Bill Supporters Overcome Oppositions

Howell, now Democratic candidate for the Senate in New Jersey, championed the bill in the House of Representatives.

Even those who were most strongly opposed to the bill readily recognized the self-supporting college student's need for assistance. But they objected to the bill on other grounds.

"Why don't the college just make up a list of all the special favors they want and simply put all their begs in one ask-it?" they wondered. At a time when there was still frequent criticism of student deferment from the draft, the academic world appeared to be asking that an exception for students be made in the tax structure. Scholars, in effect, seemed to be asking that their earnings be tax-free.

At this point, college efforts were still being directed toward raising the $600 limit to $1200. Most bills of this nature never even got out of committee.

The bill which the Senate finally passed in August was much more generous. But it was also more tactful and less blatantly exceptional.

Insisting on their theme of the uniqueness of the low- income students's position in the dependency scale, college lobbyists--aided by many student organizations, continued their efforts. Finally, resistance was either convinced or worn down and the compromise, but better bill was passed --due largely to the original efforts of Morgan and John U. Monro '34 of the Financial Aid Center here.

Strong support from Yale was conspicuously absent. For the New Haven college includes term-time student employment--compulsory for all scholarship holders--under the tax-free scholarship classification. Primarily a matter of interpretation, the Yale tax stand on this point enables its students to earn more during the summer.

"Yale really couldn't get too excited over our efforts, Morgan said last week. "After all, she's been breaking the law for years and getting away with it."

All who had been in on the groundwork of efforts to pass the law were jubilant. But few were as surprised as Morgan, now general manager of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton. "After the Republicans took over, we thought there was no hope of a new tax law in the next few years," he said. "We had resolved to bide our time."

Term-time Wages Increased

But the expected long wait for the "Return of the Democrats" has not been necessary. Already the results of the bill are beginning to affect student plans and the policy of the Student Employment, Center here. At the center during the past summer several extensive changes have been carried through.

Term-time wages have been greatly increased in various part-time jobs throughout the University. Dinning hall, dormitory crew, and library salaries have been raised.

With greater wage potential and better possibilities of taking out loans from the Financial Aid Center, more students will now be able, according to Miss Gladys M. Fales, supervisor of the Student Employment Office, to build up a backlog of earnings in one year. Savings from one year may provide a trip abroad the following summer or eventual graduate school study.

If the new law should change students' earning habits to any sizable extent, the Student Employment Office and the Financial Aid Center may have to further reconsider their programs. But the scope of the necessary changes will depend in large part on what happens in the next few years in the national economy.