Evening star., 1941-09-16
mands for workers while leaving
other areas almost untouched.
Many Become Stranded.

mands for workers while leaving
other areas almost untouched.
Many Become Stranded.
But the accident of geography
alone would not be enough to keep
young people out of work. They
are the most mobile part of our
population. When they hear of q
boom somewhere they are only too
ready to pack up and migrate to the
spot where jobs are available. This
brings us to the second of the Sc
rious barriers which keep youth out
Of defense work.
While 1t is obvious that defense
industry needs an enormous number
of new workers, it is less understood
that these workers must possess
some experience or training. They
must know how to do certain things.
There are some interesting figures
on this point which were supplied
last June by the Department OF
Labor. BY April. 1912, the depart
ment estimated that the basic de-
fenSe industries-like aircraft, ship
building, machine tools, ordnance
and several others of similar i'm
portance-would require almost l.
100000 additional workers. But 1t
was estimated that less than one
sixth of these could be unskilled !;
the remaining five-SiXths had to be
professional, subprofessional, skilled
or at least SemiSkilled.
This is not to deny that unSkilled
or inexperienced workers have been
able to get jobs in defense indus
tries, in some sections, and under
extreme pressure, employers have
had to hire such labor as was avail
able But by and large, the young
| worker without work experience, OF
| without skill. has relatively slim
chance of breaking into defense in
dustry compared with the worker
with work experience or skill.
| Under such circumstances, when
inexperienced youth migrate to de-
fense centers-and l know from per-
sonal observation that large num-
! berS of them have-many OF them
| fail to find jobs and are simply
stranded, thus adding new dltt1cul-
ties TO any already aggravated youth
problem, and increasing the strain
on the living and health facilities OF
the defense area.
Apprenticeship Died Out.
find it impossible to blame these
young people. The Nation was no
more prepared for the defense boom
than they were. The cold facts are
that for the past 80 years We have
done about everything we could to
take work out of the lives of young
people. The moves by which We
have done this have for the most
part been, in themselves, good. We
have extended the ban against child
labor-a good thing, but the school
ing We substituted left out produc-
tive work Generation after gene
ration of young people have come
of age without having gained any
experience which would help them
make a living. Industry quit train
ing them II years ago. Apprentice
ship practically died out. We took
physical, manual work out Of the
lives of young people in America
This was as true in other parts OF
the world as in our own country.
This probably is the most important
single fact regarding young people
of the past quarter OF u century
There can be little doubt that this
condition had much to do with the
rise of youth movements and their
later capture and use in the to-
| talitarian nations. In our own coun-
try, being more thoroughly estab-
lished in the democratic form, nc
such political or industrial organl-
zation OF the discomfort and desti-
tuition OF young people has arisen
But only those who have worked al
the job of providing them with some
positive aids, know to what extent
efforts have been made in this coun-
try to capitalize upon idleneSS anC
deStitutiOn OF our young people. The
| basic trouble Is due to the TACT thai
We have taken work out OF theiI
lives. With the defense needs now
upon us, We now find that one OF
the weakest spots i'll our industrial
preparedness is the shortage OF
qualified workers with all the nee
esSarily wide variety OF special Sktlls
required for defense production.
Even with the great needs of the
| i 70 "
gradually woke up to the true state
of things. For up TO certain point
while industry was absorbing the un-
| employed skilled workers on hand
production expanded rapidly. Then
expansion become more dltt1cult, II
large part because OF the scarcity OF
! trained workers. At that point, ouI
failure to train young workers be-
came evident, and now constitute:
a maior bottleneck in the defense
program.
The quickening tempo OF produc.
ton, resulting either directly or in.
directly from the defense program
has boosted total employment to an
all-time high. In spite of the diff
culties of changing over from peace
time production to defense produc-
tion, employment by July OF this
year rose to 80 9,241 600 in non-agri-
cultural industries, an increase OF
Ito 600 over the best month OF
| 1929.
Helps Youths to Learn.
Compared with the past decade
the number of unemployed is low
According to the latest data avail
able, there were in August 5 300, ,00(
unemployed workers But 2,200,00
of these were youth. This means
that of all the employed, those in
the narrow age group from Is to
"a comprised a per cent. The
enorrnity Of this percentage Hes Il,