The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1939-12-07
The Cherry Tree
Where We Hutchet Ou1
The Truth
. A COUNTRY WITHOUT
YOUTH
@ ALL HOPE IS DEAD
@ HANDING ON THE TORCH
g BUT 1T is DIMLY LIT

Imagine country in which there
was no youth. This might not be
one in which there were no people who
had lived a comparatively short por-
ton of their earthly space. 1t might
be one in which the spirit of youth,
which is enthusiasm, daring, idealism
and, above all, undisillusioned hope,
had been killed. 1t wouldn't be much
of a country.
This is so true that the inexorable
laws of nature unhesitatingly sacrifice
the old for the new generation.
Things just do not go on, with
dinosaurs or men, unless the
young generation gets the best of
the breaks.
But one of the first furries of re-
viving business was clamor for skill
ed workers.
A quarter of a million youngsters
coming onto the "labor market" each
year and not enough trained workers
to fill even the preliminary expansions
of industrial activity. At least, so
some have claimed
x X X
And other reports say that big
percentage Of the idle youth are un-
employable, from physical byproducts
of undernourished and hopeless unem-
ployment, by lack of training, or
training in the wrong way or by in
evitable loss of morale.
Light is thrown on the situation by
sample in Philadelphia. According
to a survey made there, it appears
that about one-half of the high school
graduates of 1896 have succeeded in
the ensuing two years, in getting
some kind of an economic toe-hold.
Of the remainder, 36 per cent are
still seeking jobs. The rest are ap-
parently back at school, marking time.
Or they have given up. Or some
thing else has happened to them.
Of those who had been successful
in getting some kind of job, only 80
per cent of those vocationally, in other
words, specially trained, were receiv-
ing more than SIS per week.
X X X
Security upon which to found a
family, resources for what is called
the "better life,' on SIS per week?
More and more good people are
thinking and talking and working
with this problem. More and more
are coming out courageously, refus-
ing longer to blink facts. ~ =,
More and more it is being borne in
on those who feel realization and re
sponsibility that the failures of to-
day in this field cannot be repaired
in the future. Whatever is done of
injustice to the youngsters now COM
ing up will leave it's traces on the fu-
ture of this nation to the end Of time.
X X X
Each generation, as it achieves ma
turity and begins to see the end of it's
own road, is prone to vaporize a
great deal about "handing on the
torch"
In this case, we had better see that
the said torch is not the sooty, smelly
and very dimly lit smudge we are now
carrying.
AS is customary, with social prob
lens, the awakening to this grim fact
seems to be belated but there are in
dications that it is at hand.
But, as is again the customary
thing, it will have to be extensive
ly vocalized and discussed before
action can be had.
Parents, and all others should per-
form at least the service of seeing
that there is plenty said about the
present situation and the prospects of
those who will shortly have to take
over the running of affairs.