ONE CONCRETE STEP

The laying of the corner-stone of the Littauer Building marks another step in a long and arduous journey towards the ideal of making democracy work. The fundamental objective of the Littauer School is the improvement of the local, state, and national administration in this country; this is certainly a large and difficult order.

But Harvard's new offspring has chosen a plan of attack which seems on the whole to be highly practicable. Students will not specialize in technical training for the purpose of stepping into one particular government job fully prepared, but will cover the broader and more fundamental fields which will prepare them in somewhat the same fashion as the Studies for English Civil Service exams.

Dean Williams has stated that "public officials may often be too near their problems and too absorbed in making immediate decisions to consider the long range implications of their activities. On the other hand scholars may be too far removed from the practical aspects of public problems. Thus it is hoped that through a cooperative approach the broad significance of public policies, can be analyzed in a more realistic fashion."

Cooperation with the government is indeed of fundamental importance, though the vicissitudes of politics should have absolutely no control over the plan of study. The middle course necessarily will be more difficult to follow while criticism will rage continually on all sides. But such problems the Littauer School will have to face with farsightedness and efficiency, if it expects to travel far on the road to better government.