better education and experience, given equal brains and adaptability to start with, count in the long run, it is clear that good office experience is an immediate asset and if it can not be brought, it must be learned afterward.

Certain new opportunities are just opening to women in the Civil Service, and women are now admitted to a great many examinations to which they were not admitted before the war. Draftsmanship, for instance, has not heretofore been open to women, but now even ship draftsmanship is open for the first time. The ship building work of the government demands an extraordinary number of skilled draftsman, who were difficult to obtain even before the war began, and now so great is the need that certain universities and colleges have expressed their willingness to give a special short course in naval architecture this spring. Among the institutions are: Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Stevens Institute of Technology; University of Michigan; University of Washington; Tulane University of Louisiana. It will be seen that most of these institutions are open to women students. The examinations for rural mail carriers are now open to women.

Much has been said of the difficulty of finding suitable housing in the District of Columbia. The District Council of Defense has now assumed responsibility for housing, and is not only listing but inspecting all premises offered for rent. It is stated that there are still excellent accommodations available a little way out of town, and for candidates coming in the spring who expect to spend the summer here the suburban residences are particularly inviting. A booth at the Union Station is open the 24 hours round, and a responsible representative of the Young Women's Christian Association is always in charge to direct strangers in the city to comfortable and respectable quarters.

In addition to the more than three hundred thousand positions in the federal service which are filled by competitive examinations there are about as many more subject to competitive examination in the state and city services. There are nine states and more. than two hundred cities operating under the merit system, where women and men are examined and appointed and promoted on the same basis. The Civil Service Commission states in its last annual report that in the "state services, the charitable institutions, and in the city services, the bureaus devoted to social work,

offer an inviting career for women, in which they have an assured tenure and advancement under efficiency systems. Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and Boston are cities in which these opportunities are especially marked.”

Opportunities 'for Training School Graduates and Y. W. C. A. War Work.

CAROLINE B. Dow, DEAN OF THE NATIONAL Y. W. C. A.
TRAINING SCHOOL, NEW YORK CITY.

The war work undertaken by the Y. W. C. A. is not new. It is merely an intensifying and extending of the normal work. Practically the only interesting new feature is the hostess house work, which was developed at the suggestion of the commanders of training camps to meet the war emergencies. The contrast between the Young Men's Christian Association work and ours is that as the men go to war, the numbers in the cities are reduced, and their strictly community responsibilities are lessened. As women come in to take the places of the men, our work increases. We are dealing with all the problems that affect the welfare of women, housing, recreation, conditions of sanitation protection, health, etc. One of the most acute problems is that of housing. Hundreds of women are descending on communities, many of them small ones, to do government work in connection with the war. There is no provision for their housing or recreation, and by both of these things moral conditions are affected. We are also working with colored women and girls who are coming into industry in large numbers, and must be both guided and protected.

Another interesting phase of our work is carried on in communities near military camps. The work is both educational and recreative, aiming to direct into wholesome channels the enthusiasm, patriotism, and imagination of the adolescent girl.

Some of this is done under the name of Patriotic League work, which is best described by the following pledge that has been signed by over 300,000 girls: "Realizing my nation's need, I will express my patriotism by doing to the best of my ability whatever work I have to do. I will be dignified, thoughtful of the welfare of others, including women of other nations, careful to keep such standards of living as shall make me a good citizen. I will render whatever concrete service I can at this time to my country."

Our work with non-English speaking women is assuming large proportions. The men of the family have in many cases gone to camps without an opportunity to explain to. their families and without the knowledge that they could legitimately be exempted. The women try to follow them, either to find work in the neighborhood of the camps, or to settle some family problem, or merely to say good-by before the men go to the other side. In the hostess houses we have interpreters who speak various languages, and in some cities we have bureaus for interpreting. At headquarters there is a staff of interpreters for translating government leaflets and various pieces of civic information into over 30 languages. We are endeavoring to stimulate the editors of foreign language papers to publish war and camp news which will be just as eagerly read by the families left behind as is the news for which we look so eagerly in our daily papers. We are also trying to keep soldiers and their families in touch by helping them in their correspondence and attempting to locate lost relatives and friends. As noted before, none of this work is a direct outcome of the war. We have been doing work in all of these directions for many years. But because we are a woman's organization more than 50 years old, we have more facilities and more effective methods of work than a younger organization could possibly

possess.

The Relation of the College of Liberal Arts to Vocational Guidance.

ROY WILLMARTH KELLY, DIRECTOR OF THE BUREAU OF VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE, DIVISION OF EDUCATION,

HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

It is particularly appropriate that our colleges should consider the question of vocational guidance at this time. While many issues have been clouded by the smoke of the European conflict, certain other questions have been made to appear in a very much clearer light than heretofore. It is significant to note that we have only recently passed our first national legislation with respect to child labor. The machinery is just being put into operation for the enforcement of the Smith-Hughes bill, by which federal aid is to be given to vocational education. Similarly, we are thinking more definitely than ever before of the importance of sustaining and encouraging education through state and national agencies.

Probably no movement has received the same impetus as that which has been furnished to the organized effort to place in our large industrial establishments some systematic means of selecting, training, promoting, and caring for the welfare of our employees. The loss of a million and a half men to industry who have gone into the training camps, and the cutting off of the annual influx of a million immigrants from Europe have made us realize that we can no longer follow wasteful methods in dealing with the personal elements in organization. When it is possible to state, as one employment manager does, that a million men were hired to keep up a working force of 10,000 in the construction of a hydro-electrical plant in Mexico, and when, as every one knows, enormous numbers of workmen enter the organization for brief periods of time on every large construction task, we can not fail to recognize the importance of dealing with this question in some fundamental way.

The government is now making plans for offering intensive training courses for employment managers and welfare workers whose duty it will be to endeavor to stabilize employment in all

of our large munition factories, ship yards, and other concerns engaged on government work. This is excellent as a beginning; but we cannot hope that any employment manager or vocational counselor can successfully select people for employment in which they are likely to be contented or render really efficient service when the persons who apply at their offices have not had the necessary preliminary instruction and guidance.

The misconception ought not to be entertained that vocational guidance or employment management can be confined to the problems connected with the placement of juvenile labor or to the selection and guidance of mechanics and laborers. While the numbers involved are not so large and the immediate effects upon industry are not so apparent, the misfits in professional life are quite as numerous and the changes in occupation nearly as frequent as those found in industrial and commercial pursuits. Every college of liberal arts has a real duty to perform in helping its students not only in the wise selection of courses, but also in making the right choice of a vocation and in preparing for it.

Some factors of the relations which ought to exist between our colleges and this field appear to me to be of importance in the present crisis. In the first place, our women's colleges especially can be of assistance in furnishing better information to their students and graduates as to the manifold industrial and professional opportunities now being opened to women. The Bureau at Wheaton has done some good work by way of a beginning. The mere fact that a small library has been brought together and that suggestions and advice are being offered through an organized agency cannot fail to set both teachers and students to thinking of their opportunities and obligations. My only suggestion would be that this ought to be carried a step further by employing a paid secretary and investigators who can bring together material for the use of a number of colleges. The work of students in the departments of education, sociology, and economics can be made exceedingly valuable as contributary to whatever such a bureau may attempt.

One of the most hopeful developments of vocational guidance has been the introduction of the so-called "life-career class", or study of occupations in secondary schools. Such