[We invite all men in the University to submit communications on subjects of timely interest. The CRIMSON is not, however, responsible for the sentiments expressed in such communications as may be printed.]

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Men not infrequently ask me about taking up social work as a calling. Nothing is plainer to men than that the demand for good workers exceeds the supply. Most of the calls are for workers in societies for organizing charity, child-saving agencies, social settlements. But there are some calls for probation officers, welfare managers, in large stores and factories, and workers in agencies which are chiefly concerned with civics or with applying the advances of medical science to relief and prevention of need. The positions are generally subordinate ones, but sometimes head workers are wanted.

Social work is not, as yet, generally thought of as a profession or calling. But there is a growing brotherhood of men and women who stand for thoughtful, purposeful service in that particular field, with the qualities of head which make work scientific, with the qualities of hear which make an occupation a calling.

There is a notion, only too common, that this work is intelligent and kindly care of persons who are chiefly helpless and hopeless. But that is an entire misunderstanding of its scope and possibilities. It is not merely care of needy persons. It looks largely to remedy and prevention. It means the use of scientific methods by the forces of charity, neighborliness, civic responsibility. It involves statesmanship in aim and method. Such conceptions of social work should appeal to young men and women of ability.

True, the salaries which are usually to be had are small. Yet in the ministry and in educational service, the country over, the pay is also inadequate. Of seventeen charitable societies in fourteen of the cities with over 250,000 population, the executive heads were recently paid as follows: seven between $3000 and $5000; five $2400 or $2500; four $1500 or $1800; and one $1200. The payment of more adequate salaries in this field can come only by the gradual education of public opinion to the conviction that good social work, a part of the community's responsibility, can be had only from able service. Such education of public opinion, if done for little pay, is in part a missionary work.

The preparation for effective social work will be largely, of course, in general observation and experience. A carefully selected college course is desirable, but there is special knowledge, the winnowed experience of leading social workers, which is requisite. The special schools which under various names have been recently established in London, Liverpool, New York, Chicago, Boston, give a preparation of great value for any form of social service, for those who would be paid officials or volunteers.

The Boston School for Social Workers, maintained by Simmons College and Harvard University, aims to give a bird's-eye view of the whole field; to teach some of the technique of dealing with needy persons and of neighborhood work; and to give an abiding conviction of the interdependence of such technique and the more general methods for neighborhood and civic work. In Harvard University the school is a double course in research in the department of social ethics, and may be taken by regular or by special students. Applicants for admission must show that they will probably profit by the opportunities offered. The course is one academic year. Social Ethics 2, a second-half-year course, given at Cambridge, is planned for advanced students who would enter the School or who look to the ministry or to any form of social and civic activity. Application for admission may be made by letter to 9 Hamilton place, Boston. JEFFREY R. BRACKETT,

Director of the School for Social Workers.