STUDENTS SHOULD HELP SOLVE SOCIAL PROBLEMS

The social problems of this day are so acute and widespread that the cooperation of all thinking men is necessary to cope with them. No student need defer his participation, in their solution until after graduation, for there is simple opportunity for vital service by undergraduates. Postponement of social service is not only unnecessary but is also likely to be unwholesome, in that it leaves the humanitarian impulses--so essential to human progress--unused during a period which is most favorable to their development. Habits of generosity or of selfishness towards one's fellows are easily formed, but broken with difficulty. In the period after graduation in which the student finds or makes his place in the crowded world of business or industry, ideals of service repressed during student days too easily wear away. But habits of service acquired in the undergraduate period are likely to develop and add quality to all his future relations, at home, at business, or in civic affairs.

Social service is broadening. It offers opportunities to see the causes of social discontent--the inadequacies of many social institutions--the struggles of natures good and bad with conditions of working and of living which are often needlessly cruel and restrictive. It offers opportunities to see varied reactions to our present social organization and the backgrounds from which new social theories are emerging.

Social Service Opportunity to Know Men

Social service offers a chance to know men--men in the making. The boy of the street today is the voter of tomorrow. The city councils and state legislatures of the coming generation are more likely to be recruited from the boy gangs of today than from the colleges. A group of adolescent boys, undirected, may become a social menace--lacking respect for chastity, for property, and for law. That same gang under the guidance of a wholesome personality may be rendered law-abiding and constructive, playing an important role in the service of its street or district.

The knowledge and the idealism which the University imparts to the few should be utilized continuously in the service of all members of that society which makes universities possible. The Social Service Committee of the Phillips Brooks House will make arrangements for such service.

Through clubs and classes for boys or men, through hikes, musicales, athletic societies, or discussion groups, natural friendly association can be substituted for indifference and suspicion. As volunteer worker for a settlement house or community center, the Boy Scouts, the Juvenile Court or other agency, the student, not through patronage but loyal cooperation, can share in the reduction of misunderstanding and the promotion of orderly and genuine democracy.