Evening star., 1941-02-28
Rural Youth S
Needs Told by
Mrs. Roosevelt
Guidance Institute
AnoIyzes Ways to
Better Conditions

The Institute of Rural Youth
Guidance today was analyZlng
methods of improving conditions
among rural young people as brought
out during yesterdays session, when
Mrs. Roosevelt, as guest consultant,
declared it should be the responsible
ity of the Government to see that
girls and boys have jobs after the
national emergency is over.
What should be done for the
mountain girls who, denied voca-
tional guidance or training, must re-
sign themselves to marrying the
boys who are left" after more COM
petent young men have been drawn
to urban areas? What hope should
be extended the rural males who
want a chance to learn a trade?
A section group of this 26th an
nual meeting of the organization
considered these and related ques-
tions today and indicated general
agreement with the declaration of
its chairman, Howard M. Bell, asso-
ciate director of the American
Youth Commission, that:
The only way we can bring
guidance to rural youth is to de-
velOp programs on the labor market
basis
Mrs. Roosevelt Sounds Warning.
Mrs. Roosevelt told the institute
democracy had to be made worth
saving in the eyes of the Nations
youth and warned that unless young
people are given the means to live
they are bound to be indifferent
toward system Of society under
which such conditions prevail.
She said many industries en-
ployed men whose only duty was to
think up new labor saving and
speedup devices, adding that the
Government must do very much
the same thing and subsidize people
who will conceive new ideas for
people to make living
A step in that direction already
had been made, she said, through
the National Resources Board and
similar Federal agencies. but insisted
that "a lot better employment serv-
ice" is needed
c. C. c. Conditions "Appall' Her.
Mrs. Roosevelt said she recently
had seen records of a Civilian Con-
servation Corps camp and that the
conditions had appalled," her.
Among other things, she said she
found two thirds of the camp en-
rnllnoc di1
average fifth grade student. She
said she did not oppose the idea of
C. C. c. camps, explaining that it
was better to be fed than starve.
She declared. however, that the real
and vital problem was not to feed
the country's youth, but to enable
them to feed themselves
I'VE might as we'll face the fact"
she said, that young people don't
fight to defend this kind of thing"
Mrs. Roosevelt said she hoped
when world conditions return to
normal the United States will not
continue with a purely military
selective service system. What the
country needs, she said, is Sc
lective service system for both girls
and boys that teaches them how to
earn living as we'll as how to de-
fend tFeir system of government.
Section Chiefs Report.
Other guest consultants were DR.
George F. Zook, president of the
American Council on Education, and
DR.. M L. Wilson, director of Ex-
tension Service of the Agriculture
Department.
Reports of sections of the institute
were given by their heads. including
DR.. F. J. Brown, consultant of the
American Council on Education and
secretary of the Committee on Edu-
cation of the Joint Army and Navy
Committee on Welfare and Recrea-
ton, chairman of the selective serv-
ice section; DR.. Frank w. Cyr, presi-
dent of the Department of Rural
Education of the National Education
Association, chairman of education:
Howard M. Bell, associate director of
the American Youth Commission,
chairman of vocational training: DR..
Evan Clague, director of the Bureau
Of Employment Security, chairman
of employment. and DR.. C. E. Rice
director of the Division of Health of
the National Youth Administra ton,
chairman of health.