The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-05-23

boom times. If MA can show that 1t Is 6 necessary part of the defense program, the chances are that 1t will stick. As President Roosevelt has indicated that this training is
 necessary, the tipof Is that the ad- ministration will give full support
 to continuation of IVA and the yelling of the economy-m minded will go unheeded.
 IVA has been called everything,
 even Communist, which Is easy to
 say but hard to prove. The real
 bone of contention over It's effec. tiyeness is whether its "work ex-
 perience" instruction Is worth the time.
 THEY TOILED NOT
 The theory behind this work ex- perience idea is that there arc thousands, yes, millions of young people who never worked. Literally. All you have to do is remember
 back to the depression days when
 youngsters just out of school couldn't even give their services away, let alone get paid for them. Hence the alleged need for work experience, teaching tho simple but still commendable habit of going to work.
 Theoretically, this pre-determines which youngsters can work and by analysing their aptitudes, helps place them In the right kind Of job, thus reducing the time of training within industry. That this
 part.time training in lean years may have keep the kids from starr vation or going nuts IS usually kissed off too easily.
 Tn the first three months Of this year, some 10000 NYAers got Jobs in dustry, 17,0o0 in manufacturing, 22,O00 in non-inanufacturing. and 30,000 just got jobs, unspcclfled
 On May 1, there were over 400,- 900 boys and girls on the IVA out. of-school rolls, with another 300,- 900 certified as eligible for NNYA, but for whom there was no money and no jobs. There were also close to 500000 students In 30,000 schools getting IVA help, g to 6 a month in high school, $i0 to $30 In college.
 To be eligible for an IVA job, q youngster must Dc from i6 to 24 and 1t must Do proved he needs work. He can be In secondary school or college and need the money to finish his education or he can be out of school and Just need the money. It is all part-time work. Average wage runs about S!S c 40' hour month.
 Every IVA project must, by law. be socially useful. That is, they can't just whittlo or pound nails in telephone poles. They must be making furniture that can be sat on, or vocational school buildings with roofs that will keep out rain. On the white collar projects, cleri- cal help, lbirary research, public health work, helping handle school and so on. Girl workers make or repRir clothing, or can food, or something like that.
 PAY CHECKS TO A MILLION
 There is q rapid turnover and the average time on IVA Is six months. At least Q million kids a year feel the touch of IVA. Estimating that thcro were, early In the year, about thrao million youngsters out of work, about one-third of those el- igible really receive some of the benefits. There have been, how ever. about i75,000 yuong workers on WPA and 280000 In COG, mak- Ing nearly half million more that aren't left out in the cold.
 As to costs, the average per youngster has been running $400 e year, which includes wages. over- head instruction and administra- tion. During the current fiscal year, IVA has had an initial appropria- ton of $i02 million, plus 55 million In two supplemental appropriations to take care of defense work. For the next fiscal year, 1t is asking for the initial $i02 million.
 As to what 1t would take to solve the youth problem, IVA Director Aubrey Williams is on record that l $500 a year per youugster, giving | i20 hours employment & month, and applied to 100000 youngsters every six months. would do the trick nice- ly. That would cost only 5000 mil- lion and 1t would take care of the young folks on WPA and eco, too.