Imperial Valley press., 1941-05-26

WASHINGTON, May 26 - AL
ter. or maybe before WPA gets TAX
en- care of for next fiscal year, the
Congress will have chance TO
work on National Youth Admml-
stration, and if there is anything
more controversial than WPA, 1t
is certainly NYA.
A good part of the argument
will probably revolve around the
real usefulness of NYAs training
for industry in the defense effort
and the further need of coddllng
the young folks in these defense
boom times. If NYA can show that
it is a necessary part of the de-
Tense program. the chances are
that 1t will stick. AS President
Roosevelt has indicated that this
training is necessary, the tlpoff is
that the administration Will give
full support to continuation OF
NYA and the yelling of the econ
omy-minded will go unheeded.
NYA has been called everything,
even Communist which is easy 10
say but hard to prove. The reai
bone of contention over It's ef-
fectiveness is whether its works eX-
perience" instruction is worth the
time.
THEY TOILED NOT
The theory behind this work ex-
perience idea is that there are
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 the simple but
still commendable habit OF going to
work
theoretically, this re-determines
which youngsters can work and by
analyzing 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
NAV have kept the kids from star
vation or going nuts is usually KISS
ed off too easily.
In the first three months of this
year, some 10000 NYAers got jobs
in industry, 1900 in manufactur-
ing. $4,000 in non-manufacturing
and 10000 just got jobs, unspeci-
fled.
On May /. there were over AGO.
900 boys and girls on the NYA out
of-school rolls, with another $780,
600 certified as eligible for NYA
but for whom there was no money
and no Jobs. There were also CLOSE
to 100000 students in 10000 school:
getting NYA help, SO to Sc month
in high school, $40 to $50 in col
lege.
To be eligible for an NYA job
a youngster must be from 16 to q
and it must be proved he need!
work. He can be in secondar!
school or college and need tht
money to finish his education OF
be can be out of school and JUS
need the money. 1t is all part
time work Average wage run!
about SIS a 40-hour month.
Every NYA project must, by law
be socially useful. That is the,
can't just whittle or pound nail
in telephone poles. They must b'
making furniture that can be sa
on or vocational school building
with roofs that will keep out rain
On the white collar projects, cleri
cal help, library research, publi
health work, helping handle shoe
lunches, and SO on. Girl worker
make or repair clothing, or cal
food, or something like that.
PAYCHECKS TO A MILLION
There is a rapid turnover and tn
average time on NYA is 81,
months. At least a million kids
year feel the touch of NYA. Esti
mating that there were, early il
the year, about three million
youngsters out of work, about one
third of those eligible really re
oeive some of the benefits. Their
have been, however, about 1880
young workers on WPA and $4,000
in CCC making nearly half mil
lion more that aren't left out il
the cold