NARROW - MINDED INDIVIDUALISM

Five years ago, and with fine New England hauteur, Harvard refused to accept proffered aid from President Roosevelt's N. Y. A. Presumably taking the attitude that the college can care for her own, an offer of $135 for each of approximately 300 students was refused. Now that new sources of money must be found for the floundering Temporary Student Employment Plan--floundering because dining hall profits no longer exist--this bit of misdirected individualism appears all the more unfortunate.

Only two strings are tied to National Youth Administration aid. Those who benefit must be in such great need that without it they could not attend college; and they must be in good standing scholastically. Beyond this there is nothing. Methods of administration; the nature and amount of work required in return; the choosing of recipients--all these are solely in the hands of the University. Even to Harvard--traditionally terrified by anything smacking of government interference--such terms must appear generous and straightforward. Ninety-eight per cent of all the nation's schools eligible to receive aid, including Yale and even Radcliffe, have gladly accepted, and as yet there have been no signs of their being compromised by the gift.

On one score only has the University an objection within the realm of objective reason. By the wording of the eligibility clause, which rules out all students not in the direst sort of need, Harvard must take the responsibility of deciding when such need exists. Conceivably, she might be asked to defend a decision before the national government. But surely adequate machinery exists; Harvard's scholarship committee, under Russell T. Sharpe, is organized in exemplary fashion. And decisions correctly made can be defended before any tribunal.

Thus there would appear to be little logical reason against reversing the previous unfortunate stand. Certainly, considering the need not only for maintaining T. S. E. but of expanding it, there is every reason in favor of doing so. Supplementing rather than replacing T. S. E., the N. Y. A. aid could be extended to commuters, and, perhaps, to graduate students. If it must, in order to preserve its peace of mind, an ever-wary Harvard can accept the aid on a year-to-year basis; but in order to rise above pride and petty individualism, the University must at least accept what is certainly a government's enlightened generosity.