YOUTH: Monstrous Lobby

"The meeting will come to order!"

Under the cobalt-blue ceiling and fantastic chandeliers of the Department of Labor Auditorium, the bustle and fidget of over 2,000 young people settled to a whisper. The members of the American Youth Congress, assembled in Washington for a four-day citizenship institute, "a monster lobby for jobs, peace, civil liberties, education and health," came to order. A. Y. C.'s adopted mother, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, sat placidly in the second row.

Many a curious glance was directed at her. For once this sensible woman had put herself in an altogether too quixotic position. She was on record as believing that Communist influence in the A. Y. C. was negligible. As to that, the youngest youth in the hall knew that Mrs. Roosevelt was either kidding herself or being taken for a ride.

One of the "other" Roosevelts, Archibald, son of Archibald, son of President Theodore, sat by. The delegates (here a pretty girl who could afford a fox collar, there an unemployed Italian in a sweater, Negroes next to white friends, students, sharecroppers, a few "youths" with bald or greying heads) were dog-tired. All day they had seen sights, visited Congressmen, argued, walked up & down with rhyming placards: "Heed the Voice of 21,000,000: Keep the C. C. C. Civilian!" "Scholarships not Battleships!" "Dies is FLIP-PITY about Civil LIBERTY!"

But when Chairman Howard Ennes pounded his gavel, the weary delegates perked up. Not because they expected the speeches to be much fun, or because they thought the meeting would advance the A. Y. C.'s advertised aim: passage of the $500,000,000 Murray Youth Bill to establish a permanent Federal Youth Administration. They had come to see a sideshow. They had their eyes peeled for one Murray Plavner.

For two days Murray Plavner had done a lot of talking. He had praised Republican National Committee Chairman John D. M. Hamilton for refusing to send a Republican Party delegate to any Youth Congress meeting until it purged "Communistic elements which, according to the Dies Committee, dominate it." He had chided Mrs. Roosevelt for chiding Mr. Hamilton. He had made public an attack on the Congress signed by Gene Tunney and four other youngish men. And at this meet ing he had promised there would be action.

Jack McMichael, National Chairman of A. Y. C., got up to speak. He rambled along about the New Deal, about the Ku Klux Klan. When he started deriding the Dies Committee—

"Point of Order! Point of Order!" shouted F. Steven McArthur, leaping to his feet. "I want to make a resolution.

We must clear ourselves of the charge of Communistic—" "You're out of order!" shouted Chairman Ennes.

"He's not!" yelled Peter Tropea, up front, waving a book in one hand.

"Shut up. Sit down! Boo!" roared the assembled youth. Chairman Ennes had Mr. McArthur tossed out. Speaker McMichael went on.

"I demand the floor!" shouted Archibald Roosevelt. "I wish to read a resolution. We must denounce Russia!" "You're out of order!" cried Ennes.

"He's not! He's not!" yelled Peter Tropea, waving his book.