A SUMMONS TO DUTY

With trainmen already on strike in Texas the railroad situation approaches a crisis. To help meet this crisis in our own territory an Emergency Committee in the University has been created to organize Harvard volunteers who are anxious to offer their services. Should the trainmen walk out the students must have been previously trained in the fundamentals of railroad work if they are to be able substitutes. For this reason the railroad officials have made arrangements to hold classes in Cambridge later in the week to explain the duties involved in firing an engine and in acting as conductors and brakemen. Volunteers who think they can wait until the strike begins before preparing will be of decidedly negative value as far as helping out in this crisis goes. Training is imperative; training takes time.

We do not doubt but that the Emergency Committee will be swamped with applicants during these two days. It is necessary, however, first to realize the seriousness of this duty. We have been appealed to because the college man has the ability to adapt himself to a situation involving both intelligence and hard work. This is to be no picnic; the work will be dirty and exacting; the necessity of operating passenger trains on schedule will undoubtedly serve to make hours irregular. Those who find themselves in the service of the railroads on October 30 will discover that their duties will be a far different matter from realizing the boyhood ambition of being a railroad engineer.