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To the Editors of The Crimson:

The Crimson recently carried a story that a group of university library workers had charged the administration with discrimination in hiring. The story cited two pieces of supporting evidence. First, that no black holds a position higher than secretary. I don't know how many such such positions exist or the qualifications and length of service of blacks who might fill them; there may be merit to this complaint or not. But the second argument seems impossible to maintain unless there is additional evidence not cited in the story. This is that "there are only 24 blacks among 280 people on the staffs" of the Harvard libraries. That represents a little under 8% of total staff. Since the population of Massachusetts is only 3.1% black, it hardly seems that Harvard is practicing discrimination in library hiring unless 1) people are hired out of state, 2) library science programs are graduating disproportionately large numbers of blacks or 3) by some quirk, disproportionately large numbers of blacks have applied for positions at Harvard. Isn't it more reasonable to cite specific instances of discriminatory practice rather than using raw numbers to "prove" charges of discrimination? Jonathan B. Dubitzky '73