you born american baby you born citizens of the united states free and with rights guaranteed by the constitution but let's take a closer look at these new arrivals in a typical american town have equal legal rights in splats they are not equal at all each has a social status added onto him by his family ascribed to him at birth guilford aims third the latest addition to one of the town's upper class families name second is the wealthiest man in town he owns a large factory the amy is one of the oldest families in the community and so it represents as well as well this is where an ames family has lived for the last hundred years and this is where gopher dames third will live like most of the babies their best one theodore by name has  ascribed status of middle class his father is joseph eastwood high school educated and a white collar worker in the ames factory he has a steady skillful job and is comfortably off but the chances are that he will not advance much beyond his present the mortgage on his house is on its way to being paid and someday it undoubtedly  david's father is michael but an unskilled factory worker who has a meager education bowden rents the upper floor of a two family house in a rundown section of town gen group and these very geographically and in relation to nationality religion and race class exists in the united states as it does everywhere and it plays a vital part in the life of every community let us follow the lives of these three babies and see how class  eighteen years later gil ted and dave are in the graduating class of the town's high school after the commencement exercises the three boys were good friends to meet to say goodbye next fall gill and ames is going to attend an ivy league university who took a commercial course in high school plans to get a white collar job like his father's dave is going to work too so that he can add to his family's income friends forever late said well maybe in a way that these boys come from families of different classes and the lines of social class are real here in america as they are everywhere in europe in asia and even in the soviet union as the years pass class boundaries will separate gale and  boundaries between ted's middle class parents and dave's lower class parents are as important as those that live between the upper and the middle class even the simple event of graduation from high school has a different significance for the boys and their families is only a milestone in its formal education later that night mr ames has a serious talk with his son mr ames tells go that he sent him to public high school so that he could gain a but now he's about to enter an environment more in keeping with his social position at college he will meet many of his own time he'll understand because already has developed an awareness of his class it's patterns and its ru in another part of town the east would have just finished dinner and mr eastwood is talking with ted about his plans for the future ted's record in high school was generally good but there was one subject in which he excelled drawing ted would like to do something professionally in the art field but his father discourages him in the light of mr eastwood's own experience security lies in business and white collar work ted sees his father's point of view and agrees that the commercial course as he took in high school have prepared him for office work and so that's the kind of job he'll look the benton household graduation from high school is an event where the of celebration and a family party and dave's honor is in pro mr boughton proudly announces to the guests that dave has already gone out and found himself a job in the benton family and among their neighbors economic pressures are important days initiative and finding work is highly regarded by all of them and his parents are justifiably pro four years later dave twenty two now has a job at a local gas station although he's still only a gas station attendant he's studying to be an automobile mechanic the driver of the car is as old friend of high school days go a nice deal as graduated from college now and is on his way to start work in his father's factory dave is going to be married just as soon as his job of auto mechanic comes through gills first day of organised father's factory turned up still another familiar face ted eastwood has a job in the bookkeeping department mr ames is taking his son on a tour of all the departments of the factory someday gil will take over the business and today he's beginning to learn about it what's keeping you here anyway merry blakeslee you thought you'd marry her but remember what she said that day in the car her car of course  it's not just money we live in different where sure different worlds inside this town but there are other worlds bigger towns you've got some money save go to new york give it a try for six months and if you fail only you're not going to fail and ten didn't think he had talent and the ability to work hard he started with a job in the art department of a large number tithing agency they called him a production assistant but actually  was a sort of a glorified errand boy but at least he was through with books and close to the kind of work he liked he took courses in commercial art and advertising and spent a good deal of his prey time working and studying at home in the years that followed ted gained of thorough technical knowledge of his feet by the time he was thirty years old he was the head of the art department of an advertising agency horizontal mobility moving from one place to another has resulted in vertical mobility a movement upward from his ascribe status to and a change status that is largely the result of his professional standing class lines are drawn differently and a large city like new york although they are here professional standing power and wealth are of great importance it is possible for members of socially prominent family theater people who may have come from the lower class and successful businessmen of the middle class to mix socially and ted is an accepted member of the group but when ted returns to his hometown on a vacation how does he face as he and you achieve status back where to when he meets the girl he wanted to marry have things changed the town is small enough so that mary has heard about ted success in new york but this isn't new york and mary is married to gil now and although they are friendly enough toward ted he still isn't part of their world and he never will be in this town the ascribed status of his parents is still the class to which he belong mother brings him up to date on all the town gossip but he only half years or a meeting with mary has stirred old memories and if he's remembering what she said to him about different world he knows now that to her and gil he's still the nice kid from the wrong side of the railroad track no matter how successful he is his achieved status is higher than that of his fathers because he has a profession but that status depends on a place in this case new york financially he will be able to provide better for his wife and children is third child a son was born in the local hospital just yesterday own father did stay in the class to which he was wrong is vertical mobility will depend greatly upon him his character his talent and ability will possibly depend too upon geographical mobility because the cries area for class boundaries vary from place to place and so it will be for all these babies all sitters