Evening star., 1932-10-19
Not Really So Very Bad.

feSSlWlSClC philosophers, oloCou-
aged. disheartened and downcast, as
pessimistic philosophers generally are
expected to be, deplore the wickedness
Of the young people Of today. The
race. they believe, is going to the ever
lasting bow-wows. Boys and girls are
simply bursting with anarchistic pro-
clivities. They are devoted to nothing
but their own happiness. They are
rude to their elders. They are intol-
Grant of authority. They are egotistic,
selfish, greedy, mean, cynical, Sardonic.
proud. belligerent, quarrelsome. They
care nothing for social obligations and
responsibilities. They are pagans in
their attitude toward the church and
bolsheviks in their attitude toward the
State They will be indifferent parents
as they have been ungrateful children.
Woe to civilization!
But are the pessimistic philosophers
correct? Is their judgment disinterest-
ed sound and sane? Are they scien-
tiflc? Possibly all these questions must
be answered in the affirmative. Never
theless, there are other philosophers, a
little more truly optimistic of tempera-
ment. who disagree with the common
verdict. There is Dan Beard. for in
stance. Only eighty-two years of age,
he has place in history as one of the
founders of the international Boy Scout
movement. Several millions Of young
men hold him in reverence as a mentor
and guide through the years when they
needed a friend. Called as a witness
for the defense, he pays his comph-
ments to the notion that prohibition
has made young people wild. He says:
Wild? Wild? We don't know what
wild boys are in these days. Why, when
I was boy in Kentucky people thought
there was something wrong with q
boy If he hadn't been drunk by the
time he was fifteen years old. Young
sters drank then as they'll never drink
up the dark alleys and of the main
streets. It's finer, cleaner America
we're living in now, and it's a finer
cleaner American we're getting ready
to run things when we're gone.
Even when due allowance is made
for his enthusiastic loyalty to youth,
Dan Boards sentiment is impressive.
He was once a boy himself. and he
remembers. All his life he has been
in close touch with boys and with their
problems. He may claim. with certain
justice, to be an authority. Hence the
Importance of his views. The back
ground against which they stand is to
be found in the files of the periodical
division of the Library of Congress.
There, in the greatest collection of
newspapers in the world, may be seen
the spot news" reports Of the period
when Beard was a lad. A glance
through a single volume will serve to
convince the most skeptical mind that
conditions are not so very much worse
now than they were three score and
ten years ago. 1t is a convenient
bromide to suppose that ours is an espe-
cially lawless generation. But Beard
is right. The yellow pages OF tne oally
journals of our grandparents time and
our parents time support his con-
tention.
The general public may become dis
couraged about modern youth when
Dan Beard, Jane Addams, George Foster
Peabody, Edwin Markham, Felix Adler,
August Heckscher and host of other
generous elder brothers and sisters, well
qualified to judge, lose heart. Until
then it will do we'll to follow the ex-
ample Of their faith and courage, re-
membering that youth has been abun-
dainty criticized in every era and that
much of the criticism has been pred
icated on ignorance and fear.