A ROOM OF OUR OWN
Follette, Isabel Bacon La
A Room of Our Own The Youth Congress From Angelo Patri What Are We Waiting For By ISABEL BACON LA FOLLETTE WHAT comment can I make on last week's column, with its letter from the 30-year-old...
...It is easier to say 'Silence' than it is to find a solution, but this is no time for ease...
...A, a friend just pointed out to me, "Here we've been talking so long about '40, and now It's upon us...
...Show them what to do, give them a chance to do It, and they are on the Job...
...slon.l the road we kr.o.v a ri;;ht, drawing like-minded people together in a common purpese...
...Patri, "living out its day in despondency...
...It i.s time for action...
...You and I cannot escape the responsibility which Mr...
...What indeed, as Mr...
...We must band together in cne mighty effcrt...
...Each of us must vatch ourselves carefully t/> avoid the attitude the.t the world owes us something on a .'liver platter...
...Startling to their elders who...
...They are not wise in the wisdom of age...
...I talked recently with an extremely able and experienced woman who sat in on the Youth congress in Washington, and was I much interested in her analysis of it...
...It especially annoys some of the elders who should be formulating plans for the relief and ultimate success of these boys and girls...
...We expect more ftom our government than any people in history, but by the same token we shall have to give more if we are to keep that government a democracy...
...What thrills me is the response that young America still makes to that appeal...
...Something is wrong with the social scheme that fails to provide opportunity for usefulness, for growth through responsibility for its younger generation...
...It is (he raise and not in-rrly the death that makes a martyr.—Napoleon...
...They are in full tide of health and energy...
...I, for one, am pushing a* hard as I can, haunted by the memory of the hundreds of brown-shirted young men on the street-corners of Berlin in 1933, the young men who were the back-bone of Hitler's early power...
...People are ready to blame the German people for not throwing off the yoke of Hitlerlsm, but what about us who are i>er-fectly free to work out our own destiny by the ballot...
...Naturally they talk about it...
...Patri places on our shoulders...
...The Youth congress held in Washington a month or so ago is still stirring up comment, some sympathetic, some caustic...
...She reported that much of the leadership was Communist, professional agitators who were making a living off the young people, just as the aged have been victimized by many professional "leaders...
...This Is a campaign yerr...
...They can find no field of usefulness...
...This generation born in depression must not be permitted to live out its day in despondency...
...Taft is reported to have called this youth organization a "pressure group," while Mrs...
...What is to happen then, in our America...
...Waiting for another day, for another year, is no cure for today's grief...
...that the same personal qualities that have always counted—Industry, persistence, character, self-discipline—are needed more today than ever...
...Schools are overloaded with students who have no place else to go and who should be in action in shop and factory, field, forest and farm...
...Many of them are physically ready for marriage and they cannot marry because they have no way of supporting a family...
...They will say some silly things and some wild things, but if the ear of understanding is turned their way they will be heard uttering profound truths as well...
...Patri asks, are we waiting for...
...He writes: "The young people are confused by the many-sided problems that face them...
...Nobody needs them...
...A Room of Our Own The Youth Congress From Angelo Patri What Are We Waiting For By ISABEL BACON LA FOLLETTE WHAT comment can I make on last week's column, with its letter from the 30-year-old man who is still seeking a steady livelihood with all its means...
...Any difficult problem is made simpler and clearer by discussion, interchange of ideas and attitudes...
...and more important, Pro^re .sive strength Is growing in Individuals and gro'jp.s throughout the country...
...A way must be found...
...The young people must speak out or choke spiritually...
...What are we waiting for...
...I know we can do the necessary job which will solve the problem of youth, of age, and those of us in the middle years, a job that will make all of us feel necessary, u/eful and secure in our world...
...so they will say startling things...
...It is obvious that anyone who writes such a good letter analyzing his own and the general situation for youth today must have real abilities which should fit into a satisfying niche somewhere...
...The streets are full of aimless young people who should be working purposefully toward a wholesome, useful way of life...
...It is getting late...
...Nothing is going to turn up in the shape of a miracle to relieve us and them...
...The list of young men and girls in jail makes us droop in shame...
...Youth is fleeting...
...Youth's problems make talking -out loud imperative...
...We should all remember that we live in the minute, in the day as it comes...
...Yerr is an enormous task waiting for each of us, bo matter what our ; It-nation...
...We have known this for years, but what little effort we have made has been futile...
...Progressive "sentiment...
...Soon maturity will descend full weight upon these young people...
...We have terrible object-lessons to teach us—Germany whose youth are "employed" in uniform but intellectually and spiritually stunted, and England with a generation grown-up since the last war and, to quote Mr...
...It'.s not going to be eay, in fact it will be a tough job demanding the best that is in esch of us...
...Patri calls "the life and soul of life for them...
...Something is wrong with a society whose youth finds itself at a stand-still...
...Nobody wants them...
...Progress—the coward stride of God.—VUftor Hugo...
...One can wait if one knows what to wait for, but when there is no sign in the sky, no voice from the cloud, one begins to doubt and then to fear and then to despair...
...As my mind has been wrestling with this problem of youth today, I have come across a fine column by Angelo Patri from whom I always get a seasoned quality, a wisdom born out of long experience where-from he "speaks...
...V.'hrt are WE wailing for...
...We don't know what the two old parties are going to do, or who they are going to nominate to be their s^and-ard-bcarerr, but we arc movlnr...
...On our work with young people I think it is important to not only demonstrate our understanding of their predicament, but at the some time to point out that life has not been altogether a bed of roses for our generation...
...No plan which is aimed for one group at the e-.pense of the othcrt can work...
...Talking helps to clarify ideas...
...They find themselves through school, ready to begin work, and they can find no work...
...Republican presidential candidate's wife Mrs...
...Time is not helping us and them...
...Action is life and the soul of life for them...
...This question of what is to be done for and with our youth should not be shelved longer...
...Roosevelt was criticized in many quarters for her too-tolerant, perhaps sentimental attitude toward the young ;:eople...
...Youth is talking about all this and their talking annoys some of the elders...
...We must put our brains to work and give these young people some sort of hope for today and tomorrow...
...In the face of German governments which couldn't find the solution for unemployment and the misery of youth, Hitler called them to action, the very appeal Mr...
...set in then- grooves, burdened with their own cares, have not given much thought to the troubles of youth...
...This woman said that the rank and file were fine American young people desperately in need of a place in our world, and trying to get attention focussed on their plight...
Vol. 10 • March 1940 • No. 12
