decent? Of course it does not. It is true as

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THE WIDE AWAKE Page Seven Nellie Plungis Glee Club 1928-9; Basketball 1928-8; Class Will 1929. “She hath a friendly air and many pleasant wiles.” Nellie is a happy-go-lucky sort of a girl. It is easy to make her peeved, but hard to make her really angry. She’s just bubbling over with wise-cracks and jokes. Our chief delights are seeing her walk out of History class beside Erma Minor, and watching her blush in English. We often wonder if the blushes are all for Miss Sweet. You have to watch these quiet girls. Inez Richmond Class Reported Wide Awake ’27; Editor of Junior Edition of Wide Awake '28; Subscription Contest ’29; Class Salutatorian '29. And still they gazed and still the wonder grew That one small head could carry al she knew.” What will we do without “Inez” to help us with our French, Latin. History and Geometry? Never too busy to help someone else always smiling, always the same generosity personified. And you must admit that even if the W. H. S. cheering squad was a flop, it wasn’t “Inez’s” fault. Jeanette Stone Class Secretary ’25-’26; Class Reporter Wide Awake ’27; Assistant Editor of Wide Awake ’28; Editor-in-chief of Wide Awake '29; Executive Comm, of A. A. Vice President of A. A. ’28; Secretary of A. A. ’29; Cast of Junior play and Senior play; Leader of Subscription Contest '29; Basketball '28-’29; Glee Club '29; Class Valedictorian '29. “A mind that suits With this thy fair and outward character.” All hail! Here comes “Stoney.” Musician, dancer, honor student, tennis champ—what more can you ask for in one girl? Good looking. but not conceited, studious but not a “grind,” talkative but not “catty,” popular but not rushed, well-dressed but not vain—you say it sounds too good to be true? That shows that you don’t know Jeanette.

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THE WIDE AWAKE Page Nine General Sherman said, “War is hell. You cannot refine it. War is the same whether you are fighting with pitch forks or machine guns. War was just as terrible in the days of Julius Caesar when they used nothing but short swords and javelins as it is now with poison gas and submarines? The forbidding of poison g:i will not make war any nicer business for soldiers than it always has been. The only way to improve warfare is to eliminate it and remove the possibility of its occurrence. The Kellogg Peace Pact has been exalted to the skies by our newspapers as a harbinger of peace and has been ratified by our Congress by an almost unanimous vote, not because it was so perfect and valuable an instrument for securing peace but as one Senator who voted for it said. “The ratification of it by our Congress does not obligate or bind us to any country or they to us and it allows wars under five conditions; and by looking over the conditions under which all previous wars have started. Ifound no wrar was ever started except under the five conditions allowed by the Kellogg Pact so wre can still have all the wars we want and at the same time live up to the contract in Mr. Kellogg’s paper.” So we see that some of us have been deluded as well as Mr. Kellogg into believing that Mr. Kellogg has finally caught that much pursued thing— Perpetual Peace. Now what progress has been made to date toward world peace? Ten years ago Woodrow Wilson went to a broken Europe at the Armistice with the authority and step of a god and he presented the world with a great American gift, the League of Nations. Mr. Wilson bowed to no one in the world in knowledge of economics and international law but he did not understand human nature. His failure to confide his plans to the people of the United States before offering them to Europeans, made the Congressmen and the public of the United States jealous and they failed to back President Wilson in his plan for the League of Nations. But in spite of this over eighty-five percent of the nations of the world adhered to this plan and the League has done much service for the world since its birth, yes, a lot more than the people of the United States realize. The League of Nations although not perfect is the best plan that has ever been presented to the world for securing peace. Why is it the best? It is the best because it does not wait placidly for disputes to arise but is always ready to attend to any symptoms which might lead to a dispute. If you do not believe it. look over the 112 treaties of arbitration it has made in the last ten years and see for yourself. The League of Nations is able to get at the real causes of wars—economic troubles, suspicion. and jealousy—and prevent them from causing trouble. Let us see how. The League has an economic committee that is continually working on problems of economics for the whole world and watching for economic unrest so that it can be remedied before it causes trouble. It has a financial committee that has made possible the financial stabilization of Greece. Hungary. Bulgaria. Austria, Esthonia and other countries by securing loans for them and being responsible for these loans. The is of great concern to all nations. Few of us is of great cocern to all natios. Few of us realize that if all Europe were in a poor financial condition the United States would also be affected. This is inevitable. Poor financial circumstances produce economic unrest which in turn produces riots, revolutions, and wars. That is why the economic and financial committees of the League of Nations are of such value to the world. Suspicion and distrust is prevented by the League by its treaty book that contains all treaties made between members of the League. This book is open to the public and so does away with the secret treaties that have always caused suspicion distrust and wrar. The economic committee has studied custom tariffs and formalities thruout the world and found that discrimination in favor of one nation has produced jealousy. This the League prevents by having its members simplify custom formalities and have no nation discriminate against any other nation in this respect. The Health organization controlling traffic in opium and fighting epidemics is also beneficial to the whole world. It is the duty of every voter in the United States to become familiar with the League of Nations Constitution and the valuable work the League has done in the past ten years and then form his opinion. Do not rely on catchy and high-sounding but untruthful phrases of politicians who seem able to hypnotize us into believing most anything. Let us forget party affiliations and join the League of Nations with the idea of being frank and outspoken with all countries and when we join let us do so without adding unnecessary reservations to the treaty and thereby making our membership useless and questionable, as has been the habit of our worthy congressmen for many years, join the League without asking for concessions and make it possible for all nations to meet us on an equal footing. This is the only way we can create international sympathy and make war on a great scale a relic of the past. —Henry B. Partridge, ’29. THE EDUCATION OF THE CHILI) OF PRE-SCHOOL AGE Parents and educators are rapidly becoming aware of the fact that the education of the child of pre-school age counts far more toward the development of character than the training in later years. An eminent man has said, “Give me the training of a child before he is six and I care not how he obtains his education after that.” Another familiar saying is, “As the twig is bent, the tree is inclined.” We owe our present system of child training to Frederick Froebel, a German educator, who introduced the Kindergarten system in Blank-enburg, Germany in 1837. The real aim of the Kindergarten is to develop the child’s initiative and efficiency through training in selfactivity, by means of selected playthings, occupations, games and stories.