WASHINGTON OR THEORY

While Mr. Wingo's plan to give undergraduates, interested in government, a chance to work at a Department in Washington is a step in the direction of achieving a combination of theory and actual experience, there are several difficulties in the way which have been overlooked.

The value of a course in the problems of national government by actual work in the administrative offices is very doubtful. In the short space of two months it is practically impossible to gain more than a superficial knowledge of the routine of a government office. Nor is the contact with the leaders of the various departments of much more practical value. Those men are generally extremely capable administrators of their own particular branch of work yet totally incapable of seeing their work in proper perspective. They are practicioners rather than theorists. What little information they have to offer can often be more profitably gained from the careful reading of a departmental pamphlet. The plan is further complicated by the fact that men must be absent from their college studies at the beginning of a new semester.

This list of disadvantages is impressive; in fact they make the gains of rather doubtful nature. Until the day when the government becomes organized on a more liberal and efficient basis, college students will do better to read about the theoretical concepts which a government should possess.