Students have made possible unusual community meetings. In New York city sixty classes in English and civics for foreigners have been taught by students, and on several occasions the members of these classes, representatives of sixteen nationalities, came together under their respective flags to hear a lecture on American citizenship, to tell what the work was doing for them, to sing their national songs and to unite in learning “America.” The Working boys’ clubs came together on one occasion to hear addresses by Ernest Thompson Seton and Dr. George J. Fisher. In Pittsburgh, a foreign singing contest was attended by several thousand people, and a huge American flag of silk was awarded to the winning group. In San Francisco a mass meeting and entertainment was attended by men of twenty-five nationalities.
In Tacoma last spring, the notable immigration conference, attended by several hundred delegates, including five state governors, a Canadian premier and representatives of capital and labor, was planned and promoted by the Y. M. C. A. immigration secretary and his student workers. The conference resulted in the formation of the Coast-wide Immigration League, to cope with the problems of Pacific immigration which will be aggravated on the opening of the Panama Canal. In April of this year a similar conference was held in San Francisco. The man who conceived and is promoting these conferences acquired his first experience in teaching foreigners English as a graduate student at college. It was this effort that determined his life work.
The interest that college men have in this service which brings no financial compensation is due to the natural sympathy that most students have for those less fortunate than themselves. To awaken that sympathy they need only to be shown a real and definite job to do and how to do it. They can also be shown that industrial service is not only an altruistic privilege and patriotic duty but also “blesseth him that gives and him that takes.” This service affords an experience which students need, for it enlarges a man’s vision, increases his sympathy with “the other half” and gives a knowledge of how to deal with men.
Enlisting Students the Service
The methods of enlisting students are interesting. Lectures on industrial conditions and needs and the college man’s responsibility are given before students by carefully selected employers, labor leaders, and social workers. Especially prepared literature is distributed, articles are written for student periodicals, and an industrial library installed in the college Y. M. C. A. building. Interested students meet weekly, often under expert leadership, for a discussion of industrial subjects. The student and city branches of the Y. M. C. A. join hands in the movement, and, in co-operation with churches, missions, social settlements, boys’ clubs, libraries, civic associations, factories, labor unions, foreign societies, etc., discover definite opportunities for industrial service where students can be useful. Experience has proved beyond a doubt that volunteer service can be conscientious and efficient. A settlement worker writes: “I don’t see how we could have done without the splendid work of those college men.” After a few men are put to work, others become interested through observation, and the movement naturally spreads.
A NOON CLASS CONDUCTED IN POLISH
In a three-day-campaign in New York, the industrial service movement was presented to selected classes of students at Columbia, New York University, and the College of the City of New York, with the result that 280 students signified their hearty interest and 125 were willing to undertake immediate work. In a single year 165 undergraduates engaged in industrial service in New York city, and the movement has become of such importance that a secretary gives all his time to it. This man was captain of his university football team two years ago and became interested at college. It is noticeable that generally the strongest and most popular students volunteer for service. A list of those at work from Yale includes varsity football, basketball, baseball, and track men, intercollegiate debaters, class and fraternity officers, and honor men. In many places the matter has been presented to the various fraternities and has met a most cordial response.
Recently at the University of Michigan the movement was presented to 1,200 students in two days, to employers of the city at a luncheon, to labor leaders at a dinner in the city Y. M. C. A., and to a special meeting of engineering professors. At Cornell University over 1,600 students were addressed, and 525 signed up as interested and willing to promote the ideas and ideals of the movement. One hundred and thirty men volunteered for definite service, and many are already teaching in the homes of foreigners, leading boys’ clubs, and doing other similar work. Others will teach this summer where they live and work. The movement was presented also at meetings of engineering professors and at a gathering of the Business Men’s Association. The city and student branches of the Y. M. C. A. are financing the scheme, and a strong student committee is heading the work in the university.
In practically every college the faculty heartily supports the scheme, and the sentiment of many professors was expressed when one said, “I hope every one of my students will make a place in his program for some volunteer altruistic service. They will have opportunity to do a great deal of good, but will gain far more than they can give.” Recently at the University of Iowa the movement was presented to a faculty meeting which had not been addressed by any outsider for nineteen years. A number of college faculties have met to discuss the movement, and to consider the re-adaptation of engineering courses to give more attention to the “human side of the engineering profession.” Already many engineering schools have courses in “management,” but professors feel increasingly that even these courses have too much of the “material” and not enough of the “human” element. Such instruction supplemented by personal friendly contact in service for industrial workers will do much to remove prejudices and promote mutual understanding between college men and workingmen.