Evening star., 1936-04-16

1886, as in 1882, he will ride forth
calamity under the banner: With
Faith Toward the Future.
There is political percipience in
this. For one thing it diverts atten-
ton from a good many unholy messes
In Washington. From the fooling
experiments of some of the smaller
bureaus; from the agricultural poll
cies which are leading into an un-
known country; from the political
spoils and the often inhuman bureau
cracy which mar the administration
of relief; from the complete failure
of any Federal housing program and
from the huge governmental deficit
In hitching the wagon of state to a
clear blue star he keeps all eyes in
q convenient direction.
Appeals to Youth
But there is something more IN II
than this. The President is a mod
ern man, by which I mean that he
genuinely and instinctively feels the
spirit of the times. He is modern In
the sense that Edward VIII is, with a
twentieth century gallantry that ap-
prehends that the kingly gesture to-
day is to sit with upturned collar in
some hostel for outcaStS and move
amongst the destitute of the devas-
tated areas. He has a very consider
able intuition, an almost seismo-
graphic sensibility to tendencies OF
thought, and more Importantly, to
+.nln,oia oF nyo0tioy, apd tbic oi,rac
him an evangelical quality. 1t is not
the quality of the intellectual, for
the President is not an intellectual.
1t is the quality of the artist. And
1t is a quality very hard to beat.
Above all, it is a quality which ap-
peals to youth. On Monday the Pres
ident was addressing the Young Dem
ocrats, and in such surroundings he
is always at his best. For youth lives
neither in the past nor in the present
but in the future. Youth is ardent
youth is vague and youth is interested
in ends and contemptuous or i'm
patient of means. The temper OF
our youth has become restless
critical challenging" said the
14SS4Qc14t. IdLlld1S SOoI11 4Ino OC
come a flaming question. . @. Youth
wants to know what We propose TO dc
about a society which hurts so many
of them. There is much to justify
the inquiring attitude of youth. .
Our war for independence was a
young mans crusade. Hold fast
to your dream"
Attracts Older Persons.
These words attract more than those
between the ages of 20 and Is. We
are a youthful people. Our qualities
are the qualities of youth-enthusi-
asr1, idealiSm, inventiveneSS and the
love of adventure and change. Our
vices are also the vices of youth
credulity, violence, fickleneSs ingrati-
tude and ignorance. COR are they
the vices Of those who grow old with
out maturing, who become senile with
out becoming adult? D. H. Lawrence,
that strange intuitive genius, thought
this was our chief characteristic as
O people.)
The New Deal is itself, to a large
extent, youth movement. But it is
dangerous to compare it to the period
of the Revolutionary War. Washing
ton," said the President, was 43,
Hamilton was 49, But that was the
eighteenth century, when youth, as
we understand the term, had not yet
been discovered; when there were
children and adults: When Keats was
dead and immortal and Pitt prime
minister at 26. Young" Anthony
Eden is 80. And there are no 18-
year-old Hamiltons around Wash
ington.
The New Deal appeals to the young,
and we are in for a youth movement
besides. The signs and portents are