Help Wanted

With the Christmas oasis out of the way, Harvard is settling down to the serious business of organizing its defense and wartime services on a duration basis. The PBH-Student Council Defense Service Committee, centered at Dean Chauncey's clearing-house in University Hall, will attempt to make unaroused Harvardmen realize that "keeping calm" does not mean burying one's nose in a book or a stein of beer and forgetting that a war exists. Actually, of course, there are a few who still cling to kidding themselves, but so far the trouble has been that opportunities for volunteers were vague or non-existent; also many undergraduates or graduates felt that it would be impossible to fit any sort of work into days already overcrowded.

All this will be changed if the Defense Committee operates efficiently. From the tabulation of the questionnaires due Saturday, the members will have ready information on every student in the University--his interest whether it be surgery or switchboards, his free hours per week whether it be a cautious one or an enthusiastic twenty. The machinery for putting a volunteer in a useful activity is relatively simple. Every time Dean Chauncey's office receives a call for volunteers, emergency or otherwise, the appeal will go straight to the sub-committee concerned. From there it goes out to the students who have indicated their desire to do the particular kind of work. By this division of labor the volunteer quota for any one call should be filled inside of thirty minutes.

A lot depends on the members of these committees and on the slashing of red tape to a minimum. But obviously the ultimate success of Harvard's contribution to victory rests on the unanimous support of the students as well as the other members of the University. The first step is filling out the questionnaires completely and honestly, and the next is to really fit in a little time somewhere. Mimeographing A. R. P. flyers or learning about compound fractures during exams may be more wearisome and less exciting than joining an A. E. F., but it's just as surely a contribution to final triumph for democracy.