A CLOSED SEASON

Proposing a plan to smooth over the long contested point of solicitation in University dormitories, the Student Council Committee appointed to investigate that situation publishes its report today. It advocates a selected group of solicitors under the control of the Student Employment Office, identification of these solicitors by means of official badges, and unlimited solicitation with regard to time; in addition, it more or less half heartedly advises the abolition of undergraduate agencies which actually take over the whole business of a laundry or pressing concern. The report is published after a thorough investigation of the situation both here and at New Haven, and should assist the authorities in cleaning up what has long been an unhealthy condition.

The tone of the report conforms to the opinion of present undergraduate agents and the manager of the Cooperative Society on three of the four issues. On the other, the matter of allowing solicitation to continue throughout the year, the committee's findings are in error. It proposes to eliminate the admitted nuisance of solicitors through the publication of an official "Do Not Disturb" card which the official solicitors will not be allowed to violate. No one likes to be bothered with salesmen. Everyone would get an official card and the solicitors, so carefully nurtured in every other respect, would be out in the cold.

It suggests that solicitation time cannot be limited because of the fact that the coal and wood business comes at a different time from that of laundry and pressing. The coal and wood solicitors have never been numerous enough to be considered a menace. But present undergraduate agency directors have estimated that two weeks, at the outside, would be sufficient to cover the whole University for laundry and pressing.

In times when a larger number of students than usual are working to pay their college bills, it has been demonstrated that no legislation will prevent selling on college property. The authorities understand this fact and now plan to recognize it. This being the case, a thorough job should be done now, and a sound course chartered for future action. The undergraduate agencies, which heretofore have proved a failure in general should be eliminated. Solicitation should be placed on a fair and aboveboard basis through selection based on merit and financial need. And finally, official solicitors should be identified with unmistakable insignia, and the soliciting nuisance kept in hand as much as possible through a reasonable limitation on time for laundry and pressing sales.