Imperial Valley press., 1936-11-22

I low is youth faring in these lean years?
n This is a troublesome question-and
question which more people should trouble them
selves about.
Miss Maxine Davis in her book 1.-THE Lost
Generation" published by the Macmillan Com
pany has painted a pretty clear picture of the
situation as it exists today. She spent more
than three months, travelling around the United
States and talking to boys and girls of every
kind and condition. Her conclusions are i'm
pressive:
Our boys and girls have grown up in the
belief that America is the Land of Promise.
They cannot remember when they first learned
the right to life liberty, and the pursuit of hap
piness was theirs inalienably as the right to
breathe and and smell. AS naturally as their
voices broke and deepened, our young men grew
I'D in the assurance that education and hard
work were the Open Sesame to respectable jobs
secured by reliability and perseverance, to homes
of their own and to honored places in the eyes
of their fellow men.
"In the past few years many of them have
found this is not true. The older generation has
betrayed and deceived them.
about three million of our young people who
are out of school today have no work, through
no fault of their own.
MANY others are engaged on slim part-time
Jobs so trifiing in the time they fill and the
money they produce as to have little or no
meaning to the young workmen
"Bleal<ly our youth mas Deen marking
while the clock ticks away it's bright years, the
good years of plowing and sowing and sweating.
They are runners, delayed at the gun. They
have lost so much time at the start that only
the exceptional can challenge the finish.
1.-THE depression years have left us with gen.
Grafton robbed of time and opportunity just as
the Great War left the world It's heritage OF
lost generation"
These young people who have come to matur-
ity during the depression have had plenty of
time to think and form opinions about the kind
of world they live in. But unlike their con-
temporaries in nations across the sea, they
haven't done much of this kind of thinking.
Therefore, although youth as class has be-
come more vocal than ever before, it is not easy
for il to express its hopes and its criticisms, to
fell what it wants. 1t needs personal guidance
and it seeks help from others to discover its
own abilities
-rHE heaviest contributor to the cause of youth
ia the Federal Government. The two thou
sand-odd C.CC camps scattered throughout the
country have proven to be huge success. over
six hundred thousand young men enrolled in
these camps are carrying out conservation
program that saves more national wealth than
can be calculated, by the control of forest fires,
by the determination of harmful insects, by the
prevention of floods and soil erosion.
President Roosevelt recently set aside $780,
ooO 600 for a National Youth Federation to aid
young people attending high school and college,
to find employment for unemployed youth, and
to train young Americans for technical and pro-
fessional employment opportunities.
State and local government centers have lent
support through the establishment of transient
camps, recreational units, and free trade schools
And even private individuals, clubs, and various
service organizations have given generously of
their time and money to help youth in its
plight.
Although all this would seem to be quite
Gift there still remain several million young
people who are sitting at home with nothing
but time on their hands This group, unable to
find work, is the whose problem is, at the
moment the most in need of attention.
What are the prospects for these idle young
Americans?
First, let us take a look at the newer and