The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1921-06-17
VAST GATHERING
GREETS GRADS
At AUDITORIUM
Twenty-Seven High Students
Presented With Diplomas
PRIZES ARE DISTRIBUTED
DIR. Petty of New York City
Makes Principal Address
And Evenings Hit


The high school auditorium was
wholly inadequate TO meet the de-
mand made upon it Thursday even
ing The occasion was the gradual
ing exercises of the nigh school
class of 1921 The program was
scheduled to open at $50 O'Clock.
but long before that time every seat
in the hall had an occupant. At $50
'ock the great room was crowded
aud the audience strung out into the
outer halls
Superintendent D. NJ McClelland
was the master Of ceremonies and he
acquitted himself with credit. Homer
II. Webster was elected to pass out
the plomas, and the Rev W. G..
Towart offered prayer The princi-
pal address was made by DR.. c. Wal
lace Petty Of New York City. Just
how the makers of the program hit
upon the doctor has not been reveal
ed, but In him they discovered not
merely one of those occasional class
day orators with line Of stereotyped
rhetoric but man with message
The doctor is a fullblooded Ameri.
can He's native Of the far western
planes, where real men and women
are developed. His breezy language,
his sentiments. hts engaging personal
ity, his keen wit would enthuse any
gathering. His Americanism has the
true ring OF democracy and none of
the nauseating hypocrisy so prevalent
nowadays In short and in fact, DR..
Petty in himself proved to be Il
whole performance,
About Family Trees.
DR.. Petty pays no allegiance to the
family tree rot His family, he said,
has none. lie had never heard Of
the thing. he confessed, until he had
visited at the home of a Philadelphia
fir end The doctor limited that his
own paternal grand father was sail
or who could not speak a word of
English. But the old sat could cuss
like fury in French His grand
mother, on the other side of the
house, Was a plain Scotch woman.
with no other pretensions that those
OF being keen house wife and a
good, hard working mother
The salient feature OF DR. Petty
remarks was his arraignment Of pres
ent day conditions. He said there
are no real leaders in any walk Of
life in the world today, BY way of
DEPRESSION. Bourke Cochran, speaking
/ in Congress the other day, observed
that the house of representatives had
50 deteriorated in the last twenty-five
years that its proceedings now can
not get as much newspaper attention
as the function of society woman.
Dr.. Petty says America today doesn't
! possess a single diplomat and that II
| President Harding, Secretary Hughes
and Secretary Hoover are statesmen
they must prove it first As to
/ Americas democratic Institutions, the
doctor directed attention to the nom
ination of President Harding, which,
50 the doctor said, was achieved by
twelve men sitting in secret in a
Chicago hotel
Japan's Smoke Screen
DR., Petty evidently is not an ardent
supporter Of disarmament. He de-
clared that Japan fuss about the
rights of her nationals in California
was merely smoke screen to blind
America while she exploits China and
the Far East. He said the pulpit to-
day has no prophets There are no
Beechers, no Phillips Brooks. AS
for current poetry, that is being
written on a type writer in Kansas
newspaper office and deals with barn
yards and maidens eyes, and is for
gotten almost as soon as it is print
ed. The world has no Mendelssohns
or Mozarts or Hadyns to compose
grand chants for the church. And
while this condition exists, the speak
err went on there never was another
time like the present when great
leadership was needed,
DR.. Petty complained about present
day snobbery. We hear too often the
remark, he said, that this or that per
son is a wop, a dago, a harp or Po-
lock. Remarks like these indicate
that the one indulging them is in
some way superior to the other fel-
low. There isn't one Of us, said the
doctor, but has a strain OF foreign
blood in our veins, II we 80 back a
little way, we shall find that our an
cestors, too, were foreigners The
doctor urged the members of the
graduating class-and his audience,
too, to abandon that foolish chatter
and to come down into the forum and
take the people by the hand. In this
way alone can America be saved for
democracy.
Glass Speakers
Other features of the program
we're: Essay with salutatory-Me
daeval Trade Guilds, Miss Valda c,
, Lyons; essay with yaledictory--The
, Ideal of Progress, Max H. Webster;
presentation of diplomas by Homer
II. Webster; presentation of scholar
! ships and prizes by Superintendent
, d. NJ. McClelland, and class sing gng.
The class standing came in the fol-
, lowing order-Max II. Webster Val.
; da c Lyons, Elizabeth NJ. Cutler,
. Walter w, Hollister Della c. Jepson