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Show Unemployed Youth to Get a Chance th." iyAjnt&HH wwfShfC t&KAW&g. &Vi! iyju - &jx''Jhf rr 'diifii , , 7ir ,;..;... ,,,,,n,,,,r...u. I. Miss Josephine Roche, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the NYA. 2. What Is to Become of Thesj Young People Now They Are Out of School. 3. Aubrey Williams, Executive Director. By WILLIAM C. UTLEY WITH a snort of disgust the young mau tossed his hat on the table. And as he sank Into the chair, his worn newspaper, folded with the "help wanted" ads to the outside, their gray columns smudged with the sweat of much handling, fell to the floor; he didn't bother to pick it up. He bent In defeat, his hands hung limply from the arms of the chair. His eyes fixed in a red stare on the thin carpet, his nostrils widened In a sneer and his lower lip pouted. He looked as if he would do something some-thing desperate If there were anything any-thing desperate to do. His throat was dry as he spoke. "I give up I "I've been in every darn place In this town where they might need anybody to do anything. I'm a graduate grad-uate engineer with one of the best records in my class and I can't get a job washing dishes. I've been trying for three years. "The Jobs there are go to married men who have families that need food and a home. That's all right, I suppose they should. But Lord, I want to get married myself some day, and here I am twenty-five without with-out a chance in sight of getting myself my-self any kind of a start. I've got a right to my life and happiness. But I've got to work! "And what do they say to me? 'You've no experience. We can get good men with years of experience for what we have to pay you.' "Good Lord, how am I going to get experience if I can't get work?" The man is, of course, a hypothetical hypothet-ical case. But if you think his counterpart coun-terpart does not exist In reality and In appalling numbers, you are sadly mistaken. The International Labor office at Geneva has Just Issued a statement which declares that at least 25 per cent of all the world's 25,000,000 unemployed are less than twenty-five years old. But wait, despairing youth! There may be an end in sight for all this. America has an Idea. It may work and It may not, but at least something some-thing Is going to be dona The President Pres-ident of the United States Is speaking speak-ing . . . "I have determined that we shall do something for the nation's unemployed un-employed youth because we can 111 afford to lose the skill and energy of these young men and women. They must have their chances in school, their turn as apprentices and their opportunity for Jobs a chance to work and earn for themselves. "in recognition of this great national na-tional need I have established a National Na-tional Youth administration, to be under the Works Progress administration." admin-istration." $50,000,000 for Youth. Out of the $4,8SO,0O0,OO0 which congress in the emergency relief appropriation ap-propriation act of April 8 turned over to Mr. Roosevelt that he might gink public dollars Into the mire of depression to make a foundation for a sturdy structure of sound prosperity, pros-perity, $50,000,000 will be poured as a pylon to sapport the new NYA during its first year. As chairman of the executive committee com-mittee of the NYA, the President named Miss Josephine Roche, assistant assist-ant secretary of the treasury. She was long a professional champion of youth and later, as a coal operator, waged the battle for the rights of young men and women In different form. As executive director she will have Aubrey Williams, first assistant assist-ant to Harry L. Hopkins, works-progress works-progress administrator. These two will set up tie organization organ-ization which will execute the challenge chal-lenge taken up by the President to remove youth from the depths of disillusion and defeatism and the dangerous radicalism which so often arises from such conditions. Youth In the case of the NYA Is limited to men and women between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five. Here are the services the organization will attempt to perform: 1. Find employment in private industry in-dustry for unemployed youth. "Work designed to accomplish this shall be set going In every state in order to work out with employers In industry, indus-try, commerce and business, ways and means of employing additional personnel from unemployed young people. 2. Train and retrain for Industrial, Indus-trial, technical and professional employment em-ployment opportunities. 3. Provide for continuing attendance attend-ance at high school and college. 4. Works-relief projects designed to meet the needs of youth. An estimated 150,000 youths will receive job training of some sort ; 100,000 will be aided In finishing their high school courses; 120,000 will be assisted In pursuing a college col-lege education, and additional thousands thou-sands will be given financial aid to enable them to take post-graduate work. Many more may be absorbed without cost through the finding of jobs in Industry. The smallest unit in the set-up will be the local or community committee. com-mittee. This will be under the supervision su-pervision of the state administration, administra-tion, which in turn will report to Washington headquarters. Efforts will be concentrated upon youths who are out of work and no longer financially capable of attending school. The tasks of the various divisions, according to the announcement from the White House, will be "to mobilize mo-bilize the Industrial, commercial, agricultural and educational forces to provide employment and other practical assistance to the unemployed unem-ployed youth; to develop and carry out a co-ordinated program of work and work opportunities, job training train-ing and retraining for unemployed youth, utilizing all existing public pub-lic and private agencies, Industries, schools and various training facilities facili-ties which can assist in meeting various va-rious phrases of the problem." How Money Will Be Spent These tasks will all be undertaken with a view of furnishing youths (who are eligible for relief) compensation com-pensation for work they may do on their new Jobs, or expense money If they are going to school. Boys and girls over sixteen who have been forced to stop attending high school because they have no money for car fare, lunches and incidentals will be given an average aver-age of $6 a month to enable them to complete their courses. An average of $15 a month will go to unemployed high school graduates gradu-ates under twenty-five to help them nmsn college. Institutions will receive re-ceive no subsidies; the students will be expected to pay part of the cost themselves, as they have In the past. There Is a rule now that those receiving work relief shall not account ac-count for more than 12 per cent of the enrollment of Institutions of higher learning, but this will In all likelihood be revoked or changed to make room for the NYA proteges Post-graduate students who have been unsuccessful in their job-hunting will be carefully selected for aid In completing their study A special effort will be made to And Jobs for graduates of the class of 1935. An average of $15 a month will be paid to youths given outright works-relief jobs; since one of the qualifications ls that they mnst be from relief families, It may be as- will be holding a works-relief job at better pay. Take National Census. Work relief youths will also be kept busy taking a national census of all youths in the United States between sixteen and twenty-five To secure employment, the NYA will ask Industrial employers to hTrl ,ooth. as apprentices J c. 1 arrangement Governmental b rwTctLdmrtkeandaPre- tlees and train them ?, PPr-en" service. Concerning 'ZT NYA said: ter the "The opportunity afforded by this! type of work should be used to de-' i velop a new type of trained public! i servants, rather than to merely add. to the immense groups of men audi women who now clamor to get intoj government service." It has been called possible that this may overshadow a permanent! civil service organization, like that' of England. Job training and Job placement! are to be accomplished by: ' (a) Utilizing available school' shop facilities for initial or basic1 trade training, through special late , afternoon or evening classes, taught as works-relief projects by needy un-. employed persons qualified to teach the special field. (b) Utilizing available private factories, Industries, or plants, at times when they are not In regular operation, as places to hold training train-ing classes, taught by needy unemployed. un-employed. (c) Using public libraries for training youths to function as librarians li-brarians and enabling the libraries to be kept open for the public a greater number of hours a day. Co-Operation Needed. 'This undertaking will need the 4 vigorous co-operation of the citizens " of the several states," said the President. Pres-ident. "It is recognized that the final solution so-lution of this whole problem of unemployed un-employed youth will not be attained until there Is a resumption of normal nor-mal business activities and opportunities oppor-tunities for private employment on a wide scale. I believe that the national na-tional youth program will serve the most pressing and immediate needs of that portion of unemployed youth most seriously affected at the present pres-ent time." The NYA Is a definite step toward solving the problem of unemployed youth In America. What will b& done about the remainder of the ail or seven million unemployed youths In other parts of the world is being considered by Geneva's International Interna-tional Labor office, with the object of doing away with the discontent that often results In serious social dangers. It is particularly worried about the method which Is being used to a wide extent by many European Eu-ropean nations military conscription. conscrip-tion. Forced labor camps and Incorporation In-corporation of young men In other organizations more or less of t military character it deplores: "Attendance at such unemployment unemploy-ment centers should be strictly voluntary, vol-untary, should exclude any Idea of military training, and these centers should only undertake work which under prevailing economic conditions condi-tions would not be carried out b, workers in normal employment," Serious Problem. In the ILO, subjects usually receive re-ceive two discussions, one when they are first called to attention, and another an-other the following year, after all the available Information has been gathered. This question Is considered consid-ered too urgent to hold over. The real seriousness of the problem, prob-lem, according to the ILO, "ls to be found In the particularly unfortunate unfortu-nate consequences of continued Idleness Idle-ness for young people, more than older persons. If adults, after long years of work, are unable to face , the difficulties of life, on the other hand how can young people on their own resources successfully resist the demoralizing effects of prolonged unemployment?" The remedies for the situation, as held up by the ILO, are pretty much the same as the plan which the President has outlined for thla country. They Include work-relief. Job placement and apprenticeships, and vocational training and retraining. retrain-ing. It will be interesting l" see what f effect the President's VYA will have on the youth of our nation. Says he: "The yield on this Investment should be high." |