Woodbury High School - Warrior Yearbook (Woodbury, CT)

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Page Seventeen ex-soldier of the German army gained recognition, and a band of followers, by delivering a number of fiery speeches. His band grew rapidly and many important men joined his party. This man’s name is Adolph Hitler. While delivering one of his speeches he was arrested and sentt need to jail. All his followers left him and every one thought that his party was doomed forever. After staying in jail for about six months he was released, and started forming hi party again. In times when business is good, no one will listen to him, but when business slows down, he can convert many people to his ideas. In 1929 the business depression offered an excellent chance to increase his party and Hitler doesn’t pass up any chances. His party gr w so fast that now he has over six million people under his direction, making his party the next to the largest party in Germany. If Hitler could gain control of Germany, the first thing that he would do would be to repudiate the treaty of Versailles. In this way reparations would be stopped and the eastern boundary of Germany could be changed. The next thing that he would do would be to do away with all large department stores and large business firms. Everything would be owned and operated by individuals, and wealth would be distributed more evenly among the people. The Jew is a public enemy of all Hitlerites and would be quickly expelled from Germany. The Jews are bankers and consider the treaty of Versailles merely a business transaction, and they expect to live up to their part of the contract. Hitler wants to cancel reparations and therefore one of his slogans is “Down with the Jews.’ Other countries are objecting to the ideas of the Germans. The more the Germans seek revising of the treaty, the more determined France becomes against it. Neither is Great Britain going to give up her ex-German colonies, or is Italy going to surrender Alto Adiege. As to the Polish Corridor (meaning Poland’s access to the sea made possible by the seizure of Danzig and part of Silesia, which formerly belonged to Germany) many people in Poland think it a decided advantage to abolish it, but the Polish government doesn’t share this point of view, and it has instructed its representatives abroad not to discuss the subject. The amount of the German debt to the United States has been reduced about two-thirds since 1921, and if another serious depression should take place the debt would probably be cut still further. It is only a question of time now before something will take place, whether it is a revision of the peace treaty or a new war between France and Germany. If war should take place, the destruction and ruin would be considerably greater than that of the world war. If the treaty is revised, any settlement would be the signal to unloose all the forces that menace the stability of Europe and such action would also be a definite encouragement to the extremists in every country. ROBERT FOWLER. “MICHAEL PUPIN, SCIENTIST AND INVENTOR” Dorothy Morgan. The great modern scientist, Michael Idvorsky Pupin, is a fine example of a foreign boy who came to America and made good. He was born at Idvor, Hungary, in 1858, the son of a stern Serbian herdsman and a pious peasant woman, who knew the scripture from beginning to end, although she could neither read nor write. Pupin’s education began in the little school of his native village, but soon it was noticed that he possessed unusual ability as a scholar, so he was sent to a school at Prague in Bohemia, where he remained until he set out for America. While he was at school in Idvor, he, along with the other boys, spent his summer vacations on the pasture lands caring for the herds of oxen. In Hungary, on perfectly clear summer nights the stars are so bright that the sky looks black by contrast, and on such nights it was impossible to see the oxen if they were more than a few score of feet away, but the boys could hear them if they pressed their ears to the ground. Because of this they placed their knives in the ground and by putting their ear to the handle they could hear every step of the oxen. Th n they estimated the time of the night by the light of the stars and by their position. Thus light and sound were associated with Pupin’s way of thinking even at that early age, and this was one thing that helped in his dealings with vibration of sound. These associations also led him to question his teacher “Kos,” through whom he first heard of Franklin, and his kite, and who finally convinced him that sound was the vibration of bodies. When he was at Prague he received a letter from his sister informing him of his father’s sudden death, after only a brief illness. Michael immediately wrote his mother that he would return to Idvor and help her care for the land, but she wouldn’t listen to it. He knew what a burden his schooling would be to her and he was going to try to relieve her of it if possible. Then one day he saw an advertisement of the Hamburg-American line, offering steerage transportation from Hamburg to New York for 28 florins, and at once he decided to try his fortune in the land of Franklin and Lincoln. He sold his watch, his clothes, and his books, to make up the sum necessary for traveling expenses. Finally after a few days of traveling hardships he landed at New York harbor. When it came his turn to be questioned by the immigrant officials he was very much alarmed. They asked if he had any relatives in America, and he replied that the only American people he knew were Franklin, Lincoln and Harriet Beecher Stowe. This amused the officials and he seemed so honest and so really helpless that the officials let him by because they were so deeply impressed by him. When he landed he had just five cents % . «|» • :• ► ❖ ❖ ❖ • ❖ • ❖ • ❖ - ❖ • ❖ • ❖ • ❖ ❖ ❖ • • » » « • « j» »j

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Page Sixteen Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness. Bareheaded Shoveling Wrecking Planning Building, breaking, rebuilding. Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth. Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs; Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle. Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people. Laughing! Laughing, the stormy, husky brawling laughter of youth, half naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.” This is a poem crying out against the evils of society. Many others of his poems have this same great purpose. His poems show a broad experience and the able use of his great powers of observation. Some of his poems are concerned with the beauties of nature,—poems of atmosphere. He shows much freedom in his choice of subject matter, and makes extensive use of naturalistic material. While his harsher poems show a dissatisfaction with the evils of the world, his lyrics show an abundance of reverence, faith and trust. And so, although Sandburg’s ideas of poetry may be new and strange to us, we are enabled to consider him a poet in the true sense of the word. A poem which typifies the character of the man is the lyric “Loam,” in which he expresses his idea of the democracy of mankind, in that all humanity comes from the same place and at death returns to it. It is only during man’s brief earthly existence that there is any inequality in station. And so he says: “In the loam we sleep, In the cool moist loam To the lull of the years that pass And the break of stars, “From the loam, then, The soft warm loam, We rise. To shape of rose leaf Of face and shoulder. “We stand then, To a whiff of life Lifted to the silver of the sun Over and out of the loam, A day.” Classmates:— After four years of work and play we have reached the goal toward which we have so long been striving. We are glad to have reached it, yet when we think that this same group will never be together again in just this same way our gladness is somewhat dimmed. To the faculty we want to express our grateful appreciation for the kindness, sympathy and forbearance they have shown to us throughout our High School course. In the future let us in our various occupations give the best that is in us, that we may reap accordingly. And let us always remember our high school days when we were “kids” together. LILLIAN F. HICOCK. Salutatory €s ay ROBERT FOWLER “GERMAN POST - Since the end of the war Germany has been faced with the problem of forming a new government that will satisfy the people in Germany, and also satisfy the other European countries. In addition she has had to meet the conditions of the treaty of Versailles. At the close of the war a republic was established with a president at the head and two houses, corresponding to our Congress. Representatives to these houses, represented districts according to population, and also territorial divisions. At the end of the first year, Germany was faced with the problem of making reparations of two and one-half bil- PROBLEMS” lion marks. In order to meet this, the new government had to borrow from foreign countries, mostly from the United States. When Germany was unable to meet these notes, her industries were taken over by bankers and business men in the United States so that now instead of having German business, run by Germans, it is directed by foreigners. There is a great deal of political warfare going on in Germany. There are twelve or thirteen different parties of which the Communists, the Socialists, and the National Socialists or Nazis are the three leading ones. A few years ago, an

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Page Eighteen ❖ ❖ •: • ❖ ❖ ❖ i ❖ • • • ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ • • ❖ • ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ - ❖ ❖ • §» ❖ ❖ • ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ in his pocket. He invested this in a piece of prune pie, which turned out to be a bogus—it had nothing in it but pits of prunes. What did this poor young immigrant bring to this country? Apparently nothing, but as he says, he brought “a knowledge of and a profound respect and admiration for the best traditions of his race,” and this he feels was his key to success. Pupin started his career in America by working in a boiler factory. From the boiler factory he entered a cracker factory and during this time he roomed with a scholar named Bilharz. Pupin entered Nassau Hall as a night student and was taught Latin and Greek by this friend, Bilharz. After he had finished at Nassau Hall he continued his studies, both at home and abroad. He first entered Columbia, then later he attended Cambridge University in England, and finished his studies at Berlin University. He is now professor of science at Columbia University. Although he writes a great deal he still has time to continue the deep study of electricity. Every chance he could get he experimented with simple objects, and in 1892 by the simple observation of bagpipe tuning he invented “electrical tuning.” At that time all mechanical difficulties had been overcome in the telephone but still it was found that when the wires were carried beyond a certain point, the sound became very indistinct. A scientific problem which no one could solve stood in the way of using telephones over long distances. For awhile this prevented any progress, but before long Professor Pupin heard of it and solved the problem. By experimenting with the problem of propagating electrical motion from one end of a long conducting wire to the other, Pupin invented coils for conducting electricity along wires. This invention was patented and is used by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, thus solving the problem and saving a great deal of money in transmitting sound over long distances. A foreign-born citizen of the United States has many occasions to sing praises of the virtues of his country which a native-born citizen has not. Such occasions arise whenever the foreign-born citizen revisits his native land and hears what his own people think of America, with opinions based upon European prejudice, and born of ignorance. Professor Pupin says that America is a wonderful country, full of wonderful opportunities, a country of wonderful men, and a country of idealism and not materialism. “American materialism is an invention of ill-informed Europe,” says Pupin, “but the European who has lived in the United States and has had the good fortune to catch the spirit of America, revolts when he hears this phrase, and he rightly should.” On the other hand Americans are too quick to criticize immigrants and not quick enough to praise them. Pupin deserves much greater praise than he has ever received, for without him the progress of the telephone would have been slowed up for several years. Furthermore in Pupin, America has one of the most successful scientists, (particularly along the line of electricity), and teachers of this age. He should be considered as one of Franklin’s greatest followers. America cannot claim him entirely but she should always pay him due honor for he has added much to her credit, in the line of scientific experimentation making some European countries respect American scientists more than they have respected them in the past. Dorothy A. Morgan. ♦♦♦♦ LATIN IS A LIVING LANGUAGE Barbara Isham. In order to prove this statement I must show that Latin is now living. When a thing is living it continues to exist. Surely, Latin continues to exist for we speak it every day. Every time you call the doctor you are speaking Latin because doctor is a word that hasn’t been changed since the Roman times. Every time you say you are superior to your next door neighbor your sentence is partly Latin because superior is another Latin word. Every time you refer to a cantata in which you are singing, you speak Latin because cantata is an old Latin word. Every time you see an animal you are seeing a Latin object because the word animal was handed down directly from the Romans. Every time you look at the pendulum of a clock, you are looking at an object with a Latin name for pendulum is a Latin word. Many other common words which we use every day are derived from Latin and in order to understand them better, Latin is necessary. For example, manicure comes from manus, meaning hand, and curare, meaning to care for, hence it means, a person who takes care of people’s hands. Tent comes from tendere, meaning to stretch, and it is a shelter made of some strong material which is stretched over poles. Fine comes from finis, meaning end, and it means a sum of money which is paid in order to put an end to a transaction. Secretary comes from secretarius, which means a keeper of secreta or secrets. These words are so familiar that people don’t stop to think of their origin. When you were elected Ceres of your Grange did you know what the title meant? Ceres was goddess of agriculture and mother of Proserpina. Proserpina was carried to the underworld and only came up at the command of Jupiter. Ceres grieved so when her daughter was in the underworld that all things died. This time was rep- i