The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1935-07-12

! VI ulSRuSL Tie
M young man tossed his hat on
v the table. And as he sank into
the chair, his worn newspa-
per, folded with the ''help wanted"
ads to the outside, their gray columns
smudged with the sweat Of much han
ding, fell to the floor; he didn't bother
to pick 1t up.
He bent in defeat, his hands hung
Imply from the arms of the chair. His
eyes fixed in red stare on the thin
carpet, his nostrils widened in a
sneer and his lower lip pouted. He
looked as If he would do something
desperate-if there were anything des-
perate to do.
His throat was dry as he spoke.
II give up!
"I've been in every darn place in
this town where they might need any
body to do anything. I'm a graduate
engineer with one of the best records
in my class-and can't get job
washing dishes. I've been trying for
three years.
''The jobs there are go to married
men who have families that need food
and a home. That's all right, I sup
pose they should. But Lord, want
to get married myself some day, and
here l am twenty-five without chance
in sight Of getting myself any kind
Of start. I've got right to my life
and happiness But I've got to work!
"And what do they say to mei
You've no experience. We can get
good men with years of experience for
what we have to pay you
"Good Lord, how am l going to get
experience If / can't get work?"
The man is, of course, hypothetical
case. But If you think his counterpart
does not exist in reality and in ap-
palling numbers, you are sadly mis-
taken. The International Labor office
at Geneva has just issued a statement
which declares that at least Is per
cent Of all the worlds 25,000,000 I'M
employed are less than twenty-five
years old.
But wait, despairing youth! There
may be an end in sight for all this.
America has an idea. It may work
and 1t may not, but at least something
is going to be done. The President Of
the United States is speaking 80.
II have determined that we shall do
something for the nations unemployed
youth because we can Ill afford to lose
the skill and energy Of these young
men and women. They must have
their chances In school, their turn as
apprentices and their opportunity for
jobs-a chance to work and earn for
themselves. ,
"In recognition of this great ma
tional need I have established Ma
tional Youth administration, to be
under the Works Progress administra-
ton"
$5o,ooo,0o0 for Youth.
Out of the $4,S00,000,000 which con-
gress In the emergency relief appro-
priation act Of April s turned over to
Mr.. Roosevelt that he might sink pub
lie dollars into the mire of depres-
sion to make foundation for sturdy
structure of sound prosperity. $50,000,-
600 will be poured as a pylon to sup
port the new NYA during its first year.
AS chairman of the executive COM
mittee of the NYA, the President
named Miss Josephine Roche, assist
ant secretary of the treasury. She
was long a professional champion Of
youth and later, as coal operator,
waged the battle for the rights Of
young men and women in different
form. AS executive director she will
have Aubrey Williams, first assistant
to Harry L. Hopkins, works-progress
administrator.
These two will set up the organiza-
ton which will execute the challenge
taken up by the President to remove
youth from the depths Of disillusion
and defeatism and the dangerous rad
icalism which so often arises from
such conditions. Youth in the case Of
the NYA is limited to men and women
between the ages Of sixteen and twen-
ty-five. Here are the services the or
ganization will attempt to perform:
/. Find employment in private in
dustry for unemployed youth. 'Work
designed to accomplish this shall be
set going in every state in order to
work out with employers In industry,
commerce and business, ways and