The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1937-06-11

that | have said to you. There is
noisy movement against mill
tary training in connection with
education. There have been some
student demonstrations against
such training. There is a good
deal of talk that the nation owes
every man a living and that gov
ernment should support people
rather than people support gov
eminent.
This is painful to observe but |
DO not regard it as in the slight
est degree important. There is an
age of establishment in every
young mans life. 1t comes to us,
especially in college, when our
youthful innocence and idealism
get their first cold douche under
a shower of knowledge of the in
consistencies, inequitieS and fruS-
trationS of our lives. 1t is not
strange that we go through an
age of iconoclaSm and revolt. Al
most none escapes.
With that, among creative
minds, comes a natural desire to
remake the world on holder,
better pattern. Some of US never
quite recover. Some become
tempered with the years: But
from a long life of observation
and experience, am confident
about the loyalty and response to
the duties of citizenship of an
overwhelming perez tage OF
young men brought up in the
American tradition. They will
spring up at the very first stroke
of the tocSin warning of any ma
tional danger. The most flaming
radical on the campus usually
turns out to be the tirieSt leader
on the battlefield.
No, | think this particular pa
cific dogma among our country'S
collegiate young and loyal oppo-
sition" is not important. More
serious to me is the accompany
ing echoes about "rhe world owes
me a living whether l work or
not" and the idea that youth can
lean on government when 1t feels
more like leaning than standing
on its own feet.
We hear a great deal about the
lost generation - the oncoming
waves of youth through the de-
preston and even now, who, so
the saying is, never had a
chance" There is a lost genera
ton but it is not yours. This is a
sort of defeatism that should new
er be heard on the lips of youth.
1t is way of saying that be-
cause the going is not quite as
easy as once it was, or as it yet
may be, we fold up in despair and
wait for government OF some 9TH
err good fairy to rescue us mean
while seeking solace in WPA,
AAA, CCC or some other alpha
betical anodyne.
| think that one glance at the
present condition of WPA rolls is
sufficient TO discourage that idea
at the offset. From all across the
nation, WPA is reporting that it
has few, if any, skilled and ac-
ceptable" people to meet the
growing demands of our rapidly
expanding industry. The cry is,
becoming general from the indus
trial side that production is be-
ing actually hampered by lack
of people, especially in the high
err ranks of employment, who are
fit for the duties imposed.
Is that not conclusive on the
question of whether the doors are
closed TO these oncoming genera
tons? There are no doors closed
to the fit and able. Not only are
all doors open but the town-crier
is now out seeking them in every
by-way.
The world does not owe every
man a living. The world is a place
in which every man can make
living but to make it he must
first fit himself and then fight.
We cannot all be fitted for that
fight under such favoring circum-
stances as yours, but it is the UNI
fit who are the only lost genera
tion-they, not you.
There is an element of tragic
sadness in the hundreds of thou
sands sifted through the terrible
sieve of the depression. and now
left helpless on the barren strands
of WPA. Now when real recov-
cry has come after several years
of their enforced idleness, most
of them remain unemployed be-
cause the procession has passed
them by and for one reason or
another, they have become unfit
to take their place in the new
conditions of our recent econom-
ic revival. They are the derelicts
the economic casualties--of
one of the greatest catastrophes
that ever blasted this country.
Age alone is one disqualifying
and wholly innocent unfitness.
If employment is continuous, a
man nearing the middle shadows
can keep his place in the rut
worn by his loyal feet over many
years of service because in that
rut he is better than some young
err successor-better by reason OF
his familiarity with it, his train
Ing, and the almost automatic
way in which he functions there.
But when some economic earth
quake comes along and destroys
the whole pattern of his environ
ment as completely as a horses