, 1935-02-06
The World
At Glance
BIZ LESLIE C ii
Central Press Staff Writer

VIEW 1Oftht ECUs IA uhoIA
u6ho is a lieutenant in relief work
gtTes an insight.
CHis name will not be mentioned
bnt he is a very real, a very much
discouraged man. A man OF intel
lectual keenneSs. he vas forced into
relief by the collapse Of his own
bl1SineSs-landScape Designing.
He has been busy day and night
for two weeks classifying relief cards
in his own county. In that county
Of l.250,000 persons. there are 10000
relief cards - 10000 families on re-
lief. At five persons to the family
thai would be $4,000 persons.
That probably is the average for
the entire United States.
That is the first discouraging pic
tura And the number Of these re-
lief cards increases daily.
Rslt We shall permit the man 10
make his own comments.
Says this lieutenant in relief work:
We all we're making designs for
some really badly needed projects.
we of the engineering group. Here
at last was an opportunity TO bring
about civic Improvement without the
concentrating influence Of politics
We were working for meager pay
pay many times less than we had
earned at u professions In normal
times We did not complain. This
was an emergency. At least We we're
accomplishing something for the
benef1 Of the entire community.
Then uncertainty entered. Our
office-a district office-heard from
the state office that our appropria-
tons would stop. The state office
had heard something from Wash
ington but was not sure Of anything.
"Rumors increased. Nobody SEEM
ed TO known what Washington de-
sired. From week to week we lived
in an atmosphere of uncertainty.
Finally. it became ar atmosphere Of
Illustration.
Our department was eliminated
altogether n Saturday. All our
plans had gone for naught. In the
meantime, city and county politici-
ans Continued to spend money hap
hazardN. wasting IL, putting ward
heelers on payrolls-but requiring no
labor Of them.
We we're turned out-with simp-
ly a little slip notifying Us that again
we we're cast upon the world"
For him, however. 1t was not the
end.
The man continued:
But The chief OF Il county unit
was a man Of integrity. He desired
TO save something from the wreck.
He kept two Of us designers-in the
hope thss the future would permit
our plans TO be translated into actual
projects.
We wire retained as clerks.
The other designers. however,
were tur1ed away abruptly.
They came back. again. and
again, TO plead to be permitted TO
work, ever for a few cents a day.
Some told Of businesses that had
melted them fortunes-which had
disappeared. Now these men desired
only pennies for day-to-day food.
Then we who had become clerks
turned 10 the classification Of 10000
cards Of persons who desired work
relief.
"On each card there was an un-
written tragedy.
But tho greatest tragedy lay in
the largest stack Of cardS-the
youths from 10 to 25.
"Thn ~ rsrrtrfw v.nv.r.. 49, -.-A-1
They never had been given the OPP
portunlty.
"Ah, but the answers on those
cards-the cards OF the youths-are
what frighen. Not only did these
youths have no trade. but they SEEM
ed to say. what OF IL? It's I'D 10
you to take care Of us
"Uhsocial Youth"
The man went on:
There in those cards-the cards
OF the YOU hs-resided our future
manhood.
MY own -middle-aged misfortunes
seemed to disappear. ! at least had
tasted OF orderly comfort.
But here was a mass Of millions
youth surgng and resentful-as-
sorting, It's up TO you-do some
thing about II, IN a hurry!'
They do not know. for they have
been left 70 shift for themselves. that
It Is they we must count on 10 ioin
In with us to make a world suitable
for them.
Youth TODAY is an unsocial group
"a shifting maSs-a mass seethinE
With restlesSneSS beneath the sur
face.
In New York and in Washington
there r debates on constitutional
technicalitieS OF the degree OF So
cial reforms or the amount Of work
relief.
But while the ancients bicker over
such technicsaities, the pot is boil
ing.
If. then. IL does boil over, shall
We have chaos and darkness and
famine even gTaver still because we
refuse to face realities. because we
dwell in the cobwebby logic Of an era
whose structures are rotted from top
10 bottom?
is II any wonder that dema-
gogues can sway the masses? Is Il
any wonder THAI youth loses all faith
in institutions. even the most demo-
cratic OF institunions?
do you believe that those who
rule will see tn light? Or shall we
be led by the blind into deeper dark
,esS2"