Evening star., 1932-12-25
BY DANIEL ROBERT MAUE.

BY DANIEL ROBERT MAUE.
The transient American youth is a
solitary figure moving through the dawn
of another phase of American economic
life. He is a pioneer in the movement
toward a period of reduced material
ism. That is his true significance.
Any one who knows him as he goes,
sometimes painfully, sometimes care
freely, in a mode CT life all his own,
must hesitate in trying to see him col
lcctively. UnOr2anized himself, he can
not be met as yet with organization.
Stanchly, mcomplainingly and in
great number he maintains individu-
alty through the route he elects to fol-
lew because there is for him or his
family no employment. He must be
active. In all justice to him, it must
be added that he wishes to go forward,
if only intellectually
He sinks his personal pride in favor
of social pride. He has bare subsist-
ence. He asks only food and shelter.
Frequently the young fellow is victim
lied by worse evils than bad economics.
He is no longer boy. Still boyish, he
has been sloughed off from home or
school life into the circumstances of
h,tch-travel that mature him rapidly.
Considcrate of Others.
His consideration for others must not
be discounted Frequently this alone
has set him rowing the 48 States, where
he finds the bare essentials of existence
in his direct-to-c type OF char
lty. Again. his elders, his friends. his
teachers, his parents have failed to un-
derstand perpleXed youth, and thus
have driven him from home INTO the
physical and moral hazards of tran
sientism.
All circumstances considered, he re-
mains amazingly stanch and coura-
geous. His one imperative need, aside
from food and shelter, must be filled
by others than himself.
I have been watching and talking
with this hitch-traveling youth more
than two years. I have been studying
him as a personality. And hnally. l
have Just returned from motoring with
him. from living in his camps and from
litching freight trains with him. The
stuff of him leaves me his champion.
If I know him at his lowest, I also
know him at his highest.
I have reported in detail. so far as
neWSprint will permit, his MODE OF lie
and his personality. My cross-sectlon-
ing of him has been patiently. metlcu-
lously worked out, for my attempt at
understanding a great number through
study of the individual brought me
amazing amounts Of valuable material.
Bedrock of Character.
The hitch travelling youth is writing
his own important human document
important from the side of its degraca-
ton. to be sure but more important
from the standpoint of true character
found beneath the rough exterior OF an
economically beset young male.
When during my coast-to-coast
travels I walked behind figure strug-
Cling through the snow, or when l saw
others bruised in body and spirit by
the freight car Wallops. 1 experienced
an odd trick of memory. This all
seemed familiar. Had [ not known
these very same figures, these very
same trials at some earlier time? Days
later I would know where I had seen
them.
At the battle front of course! There,
too. young men toiled through the
hardship and danger OF scant days
They went also in large measure
blindly. They had had ambitions.
The e bad had hop And The n9w had on ese
battle line or the march, they tolled
ceaselessly-to the drowning of mental
torture in their own physical agony.
A hitch travellers blistered foot or
the grated bottom Of refrigerator car
mon?entarily overcomeS both memory
of the past and thought of the future.
And even as war Gays brought out
both the lowest and the best OF the
man. SO does hitch travel bring out the
lowest and the best sides of the youth.
Boy Only in Years.
He is no longer boy except in years,
despite the reports of the welfare So
cieties. They do not touch him in his
greater finer number. He has not
liked them because they continually
touch the quick Of his pride. They
have perhaps unconsciously maligned
him. They have been too busy in the
attempt to see him as a mass.
Sometimes, to be sure, when the
young fellow is pressed by too stern
necessity. he goes to a welfare organl-
zation for a meal or nights shelter.
Welfare's task is administration to a
condition, not to a personality. The
hitch travellers imperative need cannot
be met by welfare Organizations
have already repeated the mistake of
Judging the shoal by the comparatively
few fish caught in the net
In championing this young fellow
do not mean to stand with him against
welfare, family or society. I merely
wish to stand between as interpreter
Scioty is only just beginning to grasp
the true significance of this individual.
Family has failed to understand him.
Welfare saw organization of its own
before it clearly saw the individual
with whom it must deal. A potato. if
swallowed whole, could with difficulty
be digested.
Non-aggressive," said dispatches
sent out by welfare society in de-
scription of this horde of young
hitch travellers Menace" read the
captions over news and welfare photo
graphs. This is gross misinterpreta-
tion.
Still a Best Asset.
aggressive" when a young man
is 500 or eco or 5000 miles from his
former doors-and on no resource other
than his own initiative?
A horde" when he is absolutely un-
organized and without other than
peaceful purpose? A menace" when
he is still a best asset?
That may seem quibbling over term
inClogy. but this terminolOgy has al
ready worked damage to the pride Of a
majority of the young hitch travellers
STEAMSHIPS.