Annually University Hall is faced with the problem of solicitation in University buildings and grounds. The decision made by the Administration last spring, and the recent edict by Dean Hanford, although fully clarifying the University attitude, fails to do away with the situation which arise and which will continue to arise, under existing conditions. So long as an unlimited number of laundry and pressing agencies are permitted to exist, there is bound to be solicitation, whether underhand or otherwise, and competition which precludes the possibility of profit on the part of these numerous agencies. Two courses are open the laundry and pressing business should be University-controlled through the Employment Office, or open solicitation should be allowed.

The University-controlled bureau as developed at Yale suggests a likely avenue of approach to the problem. During 1932-33 at New Haven, men working under the combined Student Agency earned over $33,000, more than half of this amount coming from pressing and laundry contracts. There is no reason why a single university-controlled pressing-laundry agency should not be tried here in Cambridge. At least it would present a more sensible appearance than the present, wherein each of some five or six groups claims to offer "the lowest prices on the Square". In the single, authorized Agency a stated number of solicitors would cover at restricted times a prescribed territory, bearing with them a properly-signed pass. Strictly speaking, such an Agency would not enjoy a monopoly, but would be allowed solely the privilege of canvassing University property, thus permitting other concerns to collect and deliver at student request. At the same time, undesirable solicitors, cut-throat competition, and the nuisance would all be eliminated.

Selling is hard work. It requires personality, poise, and a knowledge of human nature. Many men come to Harvard who must earn their own way to remain. The Student Employment Office is already overcrowded with unfilled applications, and it does not seem either fair or advisable to cut off the potential source of income that selling offers. A University-controlled laundry and pressing Agency might well put an end to much unnecessary solicitation, afford the impecunians of competing Agencies.