HARVARD'S PLAN FOR GOVERNMENT TRAINING

A separate Graduate School for training government servants will not be created. A faculty committee, headed by Carl J. Friedrich, associate professor of Government, will report to President Conant how the present Graduate Schools can meet the problem by creating new courses in practical government which will supply adequate training.

President Conant's speech before the Economic Club last month will supply the basis for the present work. He envisaged Harvard as preparing men, "capable of undertaking the large tasks which circumstances seem to be forcing on government agencies." His general plan is divided into three sections:

1. To enable the technical man to understand the social and political considerations of his government work.

2. To develop a new training for the many non-technical positions in government service.

3. To bring a much needed force of integration into the whole field of graduate instruction.

Present developments along this line include: new courses in the Business School on public administration, the three year cooperative arrangement between the Government Department and the Departments of History, Economics, and Sociology, and the Law School; and the establishment of the Loewenstein Fund last year.

The plan will be experimental for at least the next decade, for its results are dependent on a change of attitude and consequent revision of civil service laws. The Harvard graduates, now serving on federal agencies such as the NRA, the AAA, and the Securities Commission, are appointed. No one has definite assurance that these boards will not be abolished in a succeeding administration. The present dependency of business on government would seem to indicate, however, that the importance of well-trained officials will become an increasingly vital problem.