OCR Text |
Show What About N. Y. A.? Bq RUTH TAYLOR I j I have just recently come back ! from a trip to various projects of the National Youth Administration throughout the middle west, and I in all fairness I feel I should com-1 com-1 ment upon what I saw. In the first place, let me say j that I did not go out to get pub-i pub-i licity for NYA. I went out because1, in talking to Henry Iler, who is the same breed of middle wes-, wes-, tern Presbyterian I am, I asked ! him what was the truth in the ' charges against th'e NYA. He said the best way for me to find out was to go see for myself and so I did. For ten days I went from : one place to another, talking to I directors and foremen, boys and girls alike and freely. I went out a scoffer. I came back a believer. This is what I found. The National Youth Administration Administra-tion projects in the local communities com-munities are part of that community. com-munity. Their standards are those of the cornmunity they serve. They are planned to fit the needs of the area they cover and they belong be-long to the people of the community. com-munity. They are not a part of a plan of regimentation, but a service ser-vice agency, at present employed in one thing only, the training of young people to do their part in war work, and to get and keep I jobs in war industries. ' I went out prepared to find that . these young people were leaning on j the government. I found instead that in every place I visited the one thing that was dinned in to r.Vli Vnill'Vl WQ c Viar 17111, nonf nnt anything without working for it. They were taught that they must give full measure of service for everything the government, which was theirs, had done for them. That they had a definite responsibility responsi-bility to make good. And I found both boys and girls ready to make the most of the opportunity. I had been told that NYA. was leftish. Now I admit to the charge of conservatism of which I have been accused and I think I can spot anything pink a mile off but I couldn't find any trace of to wherever I went. Whei-3 the community was conservative, they were conservative; where it was liberal, they were liberal but that was all. The leaders' interest lay in seeing how many young people they could help become equipped to earn a living honestly and conscientiously. con-scientiously. The foreman's interest inter-est was in the eargerness and willingness of these young people to learn. The boys wanted to equip themselves for jobs after the war and for better service during the war. The girls wanted to learn how to help in the war so their boys would come hdme all the sooner. I had been told that the jobs were sinecures. But what trained executive, unmotivated by a desire to serve, would punch a time clock at eight in the morning (losing an hour's pay if a minute late) and work till six or after, night after night? I found the executive personnel per-sonnel equal to that in the best schools, and I say that sincerely. One cannot cover a whole country coun-try in ten days but I went through that part which I know best, and I can only say when the question comes up in your community, go critically through the nearest project, inspecting it with a view to the needs of your own community. You. may find yourself in accord with the Editor of an Illinois paper who said to me of the Master Project in his vicinity-'Why, irs as much a part of this community as the church." |