Hardship In American Universities

(Press Bureau Special Service.) University of California, May 1, 1938.

A pamphlet from The Student Workers' Federation of the University or California reveals that one half of the University's students are either wholly or Partially self-supporting, that most of the students receive less than 40 cents an hour. and many, even below cents an hour.

Their University Calendar states that 55 dollars a month is a moderate expenditure, so that a student must work 34 hours a week at 40 cents an hour to eke out a bare existence. But most of the wages received are lower than 40 cents an hour, according to the statistics of the Labour Board. Compare this with the minimum wage of 75 cents an hour for organised unskilled labour.

Worse is the fact that students can work only 12 to 25 hours a week without serious interference to their studies. It follows that many who are self-supporting are living below an adequate standard.

In their own words, they "realise that those conditions are detrimental to the pursuance of an education, harmful to health, and demoralising. The conditions exist because the students are not organized to bargain effectively with employers. They must take what comes or leave College.

What is the solution?

Can striking analogies be found nearer home.