Back in the hey-day of the New Deal, it was almost the height of fashion for bright young Harvard men to go trooping off to Washington upon graduation. But today the traffic is no longer all one-way. In an educational version of "massive retaliation," steadily increasing numbers of career government servants are converging on Cambridge every year, most of them to pursue studies of one kind or another at the Littauer School of Public Administration.

One of Littauer's most successful experiments, now well past the experimental stage, is its fellowship program in conservation and land use. In the four years since the plan's inauguration, more than twenty carefully selected employees of various state and federal conservation agencies have come to Littauer for a year's training and research and a Master of Public Administration degree. Almost all the Fellows had already been relatively far along the advancement scale in government service, with many years of actual field experience. Most have emerged from their year of study at Littauer to go back to government and assume higher positions within their departments.

So far almost all the Conservation Fellows have come from various federal agencies within the Agriculture and Interior Departments, groups such as the Forest Service, the Soil Conservation Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Geological Survey, and the Production and Marketing Association. Others have come from the Tennessee Valley Authority and state conservation departments; eventually the fellowships, which carry a maximum of $3,000 may be extended even to employees of private companies which have a significant interest in the development of the so-called "renewable natural resources."

Four Then made up the first contingent in 1950. This year the number of Fellows reached right for the first time and Littauer officials feel that it will probably remain at about that point, partly because the program as presently constituted operates best with a small number of members and partly because of financial limitations. The plan first won financial support from the Conservation Foundation and now operates under funds from Resources for the Future, an affiliate of the falling Ford Foundation. The Ford Foundation recently gave the officials of the program considerable cause for rejoicing by agreeing to renew its grant for another three years.

To start their academic year, the Fellows come first not to Cambridge, but to Petersham and the Harvard Forest for an orientation period. Following an introduction to the program and a study of the Forest from a conservationist standpoint, they embark on an automobile trip through some of the wide open spaces of New England and New York State. After casting a clinical eye on about 2000 miles of Northeast nature, they finally come on to Cambridge to spend the better part of the year in the library and the classroom.

In line with Littauer's emphasis on inter-disciplinary studies, the Conservation Fellows take a variety of courses, all with some relationship to the ever present conservation theme. Two members of the government department, Professor John M. Gaus and Associate Professor Arthur A. Maass, two more from economics, Lecturer Ayers Brinser and Professor John D. Black, and a fifth from the Law School, Associate Professor Charles M. Haar, conduct the program and many of the Fellows spread out into all these areas. Of course, Littauer can hardly teach them much about the particular tasks of their own specialized jobs. But the Fellows can find training in the techniques of high-level policy planning and their courses are designed to give them a certain perspective on fields outside their own.

Research in selected resource and conservation problems is regarded as an essential part of the study program and occupies perhaps the major part of the Fellows' time. Working in groups with students from allied fields who are also enrolled in the basic seminar in conservation and land use, they usually undertake at least two important research projects. Field trips are a central part of the program, especially to a number of, New England farms which faculty members of the program have been advising on agricultural policy.

Since the final Fellowship choices are made by Littauer officials largely on the basis of recommendations from the applicants' own agencies, an employee's selection for a Fellowship is usually a sign that he is regarded as a coming man in his department. Most of the Fellows come directly to Cambridge from work in field agencies, particularly in the Far West. But a year at Littauer may well mean eventual reassignment to Washington, the center of high policy-making positions. Even a $3,000 fellowship is likely to be a financial sacrifice for men with families, especially if they are already in well-paying positions, as many are. But as one Fellow put it, "In the long run, it will pay us back or we wouldn't be here."