The Literature of Youth Problems

Abstract

In recent years the necessity of achieving a point of view from which the problems of may be synthesized and integrated has been increasingly recognized by leaders in American life, with the result that we have the beginnings of a literature in which the welfare of young persons in its several phases is given general and comprehensive treatment, and an attempt is made to see the problem whole (1-16). Much of the popular and semipopular writing about in the present decade is concerned with what are somewhat loosely termed youth movements. This is in part due to the fact that the postwar European dictatorships were materially aided in their rise to power by the ready allegiance of regimented masses of persons in early maturity, and almost uniformly place heavy stress upon the propagandizing and regimentation of as a prime part of their social programs. Observation of the roles played by the so-called youth in Italy, Germany, and Russia has naturally caused much curiosity and indeed some apprehension as to whether the seeds of similar movements may take root in American soil. This produces a quest for the attitudes and philosophies which may be uppermost or be taking form in the minds of the masses of American youth. Much has been written on this subject, the bulk of it being by adult commentators who set down their impressions in reportorial manner after more or less desultory contacts and conversations with small numbers of young persons (17). A smaller segment of the literature of what American is thinking consists of articles written by intelligent persons who are themselves in their twenties, and who may be said in a sense to compose the voice of articulate (18). A still smaller and less widely circulated type of reporting may be found in some of the several local community surveys of youth, in which the whole population of a restricted area or a carefully selected sampling thereof has been interviewed and asked to respond to various questions designed to disclose the respondent's personal outlook and attitude toward his own future and toward certain problems of his community and of society as a whole (19). Another type of recent writing relates to the plight of American in the depression, with particular reference to the prevalence of unemployment and the extent and manner of public and private relief and its effects (20-26). An important phase of this subject is the problem of transiency among youth, which consequently has a voluminous literature of its own (27-28). This often shades into the writings concerning work camps for youth, which cover at least three distinctive types: work camps in European countries, the Civilian Conservation Corps in America, and the separate camps for transients inaugurated in several states (29-32). A constructive and long-time view