(10 of 10)
The best thing that can be said for American youth, in or out of uniform, is that it has learned that it must try to make the best oj: a bad and difficult job, whether that job is life, war, or both. The generation which has been called the oldest young generation in the world has achieved a certain maturity.
Young people do not feel cheated. And they do not blame anyone. Before this generation, "they" were always to blame. It was a standard prewar feeling that "they" had let them down. But this generation puts the blame on life as a whole, not on parents, politicians, cartels, etc. The fact of this world is war, uncertainty, the need for work, courage, sacrifice. Nobody likes that fact. But youth does not blame that fact on its parents dropping the ball. In real life, youth seems to know, people always drop the ball. Youth today has little cynicism, because it never hoped for much.
Says a TIME correspondent in Boston: "Young people most bitterly know the frightful cost of living to keep peace in the world, and they willingly submit to the cost, not from want of spirit, but from a knowledge that it is the best thing to do. You cannot say of them, 'Youth Will Be Served,' because the phrase suggests a voracious striking out from security, wealth and stability. The best you can say for this younger generation is, 'Youth Will Serve.'"
-TIME'S working definition of the younger generation: 18 to 28.