American Youth Congress
American Youth Congress
American Youth Congress Washington DC
American Youth Congress
Eleanor Roosevelt speaking to teenagers. Teenagers standing and listening. Unidentified Teen Boy, Mrs. Roosevelt, we who come from the rural area are interested in finding out just what steps we can take to secure grater collaboration with urban youth on these problems that we face. Eleanor Roosevelt, Well I think what you are doing here, coming to a meeting of the American Youth Congress, and in getting together by yourselves and discussing your special problems and then in discussing how you can integrate those problems with the problems of industrial youth in urban areas of the country.
American Youth Congress
Eleanor Roosevelt speaking to teenagers. Teenagers standing and listening. Unidentified Teen Boy, Mrs. Roosevelt, I come from Eastern Colorado where the problem of dust storms has been particularly acute. And I d like to know if you think the problem of soil conservation is an important one. Eleanor Roosevelt, I think it s one of the most important problems we have. I think we ve made a beginning and some of us feel that the problem of soil conservation is basic to the problem of conserving our people. Because you will notice that where the soil is depleted, almost always you have a people that have lowered their standards of living. Therefore it is basic to the whole problem of the country.
American Youth Congress
No audio. Teenagers standing and listening.
American Youth Congress
CU ribbon pinned to young man's jacket: AMERICAN YOUTH CONGRESS - PASS THE AMERICAN YOUTH ACT.
American Youth Congress
Government building, youth and press gathered at side entrance. Well-dressed teens
American Youth Congress
Supreme Court building.
American Youth Congress
Government building, youth and press gathered at side entrance. Well-dressed teens
American Youth Congress
Female teen talking to the American Youth Congress. we want the right to fight for peace and jobs. We discuss civil liberties today not as an academic problem, not as a sacred and abstract concept, but as a battlefront which might literally mean life and death to our generation. Civil liberties do not exist by the mere affirmation of them. They can only continue to exist by the day to day vigilance of each one of us.
American Youth Congress
Female teen talking to the American Youth Congress. But even if none should be passed, none of these bills, we ve not come to grips with existing legislation which when invoked in an hours notice would smash our democracy. This is a provision of the Federal Communications Commission Act of 1934 in which government can within an hour take over every radio station in the country and use it for any particular end. Then there is the power of the postal authorities which could choke the freedom of the press by inhibiting second class mailing privileges. Publications need second class mailing privileges so that they don t go bankrupt putting out their publications. Hardly anyone today is aware also, the huge reservoir of dictatorial powers which are the legacy of the First World War. These also are silent and generally not in the light of our scrutiny. We must bring them out and face them. And note also with horror that the Department of Justice has begun to tabulate and catalog these in preparation for the day.
American Youth Congress
Female teen talking to the American Youth Congress. about the most important single affirmative step ever taken to guaranteed civil liberties in the United States in recent years. It is symptomatic of the situation in which we find ourselves today that this measure more than any other single measure on the books has been under the fire of ruthless and unfair attacks and is in grave danger of being repealed or hamstrung. I refer to the National Labor Relations Act, the Wagner Act. It has established in the framework of our law, the right of men to organize into unions, free from employer interference and to bargain collectively through such organizations. In doing so the Wagner Act makes meaningful to workers what has been in a great extent to them, an abstract bill of rights. Make no mistake about it, freedom of the press is surely just as involved when a union seeks to publish and distribute a leaflet as when the Herald Tribune expresses its rather queer notions about the American Youth Congress. It s a shameful chapter in our recent history that from the very day of its inception, the Wagner Act has been subjected to a campaign of misrepresentation, vilification, and abuse, aimed not so much at the Act as the basic civil liberties it protects.
American Youth Congress
Female teen talking to the American Youth Congress. "We in the American Youth Congress have felt the rising tide of pressure being brought against such ideas in the form of oppression against political minorities. For well over a year now, we have been under bombardment from all sides to purge the Communists from the American Youth Congress. Yes, there are Communists represented in the Congress through the Young Communist League. "
American Youth Congress
Female teen talking to the American Youth Congress. " vigilant and active wherever a guy is beaten up by a cop, wherever people are organizing for the right to have a job, wherever any agency, public or private, goes gunning for those of us who organize." Cuts off.