ORGANIZED LABOR

In these days of huge emergency expenditures yielding questionable returns, it is particularly encouraging to read of relatively modest emergency appropriations paying three-fold dividends. In 1932, Harvard College established The Temporary Student Employment Plan, under which the sum of $40,000 is set aside annually to give employment in various departments of the University to needy upper classmen. The figures just released by the Student Employment Office show that 255 men earned an average of $147 during the first year of operation of the Plan. Last year 206 men averaged more than $200 each.

Not only were these men enabled to remain in college, but, as evidenced by their own statements in response to a questionnaire, they also gained experience in office and secretarial training, physical exercise, and desirable contacts with University officials. The libraries, museums, offices, and class rooms where they were employed meanwhile enjoyed the benefit of services which their budgets would not otherwise have permitted.

The Temporary Student Employment Plan has proved itself an intelligent answer to a difficult problem. There are numerous jobs around a large University which can be performed especially well by students. The report from the Employment Office indicates that this year the Plan will provide less routine, purely manual work and more jobs that will offer the student opportunity "to increase his knowledge of academic subjects." This change promises to make the Plan even more advantageous to the student worker.