Show F OUR YOUTH PROBLEM P by LEONARD A BARR BARRETT ETT in his little volume goodbye good bye mr chips james hilton makes one of his characters s a ay Y modern parents are beginning to I 1 demand something more for their three years school fees than a few scraps of language that nobody speaks something besides a factory for turning out snob culture based on money and machines the month of june is known as the commencement season high schools colleges and universities grant degrees to thousands of our ambitious youth it is truly an occasion in which our our young people for a moment occupy the center of the stage and are given a diploma as an educational credential commencement rrene men cement ment time is truly a beginning the old has passe passed d away the freedom of academic life a thing of the past life iffe with its challenge for youth to make good is is beckoning it is a strange bewildering world into which the young collegiate is ushered he feels that he is qualified to do a splendid piece of work he may have specialized in some particular study and this specialization causes the thermometer of his ambition to rise to a higher level he will make a name for himself he will have a glorious career he will succeed but in spite of his adequate preparation he finds the matter of placement much harder than he had imagined while there is always plenty of room at the top the pathway patha ay leading to the ladders top is crowded indeed overcrowded with similarly minded youth for the first time the youth realizes the ruthless economic competition of the world A cold im depresses his spirit and his idealistic world begins to totter unless he has received in his long course of study something else besides a few scraps of language unless high school or college has been something more than a factory for turning out a snob culture based on money and machines the young person soon meets his waterloo the greatest value of a college course is not what we learn or the culture we attain but the wisdom of utility of knowledge and of self lite life is based on the truth of at a saying of a wise man of old wisdom is the principal thing therefore get wisdom and with all thy getting get understanding our youth problem is not only the lack of proper discipline in many cases which causes failure to meet the demands of a stern materialistic world but it is lack of balance in the economic system there are too many efficiently trained young men and women for the number of available jobs job s perhaps this can be explained partly by the tact fact that employment has increased fourteen per c ent cent over the low mark of depression while dividends have increased fifty per cent until this spread can be more adequately adjusted the problem will remain culture per se is glorious but it too demands the right to earn daily bread what is as a job after all but something someone else can do but work that is something to create let us have creative youth 0 western newspaper union |