Evening star., 1940-01-21
Youth Legislature
Speakers Rebuked
By Mrs. Roosevelt
Financing Question
Roised Concerning
Their Proposals

Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt last
night gave a good-natured scolding
on the subject of Government
spending to speakers in the Dis
trict of Columbia Youth Legislature,
after listening for two hours to
intermittent attacks on her hus-
bands policies.
She had heard DR.. Floyd W..
Reeves. former chairman of Pres
ident Roosevelt's Advisory Com
mittee on Education, express "in-
tense regret" at Mr.. Roosevelt's S
radio address Friday night before
the White House Conference on
Children in Democracy.
Declaring the President had given
little emphasis to needs of the
immediate situation, DR.. Reeves
urged that the Government should
give jobs to all unemployed youth
a program which would cost $780,
600, 900 yearly. DR.. Reeves estimated.
-, The Legislature adopted a recon-
nendation chiding M. Roosevelt for
ssrafiug for action and yet cutting
is per cent from the budget of the
National Youth Administration.
Speaker Ralph Hetzel, jr., unem-
Spaoynatrit director of &C. I. o. de-
clared N. Y. A. appropriations should
be doubled.
Financing Question Raised.
Speakers also lamented that
President Roosevelt is forgetting"
the Civilian Conservation Corps in
excitement over needs for increased
armament. A resolution was unan-
imously passed urging increased
c. c. c. appropriations.
At close of discussion Mrs. Roose-
velt rose and replied:
Il haven't heard single sugges-
ton all night long Of how you're
going to pay for these things"
You show you aren't thinking
things through.
Il think you ought to face the
fact that you are running into debt.
You ought to have an interest be-
cause you're the ones who are going
to pay"
Further Study Ordered.
To emphasize the last point, she
told them a story of young man
she had heard elsewhere, who cried
out that he wasn't going to get wor-
ried about taxes-his father had
never paid any. and he never would
either Mrs. Roosevelt assured the
Legislature delegates they pay taxes,
imposed indirectly on nearly every
thing they buy.
The young delegates, gathered in
session at the Y. w. c. A., accepted
her criticism through a motion to
appoint a committee Ito study
finance and taxation"
Mrs. Roosevelt also told her listen
ers they. must become more ma
tional-minded," because "the child
growing up now in the Tennessee
hills or in Texas may be our future
neighbor."
I'm the long rum" she said, I'VE
have got to raise the economic level
in parts of the country" but in the
meantime "stop-gap" work must be
done. There are localities where it
is impossible for impoverished citi-.
zens to receive free medical atten-
ton, she said, commenting that
some fine physicians won't believe
this fact"
Dies Group Censured.
After debate so lengthy that two
extensions of time limit were re-
quired, the young delegates from
church, labor and civic groups
passed a resolution asking for the
end of segregation of white and
colored students in District public
schools.
Censure of the Dies Committee
on Un-Americanism and the Smith
committee investigating the Ma
tional Labor Relations Board-for
their violation of democratic prin-
ciples embodied in a resolu-
ton passed unanimously by the
Legislature.
Other actions were q demand for
District suffrage; a request for
better national and local health pro-
gram, to deal particularly with
venereal diseases and tuberculosis;
support Of the Hull reciprocal trade
program, and plea for more ade-
quate vocational guidance in local
schools.
DR.. Reeves, who is director of
the American Youth Commission,
stressed in afternoon and night ad-
dresses that an army" of unem-
Ioyed youth is dangerous to the
Nation. =
I'VE shall always have children
and young people in the United
States" he said, but the million
children who are not now in school
and the millions of young people
who are growing up neglected will
not always be children and young.
Now is the only time they can re-
ceive proper attention"