Woodbury High School - Warrior Yearbook (Woodbury, CT)

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rate. The British and Dutch finally sold the accumulated rubber at a very low price. Canadians, later, tried a similiar experiment with wheat with the same results. Our own Farm Board in guaranteeing to the farmers a certain price for their wheat have only encouraged the farmer to raise more wheat and increase the surplus which in turn decreased the price. This raised the amount that the Farm Board had to pay to the farmer, and took money from other classes of society to keep farmers producing a commodity for which there was less and less need. Insurance will not prevent depressions any more than it will prevent fires, accidents or death; it merely distributes the losses evenly so that they do not affect any one person too severely. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the Farm Board may act as insurance companies but they may become merely devices by which the government keeps financially unsound corporations and industries in business at its own expense. Work, such as reforestation, conservation of natural resources, and a public building program may help in times of depression, providing it is creative work. That is, if it is work that would have to be done at some time later, and the wealth produced supplies a real and permanent demand. Shorter working hours may help to distribute labor among the unemployed, but if the hours are too short the employee will not produce enough wealth to get paid enough wages to support himself. The prevention of depressions, therefore, is quite remote. If we would but realize the inevitable workings of the law of supply and demand and realize that the main cause of our economic difficulties is the fundamental weakness of human nature, we would go a long way towards solving our problems. If we are going to prevent anything from happening, we must first remove the causes. When the same amount of intelligence is applied to problems of economics as has been applied to medicine or the other sciences then we may hope for a solution of our present problems. Until that time the best thing we can do is to prevent ourselves from being deluded by false hopes. - SALUTATORY ADDRESS Sigurd Lovdal Luther Burbank Luther Burbank was the first man who devoted a whole lifetime to the production of entirely new plants and fruits, and the improvement of older varieties. In his work of horticulture he reigns supreme, for no man had, up to the time Burbank began his work, dreamed of doing what Burbank has accomplished. To the study and improvement of plants, Burbank is what Faraday is to electricity. Leading scientists and biologists of the day claimed that no new species of plant could be formed, but Burbank defiantly contradicted these statements by producing several entirely new species of trees, berries, and fruits which had n-ver been seen by man. He did this by successfully cross pollinating different species of plants. (Hybridization.) Luther Burbank was born in Lancaster, Mass., March 7, 1849. From Scotch ancestry on his mother’s side, he developed an ardent love for flowers, and from English ancestry on his father’s side, he developed an intense love for learning. However, as his parents were poor, he had to work at an early age, and could only attend a nearby academy for a few months each year. While he was working in a factory, Burbank invented a machine which did away with the work of s;x men. He could have become an inventor, but, disregarding the advice of friends, he started a truck gardening and seed raising farm. While working in this garden, he discovered and planted a potato seedball. From the seedball came the famous Burbank potato, which saved the world millions of dollars, because at that time a potato famine was at hand. The discovery of this potato greatly inspired Burbank to take up the work of horticulture. When Burbank was twenty-five years old, he moved to Santa Rosa. California, where he started a nursery. In a few years, when this nursery was netting him $ 10,000.00 a year, he decided to give it up and devote all his time toward the improvement and establishment of new plants, for the benefit of mankind. It was at this experimental farm in Santa Rosa that he has conducted wonderful experiments in the improvement of plant life. He has aided nature in doing what she could not accomplish Page Thirteen

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of human nature. Nature has given all animals, including man the instinct of self-preservation; the urge to look after oneself first. This usually expresses itself in selfishness and is the main cause of trouble. Everyone wants to gain wealth without working for it. Since wealth must be produced by someone, people try to get rich at the expense of someone else. For this reason they engage in wild speculation. They water stocks, and practice questionable kinds of advertising. Manufacturers and farmers produce all they can although they know that the market cannot absorb the total production; they do not care as long as they can sell their goods at the highest possible price. Yet when someone becomes financially unsound they find with alarm that their trade is affected. Unrestrained speculation develops a mob psychology that creates fictitious values. People come to the conclusion that a stock is good because they see others buy it. They, therefore, rush to buy it without investigating its earning power. The supply of the stock is limited and the demand is great. The price rises to fabulous heights. The illusion keeps on until some stockholder calmly reasons out the situation and com s to the conclusion that the stocks are not worth the price asked for them. He hurries to sell his shares even at a lower price than they are quoted. If enough stock-holders do this the price drops sharply and everyone stampedes to get rid of their stock. A crash takes place and the price of stocks drops to less than their real value. The corporation issuing the stock finds that it cannot attract investors, their capital drops, and they discharge employees. Then there is a period of business stagnation, followed by a slow recovery and normal times again. But man never learns from such experiences and repeats his mistakes again and again. Speculation itself, however, is not necessarily an evil. The experienced speculator investigates the earning power of the stock and pays only the price that the stock is really worth. Thus, if only experienced speculators bought stock, the result would be to stabilize prices, rather than upset them. It is the small investor with a desire for making profits and little or no knowledge of the stock he is buying, who creates a demand that cannot be permanent, and sends the price of stock up beyond where it should be. How impossible it is to evade the law of supply and demand is soon evident to all beginning students in economics, but rarely, if ever, to pol- iticians and those entrusted • with law making powers. Whenever a considerable surplus of a commodity is produced, the surplus is stored. The manufacturer, finding that he cannot sell his goods, closes his plant until the surplus is used up. His employees, finding themselves without money, buy less goods than formerly. Others industries selling to these employees are affected and have to lessen their production, and the number of unemployed is consequently increased. The farmers, finding that the factory workers have little momy, have to lower their prices for food. As the unemployment continues and the production of farm products is not lessened, prices have to drop still further. The farmer then finds it hard to pay his taxes, mortgages, interest or loans. Thus everyone suffers by unemployment in industry. If our politicians seek relief in a high tarriff, other countries cannot sell their goods here, and consequently have less money to buy goods and the depression spreads beyond the limits of our country. There have been many cures proposed for depression. Socialism and Communism have been proposed to replace Capitalism. The ideals of these systems are very worthy but they will work only in theory. They assume that an individual will work as hard for the state or nation as he will work for himself. This is not true because of the innate selfishness of human beings. If there is no personal incentive to work, everyone will try to dodge their share of work and responsibility. Russia has succeeded so far because the people have been kept in a state of patriotic fervor by their leaders. The very bad treatment which they received from the government under the Czar and the hostilities of other countries since then have made it much easier to keep the Russian workers in the proper frame of mind. The return of beer and the repeal of the 18th Ammendment are no cures for a depression for the simple reason that they do not affect the causes. The manufacturer of beer may raise the price of grain for the time being, but other countries without prohibition have suffered more from the depression than the United States. Prices cannot be fixed by legislation. The Dutch and British controlled the total production of rubber a few years ago. They stored up their rubber and refused to sell except at an exceedingly high price. People everywhere began economizing on rubber or using substitutes. Meanwhile rubber was still being produced at a great Page Twelve

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alone. He has bred plants for beauty, hardiness, and adaptation, size, quick growth, better food, new food, color, perfume, quality, quantity, and other numerous factors. At the time of his death, Burbank had over 3,000 experiments under way, and was growing over 5,000 distinct botanical specimens of plants from many parts of the world. He carried on this work on an enormous scale, and each year raised over one million plants for testing purposes. Some of Burbank’s important experiments include: The development of pitless plums and prunes; a new potato; an entirely new fruit: the plumcot; two entirely new berries: the Phenomenal” and the Primus” berry; a thornless, edible cactus plant; two new fast growing forest trees; frost resisting fruit trees; the improvement of several species of flowers; and new and improved varieties of pears, apples, quinces, peaches, apricots, walnuts, chestnuts, and berries. Burbank’s principle of work was: How may the greatest good be done to the greatest number of people? His experiments were the forerunners of all the agricultural experiments which deal with horticulture. He had to form his own laws and theories in regard to cross breeding and hybridization of different varieties of plants. He showed the fallacies of old laws established by other people who worked on a minor scale, and established new laws of his own. Burbank was a special lecturer at Leland Stanford, Jr. University, and a member of many scientific and horticultural societies in the U. S. and Europe. His death removed from active service one of the greatest benefactors of humanity that the world has ever known. CLASS HISTORY Elizabeth Dana Martin Our class had twenty-seven members when we began school as Freshmen one September morning in 1929. No one can remember whether the weather was rainy, or sunny, as it is on most first days. Our teachers were Miss Clark, Miss Sweet, Mr. Munsell, Mr. Clark and Mr. Coombs, our Principal. Miss Clark started teaching Latin to three of us, all girls. We were soon joined by three others who thought the story we were reading sounded interesting. Miss Sweet soon expressed a desire to spank some of us, but we never heard that she satisfied her longing. Mr. Clark began teaching some of the boys how to be successful farmers. Mr. Coombs taught us Algebra and what pains we did have that year. We laid them to the Math, but perhaps they were growing pains. We elected our class officers: President, Helen Belz; Vice-President, Maude Eyre; Secretary, Irene Hoyt; Treasurer, Raynall Coley. These officers were very satisfactory, although there was not much for them to do, due to the fact that our class did not seem socially inclined during our Freshman year. Before the end of the year we lost two members, John Armon and Frank Marino. We started our Sophomore year with twenty-three members. We had lost three more at the end of our Freshman year: John Gudzunas, David Perilman and Ruth Smith; but Russell Coburn returned from Rhode Island and David Apple-ton came from Indiana. Our teachers were Miss Clark, Miss Sweet, Miss Jagger, Mr. Coombs and Mr. Clark. Miss Jagger took the place of Mr. Munsell who had accepted a position at Stores. She left us in the middle of the year because of illness. Miss Lois Harvey was our substitute teacher until Miss Brucker came. On Valentine’s Day our English teacher, Miss Sweet, became Mrs. Coombs, by marrying our Principal. We elected our class officers for that year— President, Russell Coburn; Vice-President, Stanley Lusas; Secretary, Maude Eyre; Treasurer, Sigurd Lovdal. We planned to have a sleighing party or a skating party that winter but the weather always changed on the day which we had designated. When the class ring salesman came Maude Eyre and Russell Coburn selected five rings. We voted on the ring we wished and Russell Coburn, Raynall Coley and Margaret Smith were chosen as a committee to select the colors for them. Helen Belz, because of illness in her home, missed about a month of school in the spring. Arthur Wight left us, preferring farm work. Edward Gilbert and Robert Smith also left. On March 4th and 5th our class was represented by Russell Coburn in the Senior play, The Worm.” The Glee Club gave a concert. The last two classes who have graduated have claimed that the success of the whole affair was due to the representatives of their classes who sang in the Page Fourteen