"Social service is a gripping work. Men may go into it with a sense of duty but they stay for the love of it," said R. W. Kelso '04, Director of the Boston Council of Charities, and chief speaker last night at the Annual Social Service Conference which followed a dinner held at the Phillips Brooks House.

Mr. Kelso was introduced by the chairman of the Social Service Committee, N. S. Howe '26, and gave a general outline of the "Theory of Social Service." Since giving up his law practice Mr. Kelso has been devoting all of his time and energy to social service, and at the present time is in charge of the work of establishing some sort of cooperation among the 500 or more agencies in Boston.

Ignorance of the Work Widespread

"There is a dismal display of ignorance on the part of people in general as to the work which the social service workers are engaged in," he continued. "Most of them think it to be one form of socialism or another. Others mistake it for charity only as such. Charity is, to be sure, a large department of social service, but it is the repair department.

"The live, as well as the greater part of the work, consists in getting at the cause of social decline. All along the line as in the concrete case of disease, our attention is shifting and laying the emphasis on the prevention rather than the cure of social evils. Our work and in general the theory of social service is readjustment of the individual to an environment with which he is out of tune.

"In this effort we are continually facing the difficulty, that Americans, above all things, cherish their heritage of individual liberty, and will not tolerate interference even for their betterment."

Following the speech by Mr. Kelso, a practical talk on settlement work and a picture of the actual settlement house was given by Mr. Thomas Bridges, of the Roxbury Neighborhood House.

"The most valuable thing we can give our boys is a diversity of human contact," declared Mr. Bridges. "This is a field in which the college man has much to offer. Primarily, however, we want men who will stick with it, and on whom we can count all the time."

Ludlam Gives Student's View

G. P. Ludlam '25, who was a social service worker while in college talked briefly, giving the student worker's viewpoint. He pointed out many of the trials as well as the tribulations of his work as leader of a boys' club in a settlement house, and many points of value to new men who intended to enter the field.

C. G. T. Lundell '27, secretary of the Social Service Committee, was the last speaker of the evening. He made a short plea for new men to fill the many and diverse calls which increase each year, and went over a general resume of the kinds of work handled by the organization.

With the completion of the speeches, the meeting was turned into an open conference for discussion, with the representatives of the various social service agencies who were present.