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This is San Francisco, magnet of doubtful opportunity for the single girl, where regularly every year on Army of Single Girls arrived by every available means of transportation to begin the inevitable search for jobs and places to live that San Francisco is facing a new problem with

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this yearly migration of single girls is evident by the number of arrival this summer. The number stands at approximately 60 and probably more to come. Reverend Ted McIlvenna, director of the young Adult program sponsored by the Glide Project, believes that the number of young girls coming

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to San Francisco is increasing all the time. This summer, I would say that over 10,000 girls arrived in San Francisco from all over the United States. They came by bus. They came by plane. They came by train. They came by car. Some of them even hitchhike.

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But they arrived in the city hoping toe establish a life here. Most of them will find, at least to a certain degree what they are seeking. But an increasingly large number will not. We know that at this period of their lives, many of them will have

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their lives significantly bent for the past year. The welfare of these young strangers has been the major concern of church groups and welfare agencies throughout the city. In February of this year, the matter came to the attention of Mayor George Christopher, who was shocked to learn

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of the inability of responsible youth organizations to cope with the problem because of limited facilities and overcrowding. What these girls need is good, solid, wholesome environment, he said. But some of these Children go to cheap hotels and get in the wrong company. This is assignment for

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produced in the community interest by the News and Documentary department of Koron TV. Tonight we hope to provide some partial answers to the vexing question concerning the welfare of the single girl, one of the most challenging enigmas on the San Francisco contemporary scene. A. To close

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of the Great War in 1918, the youngsters of that era who tried to find themselves and their place in society were labeled the Lost Generation. The present generation of young strangers who find themselves in the same predicament almost half a century later have been variously labeled

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by social scientists and theologians as the silent generation or the uncommitted without entirely specifying what these youngsters were supposed to be committed to. Yet none of these convenient labels applied to the problem adequately describe the situation confronting the youth of the present Postwar generation, especially where

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it concerns the single girl. Margaret Mead, writing for the 1960 White House Conference on Children and Youth, has perhaps come closest to the fundamental reason behind the problem. The increased pressure in our society for persons to conform, she said, discourages experimentation and the pursuit of imaginative

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by paths for the single girl arriving in San Francisco to most essential needs must be met a firsthand, a place to live and a job. One is not possible without the other. But finding living quarters is the first and most acute problem facing the single girl

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upon her arrival in the city, because there is simply not enough housing of the right kind to go around. The Salvation Army, which attempts to meet the need at the point of need, provides a home for young women at its Evangeline residents. But although it is

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one of the best of its kind, it can only accommodate a limited number of young women. Brigadier George bags director of the Salvation Army's Evangeline residents, says that they accept young women providing they have jobs. Well, first, I would say that finding a place to live

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and secondly, which is very important, is finding a job. Now we in the Salvation Army. We have made provision for the living accommodations here in the advance of the resident. The girl makes her application sometimes too, reference of some other person who has lived here. Or

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she has heard about the resident. She makes her application and then has a personal interview if she meets the qualifications, which, of course, is UNAIDS Group, because here we take girls from 18 to 35 and if she meets that qualification and there's an availability, then of

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course we take her in. However, she must have the prospects of a job if not already working. I mean by that, if she makes application, she has to tell us the place she is going toe work. And of course, we do ask that in the application

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she must tell us where she is working, and then, if there's I say an availability way, take her in. More often than not, these young girls for the most part alone and friendless have serious difficulty in locating even temporary places to live and are compelled to

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seek rooms in the less attractive sections of the city with their pitfalls and dangers. Reverend Tom McIlvenna, after an exhaustive study of this problem, feels that the lack of housing is the main problem. Well, first, okay, we have, ah, very poor housing situation for the young

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adult in San Francisco, or not enough adequate good places for the young girl to go. Or she can feel some sense of protection and security and yet still have freedom. Frustrated and disillusioned, these young girls, many times unwilling to admit defeat, stay until their meager resources

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vanish and become a problem to the city. Others in the same flight but willing to continue the battle, managed to find menial work until the right job comes along. Forced to live in cheap hotels and boarding houses because of their low incomes, these girls become prey

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to evil influences. This aspect of the problem is the prime concern of welfare and church organizations, but they are uncertain as to where the responsibility lies. Brigadier Lawrence Smith of the Salvation Army believes It's a problem that is too difficult to find the answer to because

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of established housing laws. Well, it's rather difficult to answer, definitely as to whose responsibility it would be, because residents laws make it, uh, in some instances impossible for a given level of government to do what they know should be done for these youngsters. And that's the

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reason why oftentimes, the voluntary agency, even though it's funds might be very limited, is about the only one in the community that can realistically cope with the problem. But the residents law on the statutes in practically every state of the union is responsible for the state

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of affairs. While the responsibility of providing living quarters for these unwanted ones is being established without any sign of a solution in the foreseeable future, many of these youngsters wander around aimlessly, jobless and alone. A girl in her twenties and in her thirties can meet people

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at either the young Republicans, the young Democrats, any of the other social and sporting groups in San Francisco. She could meet individuals in the bars. Ah, girl in the 20 and 30 range usually has a job in San Francisco, and she makes acquaintance with the people

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she works with. Or perhaps he is able to find other meaningful relationships, uh, to church groups or another different framework of associations. But the girl that 17 and 18 all that she can do is wander aimlessly. Mayor Christopher feels that the San Francisco Housing Authority ought

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to be able to come up with some kind of program to provide these young girls with low rents and wholesome surroundings. We are doing our best to provide proper housing for the aged and we should, he said. We're doing our best for people in the low

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income groups, and we should. But here is a new type of problem for which we are not providing for economic and security reasons. Girls sometimes try to solve their own living problems. Many times three or four of them joined forces to share the cost of an

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apartment. The permanent resident facilities of Evangeline House cannot always accommodate new arrivals, but those turned away are always referred to smaller safe hotels as well as those operated by community fund agencies. But they, too, are sometimes faced with the same problem of overcrowding. Yes, sir. At

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the present time and I'll let me refer to this. We have guests from Canada, England, China, British Columbia, Holland, Germany, Norway, Island, Nova Scotia, Peru, Guatemala, Honduras, Philippines, Iran, Japan, Hawaii and many of our own states and including some from our own city of San Francisco.

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Apart from the provisions of proper homes and surroundings, for these girls, there is the question of the preventative approach to possible delinquency. The Salvation Army looks at the brighter side of the problem that for every delinquent girl there are 2000 who are not. Brigadier George Bags

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believes that too much emphasis is placed on the delinquent girl and not enough on the fact that for every delinquent girl there are thousands who are normal and well adjusted. Well, I might say that Mrs Bags and I spent many, many years of the Salvation Army

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youth work directing youth camps and very much interested in you. And I found that. Why did we, Max, that make it, uh, magnify the individual who perhaps is the delinquent? We sometimes forget the 10 thousands who are good, and we like to look on the brighter

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side and say, Well, while there is one bad there is just 10 0 Good. Ah, William Booth. When he found in the Army, he said, Go for the worst. The Salvation Army is interested in that one who might be bad. But by the same token, we

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say preventative medicine is sometimes better than the cure. Therefore, from my observation here, the young ladies who come into our Evangeline, the young ladies who live here of the finest type of young people who are full of life and vehement pepper. And that's what we would

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like the have to be in that respect. But they're fine, upright, strong characters on Duh. I would say that, uh, through the program that we're we have here and through their appreciation of that program that they're not the type of gonna land up as a delinquent

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that makes us feel very, very happy. Very, very good. In just a moment, we will discuss the question of jobs and the single girl as a second class citizen. But these girls flocked to San Francisco to seek jobs and do not find them because of not

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having a permanent place of residence is a problem. The Salvation Army has been studying for some time a recent survey revealed that the single girl under 20 was regarded as a second class citizen. Business firms are unwilling to accept her unless her personal life reflects stability.

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Schools and colleges refuse to enroll her unless she has a suitable place to live. Taking these problems in order, it becomes self evident that the lack of jobs automatically poses the question. What becomes of the single girl who does not find a job or a place

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to live? The Salvation Army solution is to contact the parents of the girl Well, from our experience here and from my own personal experience, we would say that does not apply to the type of girl who applies here. The adventure. As I stated, they must have

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a job of the prospects of a job Onda. Therefore, we know just where they are on board where they're working, and I will say this if perhaps a girl from some circumstance over which he has no control. She does lose the job and we find that

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out. If we can't find a place for her or help her in getting a job, then we notify the parents. That is, too. If the girl remains out quite late in the in the evenings or we see, perhaps, that she's needs a little counseling what we

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call the girl and we do our best we counselor and advisor. And then if it persists and continues, then we say, Well, there was no alternative but to call your parents, which we do. Then we're guided by the parents decision. Either send the girl home, which

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labor for the carfare or the railroad fare, whatever it might be, uh, or they will come and get the girl. So we feel that this is a home away from home. We have the obligation off not just supplying a girl with room and board, but we

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also feel that it's a service of the Salvation Army's rendering. And we want to do that. A small percentage of these girls find type ist clerical jobs paying $266 a month, many with secretarial training are able to find well paying jobs at around $350 a month.

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Others with average educational background without training and specialized field become sales girls and department stores. Ah, part of the problem seems to stem from the fact that many of these girls are unskilled and secretarial and other specialized types of office work. Many of them do go

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home. Many of them do, however, get into trouble more and more trouble. As we see the tremendous number who have no skills which are coming to San Francisco. There are not enough jobs available for the unskilled person in this city, their jobs for the girl who

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has typing, who has secretarial skills or other skills, but no job for those who are unskilled. The state of California Division of Labor Statistics and Research says that out of every 100 girls between the ages of 18 and 24 19 will be enrolled in schools or

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colleges off those in school, eight will find their way into the labor force in part time work. Of the 81 girls not in school, 40 will join the labor force in full time work or looking for jobs. The remaining 41 will either be married, traveling or

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living at home. Yet many of the girls interview that Evangeline House had no difficulty in getting jobs, even though they came from widely separated parts of the world. Paret did you have a hard time getting a job when you came from Canada? I didn't come from

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Canada. Came from Mexico. Oh, I ran out of money in Mexico and I stopped here on the way to get a job. Did you have a hard time finding a job? A little. Because people, many of the officers will not take you when you've just arrived

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in the city and also on account of the accident. How did you find the job, then? Through an employment agency, when you came from Boston to San Francisco, Did you have trouble to find a place to live and a job? Well, I knew some friends here

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from quite a long time ago, and they recommended the Evangeline because it has reasonable rates for young ladies. And it is a young ladies residents. So I came here and I was very lucky because I did not have any trouble at all in getting right away.

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Then after that, I had to look for a job. So the next day, after I moved in, I went looking, And as most of us have found, the employment agency is just about our best bet. One coming from another city because they can find out what

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you can do and recommend the places to go. So I found a job rather easily because I had already had experience here in the United States. Reverend Michael Vendor believes that most single girls regard a business career as secondary in importance to marriage and a home.

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Well, the young girl. He's not interested primarily in a career. She's interested in finding a husband. If she finds that in her job or in her living relations, she meets no young man, she will simply quit her job and move. For those accomplished girls who are

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residents of Evangeline House, there seems to be no problem of job insecurity. Well, I could understand in some respects that could be so. However, let me state that the girls who are living here with Evangeline while the girls have make applications, they're the finest type. And

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any concern or any business in City of San Francisco. Also off the country, for that matter would be more than pleased. Toe have the type of girl that lives here, the abandoned on their payroll or as an employee, we're mighty proud of them. Apart from the

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economic and rooming problems facing many single girls in San Francisco, there is the utter loneliness of being a stranger among strangers. Unknown jobless, knowing no one wary of strangers. They spend their time in the movies going from theater to theater to while away the time anyone

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can go along Market Street and see these girls who many of them too young to get into bars or not desire ing to go into bars, wander up and down, sometimes grabbing something to eat in one of the arcades and then going to a movie, perhaps

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coming out getting something else. Thio eat, hanging around and back toe another movie. I call this group the movie door, hoping perhaps during the intermission, in a movie to meet someone else. The safety, the security of a controlled environment, which a movie theater is there is

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to the need of establishing social contacts and the need for a productive social atmosphere. Well, I might say this that not every girl after she comes home from work wants to go out sometimes that they like to stay around watching on television programs here now lounge.

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However, in addition to that, we do it range periodically, musicals and concerts and party now during the holiday season, there's a holiday season such as Thanksgiving or Christmas, that we don't have a good many parties and a good many activities, so that the girl who can't

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get home at these very special times of the year then she is here and made to feel very, very, uh, welcome and made to feel that there's no homesickness. Our loneliness for that's, as I say, if one of our primary objectives this is a home away

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from home, we do everything we possibly can to make it just that. Still, many girls outside this realm and their efforts to establish social contacts sometimes go wrong. The girls want to meet men, but they often meet the wrong men under the wrong conditions. Yet despite

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all the problems, the lack of jobs and limited living accommodations within their means, the lure of glamorous San Francisco is a cosmopolitan coastal city overcomes all other considerations. If given a choice of a place toe, live or young adults around the United States would rather live

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in San Francisco than any other city. It has the image of the city, the city that knows how a place where you can do the things that back home you only thought about doing city where you're going to be left alone or as they stake unbundle

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a city that demands a loyalty. That's fantastic to me. Uh huh. On the part of young adults city where you can get lost, you can party, you can have fun. Or if you're a young gal, you can openly husband hunt. No one will complain you for

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this. This is the image they have, and no matter how untrue it is or how many times they seem to get hurt or damage. Still, they are loyal to the city. Yet above all, they worry about themselves about the worries of becoming ill, with no one

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to turn to for help, the lack of money and a myriad of other problems, which automatically magnified themselves in this framework of loneliness within the big city. But Mrs George Bags, the assistant director of Evangeline Residents, believes that in the final summary, the question of responsibility

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for these young girls rests with their parents. I think the responsibility first, unless it is in the home with the parents and no organization. Even one has dedicated a Salvation Army contain the place of the home. I have a daughter, 19, and I'm amazed the parents

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will let young girl come into a strange city with insufficient funds not having written ahead or made any plans, or have the slightest having the slightest idea what their daughter will do when she arrives. To me, this seems to be gross negligence on. I feel there's

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no excuse for it. The parents have a definite responsibility to, ah, young girl, and that responsibility should be met by themselves and not put off upon any agency or any city officials. I feel very strongly on the subject, and the problem will get worse. As the

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enormous teenage population grows, we can expect by 1970 on increase on the west coast of 100% in the age group between 18 and 24 due to the war baby boom and also the fact that young adults are coming west. Large influx of young adults, many of

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them without skills, many of them just arriving in the city with problems. Some of them coming here because they're unwed mothers or because they have personal problems they're struggling with Need the freedom and anonymity anonymity of the city. I see solutions because there's a going to

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be a need for housing, and I've found that individuals, if they can clearly see a need, will respond to it. Many groups have been making studies. I see the United Fund active now in a committee that has provided ah book for orientation to the city to

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be placed at every point of entry in every residence hall in every hotel. That says what is in San Francisco, where they can get help where employment agencies are what residents halls are available now I see solutions in a really emphasis on the problem that the

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young adult faces in culture shock when they come to the city. Such is the story of the single girl most times alone and friendless, looking for her place in the scheme of things in the mid 20th century. Perhaps there is an answer, perhaps not. Assignment for

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the weekly award winning report to the West is presented in the public interest each week at this time by the news and documentary department of Koron TV. We wish to thank Brigadier and Mrs George Bags and the staff of the Salvation Army. Reverend Ted McIlvenna of

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the Mary Elizabeth House and Maurice Iger Shenson of the Division of Labor Statistics and Research for their cooperation in the production of this film. Join us next week for another report to the West on assignment for.