Woodbury High School - Warrior Yearbook (Woodbury, CT)

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or a fad”. After the publication of Noah Webster’s ’’Grammatical Institute,” the forerunner of the dictionary by the same author, they quickly rose in popularity. The one who could spell down the whole school was ranked second only to him who surpassed the rest in arithmetic.” Sometimes they were a community affair and .ill members of the family competed. Horace Greely at six years of age was the best speller in his town. Husking-bees were very popular, but were usually not very profitable to the owner of the corn, as most people came more for the fun of the occasion than to help their neighbor. The Connecticut poet, Joel Barlow, describes a husking bee: For now, the corn-house filled, the harvest home, the invited neighbors to the husking came; A frolic scene, where mirth, and work, and play Unite their charms, to chase the hours away. Where the huge heap lies centered in the hall The lamp suspended from the cheerful wall, Brown corn-fed nymphs, and strong hard-handed beaux, Alternate ranged, extend in circling rows, Assume their seats, the solid mass attack; The dry husks rustle, and the corn-cobs crack; Till the vast mound of corn is swept away, And he that gets the last ear wins the day.” The singing school was a later innovation and was a very serious occasion, chiefly designed to teach the young people to render the psalms and hymns in a better fashion. Later it became more secular and was very popular as an opportunity for social contact. New England was settled early in the History of the United States. Therefore, and also because we live in this section, the subject of life in early New England is interesting to us. We can better appreciate the privileges of citizenship if we realize the work that was necessary to found our country and make it a success. MARGERY BUTLER. “THE NATURE OF MONEY” A common mistake frequently made is that of considering gold and silver as the only commodities used as money. Francis A. Walker, an economist of two generations ago, gives this definition of money:— Whatever thing serves as a medium of exchange is money; no matter what it is made of and no matter how it comes to be a medium at first, or why it continues to be such. So long as in any community there is an article which all producers take freely and as a matter of course in exchange for whatever they have to sell instead of looking about at the time for the particular things they themselves wish to consume, that article is money; be it white, yellow, or black, hard or soft, vegetable or mineral. That which does the money work is the money thing. It may do this well it may do this ill, it may be good money, it may be bad money, but it is money all the same.” For people to progress, exchange of commodities is necessary. Nations which have had the most adequate means of exchange have prospered much more than those which did not. The reasons why money or a common medium of exchange is necessary are: (1) to overcome the defects of a system of barter, (2) to furnish a common standard for measuring values, (3) to furnish some- thing that will be universally accepted in exchange for goods or services. Barter is the exchange of goods directly for other goods. It is the exchange of one commodity for another. It is evident that the value of goods varies greatly from time to time and from place to place. Fur coats and bathing suits are good illustrations of this. It is difficult to transport all goods which are exchanged. Take for instance a farmer who wanted a wheelbarrow, but who had only a ladder to exchange for it. The task of finding someone who wanted a ladder and who had a wheelbarrow which he wished to exchange certainly was a difficult one. Not only was it difficult to find people who wanted to trade but it was inconvenient to carry around such things as the forequarters of a cow to cut off a piece or two for a half pound of nails or a yard of cloth. Today we measure values in terms of money. If we ask how much an automobile is worth, we are answered in dollars and cents. Very much more simple, is it not, than saying that a sewing machine is worth one pig, four geese, and three pecks of potatoes? Page Fifteen

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in Geneva. Miss Barton objected but was finally persuaded to go. At the time of the World War, the different societies were put to their greatest test when the co-operation of all the organizations was necessary to save many wounded soldiers and to diminish the sufferings of a great many more. The American society furnished 23,822 nurses, 54 hospitals and 47 ambulance companies; while at home the women of the country made supplies valued at 10,000,000. In 1920 the enrollment of the American Red Cross was 10,000,000 with 14,000, 000 junior members. The Red Cross goes about its work quietly, not seeking praise. We little realize that the organization is at work every day, both preparing for and helping at emergencies. It is Clara Barton to whom we are indebted for this society which has a very worthy cause and is an extremely valuable organization of which we, ourselves, can so easily become a part. RUTH BURTON. SALUTATORY ADDRESS “Early New England Customs’' In recent years there has been an increasing interest in the lives and habits of the early settlers of our country. The story of New England is particularly interesting to us. We all know the main incidents concerning the founding of our section of the United States, but there are sundry facts which give us a more intimate picture of the lives of our forefathers. In the early community there were several very important institutions. The chief of these was the church. When a new town was settled the first thought and first provision was for the meeting house”. The first structures were rude and uncomfortable. In spite of this fact, the people were very faithful in their attendance. The Sabbath was entirely devoted to worship and was frequently a means of social contact, especially during the noon intermission. All were busy in their tasks to make the community and the new country a success so the Sabbath was the only time when they could get news of the outside world. In the meeting house, the seating arrangement was very strict. In many churches there were from seven to fifteen ranks. The same attention to the service was required of all these ranks and the tithing man chastised all alike. This tithing man had also the very difficult task of establishing the sum that each family should contribute to the church. What a job” it must have been to select the person fitted for this very delicate position and then to persuade him to undertake it. The organ and the stove were long objects of controversy in many churches but both were finally sanctioned. The Sunday School was also regarded as a profanation of the Sabbath. Another of these institutions was the school. Stories of the little red school-house” are fam- iliar to all of us. As a matter of fact, a great many of them were painted a peculiar red color. Each town provided for its school by law and the teacher was paid by the town. There were very few books but these few served to teach all subjects. The alphabet was taught in rhymes from a horn-book,” a crude home-made object. When the New England Primer” was issued it became very popular and was used for many years. The school-teacher boarded round” and, though it did save money, frequently he suffered greatly. There are some amusing extracts from an imagined diary of a school master who boarded round” in a small New England town. For a week, three times an day, he lived on one gander, prepared in diverse ways with different accompaniments, which gander, he declared, appeared from its venerable appearance to have been one of the first settlers of New England.” This was supposed to have been written about a hundred and fifty years after the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. There were comparatively few amusements in the olden days. This was partly because of the stern religion of the New Englanders and also because they were so busy making their communities successful. There were few large cities, and while there were a number of good sized towns most of the people lived in rural districts. Here recreation was chiefly enjoyed during the winter months, when the evenings were long, and there were no farm duties to be attended to as there were in the summer. Two of the most popular amusements were husking-bees and spelling-bees. Spelling-bees might be described as a craze” Page Fourteen

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Money provides something universally accepted. The English Pound Sterling or the United States dollar is accepted in almost every nation in the world. There is no other commodity that would be so accepted. Pork would have little value in a Jewish colony, furs would have little value in the tropics. In fact the money of Great Britain and the United States is about the only thing which will be accepted the world over. The characteristics of good money are; general desirability, high specific value, durability, uniform quality, divisibility, ease of transportation, ease of recognition, and stability of value. For money to be good, everybody must want it. The general desirability of a good determines its value as a permanent medium of exchange. It is self evident that as soon as no one wanted money its value would cease to exist. Money must have a high specific value; that is it must have a high value in small bulk. The Spartans used iron money. They thought it best that none of their money should leave Sparta and to insure this they made their money so cumber-son that few people wanted to go abroad and take their money with them. The Spartans had little to do with other people and that is the chief reason why they never became one of the prominent peoples of the world. The early Hebrews used cattle for money and the Egyptians used wheat. A fortune in either of these commodities would be hard to handle. Even a shopping trip with either cattle or wheat as money would be a problem. Good money must be durable. Cattle and sheep were perishable, grain was apt to spoil, except in Egypt the country of practically no rainfall, and even the iron money would rust. Gold and Silver coins seem to be the most satisfactory in this respect. Good money must be uniform in quality. Every last atom must be like every other one. Furs, live stock, and even grain varied in quality. Tobacco was used as money in Virginia in early colonial days. There were however several grades of tobacco and one could not be certain which grade was being offered as money. Only the metals seem to possess this very necessary characteristics of good money. Good money must be divisible. The value of a fur coat would be ruined if cut in small pieces. The value of an ox, as a beast of burden, would likewise be destroyed by dividing the ox in parts. It it true that grain could be divided easily, but it would not be as satisfactory as metal even in this respect. Good money must be easily recognized. That is one of the reasons why gold is so suitable. Gold is recognized by its weight as well as its other qualities. There are few elements that weigh as much as gold and they are scarce and even more valuable than gold. If lead were covered with gold to make it appear as a brick of gold one could easily detect the fallacy by weighing the brick. The gold brick filled with lead would be much too light. One of the most necessary characteristics which good money must possess is portability. It must be easy to carry. You would all admit that it would be difficult to carry a pig and a cow besides several chickens and ducks as small change when you went shopping. The trouble with iron money in this respect has already been pointed out. Good money must be stable in value. All commodities fluctuate in value but gold probably fluctuates less than any other. The reason is that there is a fairly limited supply of it. When tobacco was used as money, people who loaned money or extended credit would be glad to loan when tobacco was plentiful, that is when prices were low, but were eager to collect their debts when tobacco was scarce and prices were high in terms of other goods. On the other hand the debtors wanted to borrow when the price of tobacco was high and a unit of tobacco bought a lot of goods, but when tobacco was plentiful it is said that they frequently pursued their creditors and paid them without mercy . If we were in financial troubles when on a gold standard, what would happen if we had been on a standard of which the supply was not limited. Gold has been the most satisfactory of the things used as money, because it is something which is universally desired for itself aside from its value as money. People have taken it because they knew it would have value at the goldsmith’s even if their neighbors refused it. Gold has a high value per unit of weight. Gold is durable. It resists chemical action better than the other metals. It is uniform in quality, it can be divided into units of various sizes and each of these units will be uniform in quality. It can be carried from place to place when necessary, and can be easily recognized. Most important of all, because of the limited supply its value is more stable than the value of any other commodity. Gold illustrates all the desirable qualities of money which I have enumerated. Money is that which makes possible the exchange of goods. I have used gold as an illustration because it seemed to be easier to understand. Gold is no longer used as money in the United States. We really are on a paper standard. I wish to quote again that that which does the work of money is the money thing . If paper can do the work which gold formerly did, there is no reason why it should not become our money standard. EMILY KLATKA. Page Sixteen