The College and Charity

(Ed. Note--The Crimson does not necessarily endorse opinions expressed in printed communications. No attention will be paid to anonymous letters and only under special conditions, at the request of the writer will names be withheld.)

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

A recent issue of the CRIMSON records President Lowell's approval of Mr. Wood's letter stating that "The Harvard undergraduates, recognizing the widespread unemployment, and eager to make some contribution to benefit those out of work, etc,". Without wishing to appear like the famous dog-in-the-manager, I nevertheless question the sagacity and prudence of this step.

As was pointed out recently in a letter to the CRIMSON, Harvard is a private institution, and, allow me to add, owes its support primarily to those men who are investing money in it for an education. There have come to my attention this fall the cases of a few friends, seniors, who came to Cambridge after an enforced idleness that lasted the entire summer, while trying to raise their tuition for the last year. These men have worked their way from the University until they have reached the limit. They are now out of college. Would it, not be wiser to give these men a reduction on college expenses with the charity money, men who have to date invested not less than $1200 in Harvard.

Mr. Sharpe and Mr. Swigert of the Students' Employment Office have said in the CRIMSON that the number of applicants has increased and the number of places for earning board, for example, has fallen far below past years. Mr. Westcott has said that last year student waiters did their best work. Why not give these men a chance to continue this work, since obviously more need the positions? If the University can not afford to pay them what they are worth, let it draw upon the charity money, because it must remember these men are investors.

If the undergraduate body does not wish to aid itself with the money received from the games, let it send some of its members to increase the number of unemployed. If on the other hand, it wishes to aid the people of Cambridge and environs, why not use the charity money to increase, at lest slightly, the wages of the University's waitresses, scrub men, and unskilled labor?

To end this harangue (for I'm sure it will be considered as such), I feel certain that we all agree with St. Paul that "the greatest of these (faith, hope and charity) is charity". If the University will collect charity money at the next football games, let it be used either to decrease unemployment by keeping students in college, in which they have invested their money, or to increase the wages of the University's employees.

We have assumed that this letter is the futile cry of a voice in the wilderness and will move no stone. However, let the voice add, if Owen D. Young, who started the commotion, and the members of his financial plane would give the same proportion of their annual income as bookkeepers, shop girls and mill-hands have given and are giving, the unemployed would have no worries, and colleges would never be asked to contribute to a cause outside their province. Schafer Williams '33.