The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1944-02-17
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YOUTH

4OOIH democracy
The generation which has
grown up in this country between
the first World war and the Sec
ond, has seen democracy work
only under emergency conditions.
Following the last war there
was first a postwar adjustment
period in which our economy
was very much out of killer. Then
there was a period of almost ov-
ernight prosperity which was
built on a very shaky foundation.
After that came the business de-
preston and unemployment
which made our way of life ap-
pear to be decidedly uninviting
one. And finally came the years
when war shadows again hung
over the world and moved clos
er and closer until they finally
engulfed us.
During all of this period our
government was constantly pre-
scribing new medicine to try to
bring our country back to normal.
A lot Of the medicines proved to
be more dangerous than the orr
ginal disease, some improved the
condition of one group of people
but complicated the problems of
another group, and most of the
medicines never approached the
root of the disease but acted only
as a temporary tonic.
While all of this repair work
was going on, the new generation
which was trying to adjust itself
to our way of life had great diff
ficulty in determining what that
way of life actually was. The
c1ear-cut vision of democracy
pictured by our forefathers had
been patched up in so many plac-
es that it was hardly recogniza-
BILE. And to many young men
and women, who were born dur
ing one war and reached maturi
ty when we were again taking up
arms, our twentieth century-type
of democracy has therefore never
been too appealing.
BLAME iSmS
Because of the chaotic condi-
tons which have prevailed dur
ing the past Is years, many young
people have gone through at
least temporary case of the
''isrns."
Those who saw so much power
ty and lack of opportunity dur
ing the depression and who have
gone through periods of ups and
downs all of their lives, became
disgruntled, looked for people
and institutions to blame for these
distasteful conditions and, in ma
ny cases, became easy prey for
those who preached socialism
and communism as a means of
providing a more orderly control
over our welfare.
But even through the depres-
sion years it was easy to see that
most of the people who flirted
with these foreign PHILOSOPHERS
either lacked the ingenuity or
ambition to try to solve their
own problems, or were the type
of idealists who ache for all the
down-trodden and cannot adjust
themselves to a world in which
dishonesty, brutality. unfairness
and selfishness seem to run ram
pant.
To the idealists, our nation
owes a debt of gratitude. They
have exposed wrongdoing in both
government and business and
have demanded reform. But,
unfortunately, because they find
so much that is wrong all about
them, many of them are apt to
develop a form of madness in
which they decide it would be
best to scrap everything our ma
ton has built and start all over
again with one of the widely adj
vertised cure-all "isms."
STREAMLINING jobs
One of the most worthwhile
things this war may accomplish
will be a united determination
among our people to make de-
mocracy work as it has never
worked before.
When millions of young men
have been going through hell on
earth to preserve democracy, they
will see to it that this vague in
stitution they have been fighting
for becomes a living, breathing
reality and they will fight attacks
on it at home just as hard as they
have been fighting them abroad.
These young men, who grew up
at a time when democracy was
only running on two cylinders,
will come home determined to
repair it and streamline it in the