Evening star., 1942-04-26
Latin American Youth
Responds 10 Offer 10
Learn U.S.. Industry
Many Study English
To Eorn Chunce for
Troinins Here
BY JOHN LEAR,
wI6s Weird Hs~s

cas- future are learning their trades
today In the fields and factories Of
the United States.
Young men from the other Amer
lean republics are coming TO this
country TO work with their hands
for two years to attain the teci1ni-
cal skills their hornelands lack.
Hired hands OF patriotism. these
young men are under contract TO re-
turn home after their apprentice
ship is complete and use their new
knowledge 70 help develop their own
countries.
They are paid by United States
industry and agriculture. with no
strings attached, In the conviction
that In years 10 come this country
will benefit through increased trade
and better foreign friends.
The experiment In not new. II
has been carried on for years by
private industry on O small scale.
But it has been broadened TO un-
precedented proportions by the Co
ordinator Of rnter-Anericari Affairs
ss a result OF innumerable North
Americans returning from South
America with the phrase:
"Our best friends down there are
the young people who have received
technical training from US"
Many From Poor Families.
In each of the eight republics
this writer visited on an extended
tour of South America Just before
we entered the war, young Latins
asked him 10 bring them 70 the
attention OF washington. The
poorer these young supplicants were.
the more friendly they were TO the
United States and our democratic
Government.
It is encouraging, for that reason,
10 note that the industrial trainees
are being drawn as much as possible
from families unable TO afford TO pay
the long sea passage.
As a war measure, the technical
training program is valuable as
counter to Naz influence In the
other Americas. The Germans and
the Italians have won friends In
the Southern New World for long
time by carrying Latin youths free
10 Europe and back. Education"
was the ostensible reason for these
trims. But the totalitarians were
careful to omit technical training
from the itinerary of the visitors.
The inter-American training plan,
on the contrary, comes right down
to brass tacks. A young man may
study only in an industry which a
committee of prominent citizens
within his own country designates
as useful to that nations develop
ment. In Washington the choice OF
industries Is sifted second time TO
make sure that all the countries are
not concentrating on the same In
dustries and will not compete with
each other on a hopeless one-crop
basis as they did before In coffee,
bananas and sugar.
Actual Work Required.
No young man may use the time
and money to finish his scholastic
education. He must actually work
In his chosen industry az the wage
paid for beginners in that industry.
Three of the trainees are now in
the United States.
Fabio Leal, 27-year-old son Of
Theofilo De Carvalho Leal, was
Brazil's choice. His wife gave her
consent to his making the trip alone
because she felt 1t was the oppor-
tunity of his lifetime. He viii work
for the Standard Oil Co. of New
Jersey, learning oil refinery super
vision after the United States
Bureau of Mines and the University
of Maryland help him brush UP his
technical English.
Mario Gutierrez Jiminez, 81, son
of Jose Atauasio Gutierrez, came
from Costa Rica. Because his father
Is a farmer. Mario will study corn,
powdered milk and dairying in gen.
eral. His work win begin at the
Agricultural Department experiment
station in Beltsville. Md, and then
will progress to the plants of the
Borden Co. in New York, the Dou-
thatt Corp. in Chicago and the Pio-
neer Hi-Bred Corn Corp. of Des
Moines, Iowa.
Bolivia sent Jorge Felix Tejada,
n, to learn banking. He started In
at the Treasury Department a few
days ago and win so from there to
the Federal Reserve Bank and then
into q commercial bank. He already
has learned that banking here Is
entirely different from banking in
Bolivia.
Trainees have been named from
Haiti, Chile. FL Salvador and panels
of candidates have been submitted
by all but six of the 20 Latin coun-
tries. Among industries where the
young men want to work are min
ing. industrial chemicals. petroleum.
leather and tanning, rubber technic,
air conditioning. road building ma
chinery, hydraulic construction, tel
ephone. matches, cheese making,
textiles, glass, railroad mechanics
and vegetagle oils,
The reception to the training plan
has been enthusiastic throughout
Latin America. In the little town OF
Cuenca in the Ecuadorian interior,
for example. so boys began studying
English to make themselves eligible.
In the United States businesses
everywhere offered Jobs to the train
ees. Detroit and ST. Louis each Of
fered 10 take on $50 young men.
Forty different banks asked for
traineeS
The trsinee plan is headed by a
veteran from United States Steel,
Elliott Hanson, who lived for years
IN Chile and made friends with the
native peoples, Says he: Every
ones doing it now"