IN BEHALF OF T. S. E.

French Radical-Socialists are neither radical nor socialistic. And Harvard's Temporary Student Employment Plan is not temporary. That it was founded as a one-year temporary expedient (as its name still indicates) and has lived to see the passage of seven years, demonstrates the merit and success of this method of student assistance, argues loudly for its continuance and considerable extension.

Its advantages over other forms of employment aid are as important as they are obvious. Positions thus provided are certain, the student being assured of his meal-ticket before returning to college each fall. Such jobs can be provided by the University as part of an integrated plan of student assistance. And, finally, T.S.E. employees are entirely under the supervision and control of the University.

Every year more student applications for positions are received than are filled. Every year more departmental applications for student employees are received than are filled. The obvious answer to this little problem in economics is the lack of funds, the obvious solution, the provision of more funds. Even now, although it seems to have been accepted as a permanent institution, the Plan lives a hand-to-mouth existence, receiving its yearly appropriation only as the gods of fortune smile upon it. Better by far would be definite provision for this important department--if possible, a fund, such as that supporting the Bursary Plan of Yale, by whose income it could be maintained.

The Temporary Student Employment Plan receives its meaning and value from the principle that, among financially embarrassed students, not only luminaries, but also scholars with a duller but persistent glow will be allowed to tap the streams of knowledge. Thus, while scholarships at Harvard hob-nob only with the Dean's List, T.S.E. jobs reach down to Group V. Granted the validity of this principle, it follows logically that the Temporary Student Employment Plan must be granted its rightful nook in the sun of the University budget.