Woodbury High School - Warrior Yearbook (Woodbury, CT)

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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.

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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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Page Ten THE WIDE AWAKE The term, which signifies a garden of children, ’ implies that the education is primarily a process of development rather than one of mere learning, and this development can be directed by providing right conditions, and by the guidance of a person trained for the task. Froebel’s system is based on a metaphor found in the theories of Johann Pestalozzi-namely, the school is a garden in which the children are the plants. The teacher is the benevolent superintendent who studies child nature and contents himself with encouraging that nature to develop itself.” Froebel believed that such an institution as the Kindergarten was needed to supplement the home, since the child has needs during the period from three to six years which the home can only partially meet, and which the school does not recognize. These needs arise from the development of his play instincts and require for their full satisfaction, the companionship of children of his own age, and the opportunity for experimentation in larger variety than the home can furnish. The Kindergarten, therefore, fills the gap between the home and the school. That it furnishes a real basis for that of the grades has been demonstrated by practical experience as well as by more recent study of the child's development. Among the various needs of the child which the Kindergarten meets, tht need for companionship with children of the same age is one of the most important. In the home the child is too often either a monarch of a subject. In the Kindergarten he is an individual among his equals. In mingling with his fellow playmates he is stimulated to his best effort by the opportunity for comparing his own achievements with those of his companions. The joys of companionship are often interrupted, however, because the children are not yet acquainted with the laws of right conduct; but these are learned readily by the experience of losing favor with their playmates if they offend in any way. It is through experience that children learn that good behavior is the means by which they can secure happiness in their play and in their work. If this is instilled in their minds early in life it will remain with them when they become older. Many of the kndergarten exercises prove that right conduct is necessary for their happiness, but none more so than the games, because they are so largely co-operative. The games have many other purposes. Among these is the development of the physical side of the child. The period from three to six years is of such rapid growth that energy is generated faster than it can be used. It is for the purpose of affording the right exercise for the overflowing energy that the various running, skipping and dancing games have been involved in the Kindergarten program. Sihce these are necessarily rhythmic, they not only aid the children in gaining control over their movements but also become the means by which they learn to understand and express music. The Kindergarten children are often able to display much ingenuity by experimenting with the different kinds of materials with which they are provided. The use of cubes, prisms, spheres, and the use of clay is one of the means by which their inventive powers are displayed. They become inventors by expressing, through their hands, the thoughts of their minds. Nature observation and story-telling from a large part of the Kindergarten program. Not only is the knowledge of the children increased, but their vocabulary is also enlarged by means of careful observation of nature, and of their intimate surroundings. As they become familiar with different objects and actions, words are constantly associated with them until the expression of their thoughts in appropriate words takes place unconsciously. Story-telling and the children's reproduction of the stories are additional means by which language is acquired and the introduction of literature is made. It is through these various agencies—the games, stories, songs, the play with materials, and nature study, that the child is able to express his thoughts, to experiment, and to increase his knowledge and vocabulary. It is also through these activities that obedience, co-operation, and honor are taught, thus preparing the child to take up his work successfully in the primarv grades. More and more, psychologists realize that the critical years in a child’s life are those before he enters the school room proper. It is then that habits are formed, and character is developed. It is for these reasons that the principle of the kindergarten have been accepted in the educational theory of practically all civilized countries. —Jeanette Stone, '29. A Full Line of Spring Coods Now in— Ladies’ House Dresses Children’s Dresses Boys’ and Girls’ Suits Stockings of all Kinds Straw Hats for the Garden and Hayfield C. H. DAVIS Woodbury, Conn.