AMHERST INSTRUCTS LABOR

Amherst College has planned to conduct night classes for the workers in Springfield and Holyoke. A meeting was held recently to complete all necessary arrangements, whereby three labor groups, the Central Labor Union of Springfield, the Central Labor Union of Holyoke, and the Amherst organization of the four Railroad Brotherhoods were formed into classes.

The members of the Amherst faculty will give the instruction both to men and women workers. Only small numbers will be permitted in each class, which will meet for one two-hour period a week in the evening. Each group will be entirely self-governing in so far as it decides all business matters, such as selecting the subject for study; deciding upon the fees to be paid, and the standard to be kept up in its work, and the electing of a class committee to aid the instructor. Professors Hamilton, Stewart, Cobb and Wicher will form the faculty committee in charge of the work.

Pioneer in This Field

In connection with the new movement the Amherst Student says: "This is the first attempt in this country to work out a policy whereby a college, as such, offers its services for the education of labor. The plan was tentatively approved by the Trustees of the College last spring, but as a quorum was not present at that meeting the actual organization of the classes had to wait until the Trustees gave their formal approval last week."

The list of courses offered are: Current Economic Problems. The rise of modern industrialism and the wages system; money, prices and the cost of living; speculation, corporation finance and trusts; wages and profits; economic security--industrial accidents, unemployment and poverty; minimum wage laws and agreements; the relations of employers and employees in theory and practice; trade unionism; the closed shop and collective bargaining; the conservation of human resources; child labor, the work of women and the hours of labor; the law in its relation to labor; and programs of reconstruction.

Industrial History. A study of how society came to be organized as it is at present, of the differences between its present structure and the way in which it was organized before the coming of the machine; of the rise of business organization and capitalism; of the development of trade unionism in its various forms; and of the rise and current setting of social and economic problems.

Practical English. A course in writing and speaking, to teach correct use of the English language for practical business purposes.

Social problems in Modern Literature. The general function of imaginative writing; a study of its typical uses, from the time of the French revolution to the present, as a reaction from and a corrective of certain social tendencies.

Mathematics. A study of the fundamental principles of mathematics (i, e, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and graphical methods) which bear on the technical work of engineers, electricians and machinists, etc.