Evening star., 1938-07-31
Bv NC. x.

DJ WI ssLs H.
IN THE August magazines there is,
As in the magazine Of any other
month. . great deal Of material
i on Americas troubles. The re-
viewer finds nothing in the whole mass
which gets at the root Of the matter
80 satisfactorily as the leading edi-
torial in the American Mercury. You
can tell for yourself how this piece
approaches the subject; its title Is
Wanted: An American Upper Class"
That. now, is getting somewhere.
II we had in this country an upper
mot q merely wealthy class, one
which accepted the responsibilities as
well as the privileges of its position,
we might not be in the mess where
we now find ourselves. So thinks the
Mercury writer And 50 has this
reviewer thought for = long, long
time.
America, says the editorial, is about
the only nation which has ever tried
to get along without an upper class
In its excessive devotion to middle
class ideals" it continues, ''in Its
steadfast sticking to the middle class
system OF law and morals, it has
believed itself quite able to get along
on a middle-class system Of manners
In fact, when not blind to the value
Of an upper class's traditional func-
ton, it has been contemptuous of it
and regarded proper respect for 1t
as mere snobbery. Hence, while
actually erecting a most powerful and
influential upper clas-and nowhere
else has an upper class had 80 much
power and influence-it has virtually
forbidden 1t to act like An upper class.
Acutely resenting such qualifications
Is birth, breeding. intelligence and
training. and thrusting them aside
as 'undemocratic.' our society built
its upper class out Of large masses
Having thus broken sharply with
tradition, and thus made an unspeak-
able mess OF its upper class. American
society has now gone of the deep
end into that degeneration Of demo-
cratic theory which imagines that
there is q peculiar inspiration In the
opinions Of the ignorant. and a sin
gular nobility in the character Of the
penniless' -
\ VERY sound diagnosis. The Mer-
curry does not prescribe any
remedy, and how could it? An upper
class is not come by as quickly as
congressional appropriation. Oliver
Wendell Holmes once remarked some
thing to the effect that to make a
gentleman you must begin on his
grandparents. The fact that that
statement today would be totally
meaningless to any group OF young
Americans in high schools or even
colleges. is proof Of the reasonable
ness Of the Mercury's case. Our young
people have not been trained to recog-
nize the beauty OF long tradition OF
honor. If you tried to teach them
to be likely grandparents of gentle
folk themselves, they would see no
more than the humor of it.
And what are they doing. these
members of our youth" about which
there is more pother than has been
accorded any young generation in the
history OF the world? There are two
significant pieces in the August
periodicals dealing with the subject.
One is in the Mercury: 1t is by Harold
Lord Varney and is called The Left
Kidnaps American Youth" The other
is in Don Herolds column in scrib-
ner's.
Mr.. Varney is concerned with giving
a picture Of the growth of Communist
youth movements in this country. He
takes up the cases Of the American
Youth Congress and the American
Student Union, both Of which, he
says, are communistically directed. He
also takes up the National Youth Ad-
ministration, that federally admin
istered Office for the care of the young
which received $50,O00,000 its first
year and $4,000, 900 its second and
is still crying for more.
Not to 60 into the respective cases
OF the three organizations, the reviewer
will simply quote what Mr.. Varney
quotes as the aim of the trio. taking
the quotation from . speech by VIII
liam H. Hinckley, national chairman
Of the American Youth Congress, as
follows:
"T EFT us assume that our bill (for
subsidization of YOUTH were
passed. What would 1t mean? You
would find jobs in socially useful
projects suited to your abilities and
talents at trade union wages with a
minimum Of SIS a week. You would
be able to live decently, no longer
thrown back on friends or parents or
charity for your livelihood. You could
marry. You =. coming from the
ranks of those who should be in high
school or receiving further training
in college could return to the class
room assured of a minimum income OF
SIS per month while In high school
and $25 while in college for work that
would supplement your studies.
Administration Of provisions OF the
Youth Act would rest partly in your
hands, the hands Of elected representa-
tives Of youth. jointly with labor and
social service institutions. The youth
of America would 60 back to work or
return to the classroom
Now 1t hardly takes mastermind to
strip this set Of promises Of its glamor
and see what 1t really means. Take
the phrase. "jobs in socially useful
projects" for example. 1t sounds
swell. What does it mean? Some
thing like the usefulness" Of those
projects designed to keep voting
artists, actors and writer's tso-called
on the Federal pay roll? Who is to
decide on the usefulness? And useful
to whom? The answer. Of course. Is
that these projects would be, in the
words OF the speaker. socially useful"
That means everything today-and
generally, as far as recognizable mean