Youth Looks at War

Abstract

THAT sixty-one of every one hundred (60.7 per cent) young people consider war both needless and preventable is brought to light by a recent survey of the American Youth Commission of the Ameri can Council on Education. At the oppo site extreme are 1.7 per cent of young peo ple to whom war appeals as a good thing, either to bring about economic prosperity, or because of the personal adventure and pleasure they believe they would get out of going to war. Undertaken to discover youth's most pressing needs, the survey touched upon attitudes and reactions of young people to vital problems of the day, including war. It was conducted by personal interview of 13,528 young people aged sixteen to twenty-four years. As might be expected, girls are more in clined to believe war needless and prevent able than boys; but the record of the latter is no mean one, virtually fifty-five of every one hundred coinciding in this belief, as compared to two of every three girls. Another twenty-seven of every one hun dred, though convinced war is evil, believe it to be necessary or inescapable, partly be cause of human nature, partly because of trade, and also for other reasons. Boys in this category outnumber girls, thirty-two of every one hundred of the former, as com pared to twenty-two of every one hundred of the latter believing war to be a necessary evil. Strange as it may seem, considering the tendency of youth to have opinions whether good, bad or indifferent, on every subject that. may come to their attention, the next largest group, representing six in every one hundred, have no opinion about war. Young men, however, would appear to be more opinionated than young women, at least insofar as concerns this particular subject, for but 4.9 per cent of the boys hold no opinion as compared to 7.4 per cent of the girls. The question whether war is justifiable, either for commercial expansion or for the settlement of international disputes, brought affirmative answers from 4.5 per cent of the boys and 1.6 per cent of the girls, making a total of 3.1 per cent of all interviewed. An additional 1.5 per cent of youth hold opinions about war that cannot be classed in any of the above categories.