FOUND: A PESSIMIST

It is entirely fitting and proper that Mr. Aubrey Williams, a pessimist if there ever was one, should be at the head of the National Youth Administration. Nothing could be worse than the situation which a large majority of young people in this country must face when they set out on their own in life. Work Relief, National Youth Administrations, the Dole, all help to keep such Youth from starving to death. For Youth that alone is scarcely an inspiring prospect.

But let Mr. Williams, an authority, speak in his own words: "We know," spoke he to the West Virginia teachers at a state education convention, "that a vast, overwhelming majority of the children born in the last twenty-five years will never rise above a hand-to-mouth existence; that all their steps from cradle to the grave will be dogged by poverty, sickness, and insecurity. . . Professional and intellectual honesty demand that you tell your pupils that 70 per cent of our people must live below the standard of decency; . . . that millions now unemployed will never find jobs again; that their chances of getting economic freedom are stacked four to one against them."

Perhaps there is a chance that intelligent, farseeing men, through the force of circumstances, will arise into the positions of power in this country and save us from this horrible fate. We don't know though. The pessimists have been right for the last 5,000 years. So the presumption even now is in their favor.