MEN OF TOMORROW

[Music] England the date 1844 a hundred years ago the houses of parliament still under construction rise lofty above the Thames embankment yet within sight and sound of so fair and exterior lies the spiritual poverty of dockside tavern and aid scarred tenement here in the heart of London live 22 year old George Williams a farm boy from Somerset appalled by the vice and immorality he saw everywhere about him Williams decided to act he organized a group of 12 young dry goods clerks who felt much as he did and on June 6 1844 he called them to a special meeting in great earnest and with prayer they founded a society for the improvement of the spiritual condition of all young men engaged in London trades they decided to call this organization the Young Men's Christian Association the new movement spread rapidly young men and other English industrial centers began to form Christian associations of their own the work expanded into Europe and in 1855 the first world's conference was held in Paris as early as 1851 the association had crossed the Atlantic and was established first in Montreal and Boston by the end of three decades it had covered the United States and Canada further still it spread as dynamic leaders from both North America and Europe founded vigorous associations throughout the entire world till at last by 1944 the red triangle symbolizing body mind and spirit had become next to the cross and Crescent the world's most widely used religious album Main Street USA in 1851 it was one robe and a Bible class today in town and city great and small Hawaiian America includes 1,300 separate associations nearly 3 million members all told men and boys and what do they think of our associations well why not let one of them speak for all [Music] you know the wise just about all things to all people but when you come to work in a strange town and you haven't got a friend you first get to think of the wise as sort of falling away from home maybe somebody on the bus has given your friendly steer so you start down the street looking for it [Music] so why sure he knows just keep straight on ahead and there it is you're a little shy maybe but you walk on up the steps anyway and you're hoping pretty hard they've got a room for you so you're going up to the desk and ask and they have got a room then a friendly sort of guy introduces himself and he turns out to be the wise secretary and right off he makes you feel you belong here then he steers you upstairs to take a look at your room it's a nice one too and you start thinking I'm gonna like it here soon as everything's all shipshape the secretary takes you in tow again right off you start meeting new friends by the time you get downstairs again and find your locker you realize you're in a pretty good-sized place gosh they've got a swell swimming pool and you can get lessons from a real pro [Music] [Applause] but it's late in the afternoon now and you've got a lot to tell the family it's all about your finding a home away from home besides our room to sleep in the new why member can get wholesome food and plenty of it [Music] though sitting off in a corner by yourself either rest food and exercise for the everyday physical needs of life just step in at the Y on Main Street USA basketball the most popular indoor sport in the world invented by James Naismith a wise secretary in the year 1891 in those days the baskets were baskets peach baskets hundreds of thousands have learned to swim in the 600 pools now operated by the Association I did myself and many American fighting men today owe their lives to swimming lessons once received at a YMCA yes getting ready for more fun boy and girl together help with decorations for a party and the boy and girl together step through the paper heart as their shindig begins the big reason why so many young people go to the Y is they have a good time there and so all over the country they open their doors regularly to girls to for dances co-ed swims and a dozen other special events you'll see teenage kids older boys in the armed forces and even mother and dad sometimes the whole family's welcome and the whole family comes to share in the fun there's a bar at this party too for soft drinks a Coke bar and you see that young man well you'll see him here too and this Board of Directors meeting there's a lot of fun goes on at the Y but somebody's got to work pretty hard to arrange for it all now you take our friend of the coke bar he's telling him about plans for this summer at the local Y camp so kids like these can spend fine healthy summers out of doors what are they doing now well these youngsters are celebrating the mystic candle service of their induction into a gray white Club bravely they perform the rites they didn't come here to have their characters formed but that's what he is happening let the directors meet all they want just so long as the kids hold their powwow is about camp two with cap do two open almost any day now boys of this international club who attended last year drum up interest among prospective newcomers their leader sets up a screen the lights are dimmed and the story of a perfect summer begins - on why then we are that's Billy Johnson got the tiller he ever sailed boy you'll love it see that that's a race sure falen race a camp every week gee I can feel that water right now you can go swimming twice a day even more than that if you want to like yes and if you don't know how to swim we teach you sure that's easy and then comes Chao you're so darn hungry you could eat a tadpole look at all salmon trying to bounce a meatball that's when it's time to get your mail when you're unlike that and then you have a little time older yourself to read your letter from home or maybe you watch this's oh sure there's lots of work to be done now I keep things clean and neat at camp we got a wonderful Victory Garden to say you ever pick beans no you will you see that funny-looking guy in his birthday suit it's me what are we doing getting ready for the sacred Indian Firestone [Music] and if sports every guy gets to be on a team and on Sunday every guy goes to Chapel that's a bunch of our leaders that was meant to achieve our camp director and he's telling them how to keep us quiet at night you sure that I treat in the store this summer going to I camp in the city as well as at camp the instruction and training of leaders is a daily activity for the winos that its entire program depends now and will depend largely on its ability to develop the qualities of true leadership in those of its young men who must carry the movement forward hero why secretary instructs a group of men for about to receive their first experience as club leaders for younger boys grade school kids of the gray wine at George Williams College in Chicago and Springfield College in Massachusetts the Y has developed two splendid schools where secretaries themselves are trained [Music] graduate secretaries meet their fellow secretaries at the YWCA business at hand to work out plans for one of their many joint services young men and women of the same community planning and working together to make that community a better place in which to live public affairs forums have been developed by the way throughout America in a common effort to build better citizenship through greater knowledge [Music] Sunday morning in spring and young men leave the white to commune in the greatest fellowship of all here men far from home find open the friendly doors of the church and meet with the same warm friendliness and hospitality which they knew back home dinner with us thank you ma'am so they sit down with a real family to a real Sunday dinner and there are strangers here no longer but friends there's every reason why we should be friendly to those young men at the Y just think of all they do for us now you take that work with our boys sooner school's over the kids meet their gray white club leader and as long as he's with them we mothers don't have a worry some days they ride over to one of the boys houses for a club meeting inside yes and I like the way the leader and his boys open the meeting with prayer [Music] then the secretary reads the minutes of their last meeting and the boys get down to business course I must say it always seems as if one of the most important parts of that business is eating it's all right I won't say a word then you take some of their other work especially what the older boys are doing well I know where they've spent more hours than you can count working to make those paper disposal bags for the hospital [Music] and there was that day last week too when they went all over town to collect musical instruments going to send those instruments down to the center where the Y will ship them overseas to prisoners of war every day in a dozen different ways little and big these white boys are helping their country real Americans they are and the hope of us all these high school boys call their clubs hi why there are 7,000 of these clothes 7,000 examples of democracy in action in the classroom of their high school an election takes place delegates are being chosen to represent the group at a youth assembly here in a state capitol the young people themselves take over for a day the actual responsibilities of government now it's time for work but next day it's time for play a group of highway boys enjoy a ski outing in the mountains [Music] it's high wide and handsome way up here with plenty of fun for expert and scissor-bill alike [Music] the American why has always taken special interest in the welfare of young men at college today it's student branch's work closely with youth and universities from coast to coast college why secretaries lend a willing ear to students personal problems of all sorts advising guiding giving help where help is needed and for those who'd find constantly you love their faith in the worship of God the Young Men's Christian Association conducts frequent religious services my name's Frank Parker that's my city you see not so long ago I was working as a draftsman in this Factory I never got the chance to go to college myself but hawai I had an answer for me to a manager knew I wanted to get along in the world and he was the one who told me about it he said there's hawai industrial College in the city why don't you drop by and see what they have to offer I did that same day I found they had plenty to offer and right then and there I signed up for an engineering course there are scores of Y schools and colleges like this and I'd like to put in a good word for a mall I finished that course of mine two weeks ago and now I'm working out there at my war flat as a full-fledged engineer as far back as 1872 in Cleveland the first YMCA for railroad men was open this is perhaps one of the association's lesser-known divisions yet today more than 100,000 employees of 50 railroads in the United States and Canada are provided by the Y with much the same services as those offered by the more usual types of associations similar in many ways to the railroad wise our YMCAs offering services to other industrial workers in a score of fields round-the-clock why doors are open to all anta dating even the railroad wise with the association's first worked for and with the Negro's begun in 1853 it has today reached a point where 71 associations of their own besides hundreds of otherwise served the colored people of America not only health but talent too may be developed in art classes and hobby clubs even the youngest boys find their chance for self-expression for years the Y has pioneered in the fields of vocational counseling and job placement anticipating the post-war needs of veterans such work is today being developed with even greater emphasis than before already thousands of men demobilized from the Armed Forces have been held on the basis of interviews and tests designed to discover their natural abilities these men are being directed into the occupations in which they are the most likely to succeed for those who continue in the Army and Navy there is the USO with a record of service to soldiers and sailors which commenced in the War Between the States the YMCA is today one of six agencies responsible for the USO s total program in 450 separate USO clubs and units the Association offers many an attraction and in the Y's themselves every night servicemen by the thousand fine lodging clean cheap and comfortable [Music] in small towns and villages as well as in cities the YMCA is an integral part of community life and where no modern building is available for why meetings well what's wrong with a local firehouse a group of men and women listen to Russell dergen who spent 20 years overseas helping develop the wise world service program now see what the Y is doing in China for instance for 55 years workers from North American wives of pioneered the Association in distant lands as a world service the first secretary went to China in 1895 in peacetime there and later in war it has helped millions and today hundreds of able Chinese secretaries even under the terrific handicaps imposed by the war with Japan are strengthening and expanding the movement among their own people their work for boys is as widespread as aid to the troops for these youngsters are China's every hope and promise not for winning the war but the peace then there's South America in Peru here the Y has been working effectively for many years this is Uruguay boys and the beautiful distant skyline of Montevideo and in the city itself is a fine modern wash in wait young man you've got a lot to lose at the Y otherwise the Association offers you much to gain in fine family summer camps like this for instance [Music] the Y in Rio here the YMCA operate schools and in Buenos Aires capital of the Argentine you find one of the largest and most beautiful lies in the world and so the work goes forward in each country's of South and Central America you will find the Y at work with the people to the north the port of Halifax in Canada and soldiers gather for fun at the Y hostel the same thing goes on in England to where in hundreds of canteens British wise aid servicemen a whitey car serving volunteer firefighters the pitch torn London traveling libraries to are a favorite wise service to British soldiers moving from post to post along the dusty English lanes they carried thousands of volumes daily to Tommy Atkins the why is today doing its work of World Service's one of many splendid organizations like leaves serving you for these are the boys who shall tomorrow inherit the earth let us all work together to make them strong in body and generous in thought and deed so that the world of the future may be made by them a better world yes young men we must we do put our hopes in you of every race and Creed and nation your dream today is the ancient dream of humanity the dream of true brotherhood among men let us work with good faith and strong hearts to make that dream become a living reality Godspeed you young men of tomorrow [Music]