these secured, clarified ideas on projects for improvement and advanced them toward consummation.

The people of the commonwealth of Oregon are in the sweep of the national and the world process. They are incorporated as an integral part of a national and a world order, but have large scope of choice toward improving their own institutions under the more general social structures. Their progress and happiness depend upon most advantageous use of their highest powers in this direction. They are administering a State and other subordinate civil establishments, building cities and using the universal industrial organization involving the wage system. Naturally, they are concerned with identifying and adapting the approved principles of economy, efficiency, justice and beauty embodied in any social structure the world over. Their commonwealth service activities are thus engaged in such representative movements as administrative reorganization, revenue reform, credit organization, city planning, educational reform and preventives and remedies for unemployment.

A Proposed School of Commonwealth Service

EDWIN CLYDE ROBBINS

PART I. COMMONWEALTH MOVEMENT DEFINED

Within the past few years state universities have been forced to assume a new educational burden. It is no longer sufficient for these institutions to pursue the even tenor of their way, maintaining their accustomed courses in the Arts and Sciences and giving preparation for certain of the professions. They are being compelled to lend their aid to the people in solving troublesome problems of public administration. Dr. Capen, expert of the U. S. Bureau of Education, voiced this new phase of university activity when in his survey of the University of Oregon he wrote that the "states generally are coming to seek the help of the universities in solving their governmental and social problems. (That) the University (of Oregon) has begun to take the first tentative steps in the direction of a larger social service. The reports which have come to the investigator indicate that these activities are meeting a warm response. The further extension of them is desirable. Such a development would seem to be especially important for a state where political democracy is so complete as in Oregon. The State University should be called upon to supply expert knowledge on many questions affecting the public welfare. It should be the forum for the discussion of such questions, as, in fact, it has been to some extent through the medium of the Commonwealth Conferences and other conferences. No other institution in the State is so well equipped to perform this service." In brief, the state university must bring its educational resources to bear upon matters pertaining to public welfare.

As Dr. Capen suggests, the University of Oregon has already entered this new field of service and its efforts are meeting with appreciation. The present article is designed to show how the Department of Economics and Sociology is doing its part to bring University activities in touch with actual problems within the commonwealth, and to indicate how these measures, when perfected, will give the people of Oregon a most effective agency for social uplift.

The first definite step in a comprehensive plan by which State and University are to join forces in solving important economic problems was taken in 1908 by the inauguration of the Commonwealth Conferences. At the suggestion of Professor F. G. Young, Head of the Department of Economics and Sociology, prominent citizens meet in annual sessions at the University to discuss questions of State-wide import, the object being to secure an honest, open consideration of issues affecting the welfare of all. In view of the unusual degree of democracy possessed by citizens of this State these conferences have filled a definite need. An observer recently remarked: "The idea behind the gatherings is sound. If the people are to decide matters of vital concern by direct legislation, then let the University see to it that the citizens are made familiar with the intricacies of important questions; let it insist that each problem be discussed publicly and from the viewpoint of what is best for the entire State."

During the seven years in which these conferences have met, much good has been accomplished by the scholarly and unbiased presentation of matters affecting municipal administration, tax reform, unemployment, social insurance and similar topics.

In addition to securing a public discussion, these meetings have tended to awaken students to a sense of their social responsibility. After the meeting in 1915, at which the importance of cooperation between State and National agencies was emphasized, the students took up the idea to the extent of organizing for the purpose of making more available the recreational opportunities of the forest reservations, devoting vacation time to the subject. An attempt has also been made to arouse the entire undergraduate body to an appreciation of its obligations to the State. At the suggestion of Professor Young, Pledge Day was instituted, on which occasion the Governor and other distinguished citizens address the University on matters of community betterment. The students, in turn, formally recognize their civic responsibility by rising en masse in assent to the following pledge:

"As a student at this University maintained by the people of Oregon, I heartily acknowledge the obligation I shall owe to them. The oppor

tunities open to me here for securing training, ideals and vision for life I deeply appreciate and regard as a sacred trust, and do hereby pledge my honor that it shall be my most deeply cherished purpose to render as bountiful a return to the Oregon people and their posterity in faithful and ardent devotion to the common good as will be in my power. It shall be the aim of my life to labor for the highest good and glory of an ever greater commonwealth."

Machinery was already installed by which the energy and enthusiasm generated on Pledge Day could be transformed into practical results. This was an old custom requiring the students each year to perform a piece of work in recognition of the debt of gratitude they owe the University. The contribution in recent years has been the construction of cement sidewalks on the campus. More and more the Department of Economics and Sociology has tried to impress upon the minds of students that in thus aiding their University they are at the same time lightening the burden of the tax payer and thereby promoting the general welfare. The Department believes that seed thus sown will bear ample fruit in the lives of these young men and women after leaving the college halls.

Classroom work also has been related to live questions. So far as seemed consistent with sound pedagogy, each course has been vitalized by the introduction of issues facing the people of Oregon. Senior and graduate students are permitted to enroll in classes devoted entirely to Oregon problems. Students majoring in Economics and Sociology are encouraged to make original investigations within the State. Oregon's system of direct legislation, its timber holdings, its country roads, its taxing system and its need for public employment bureaus are a few of the many topics that have already been studied. The teaching staff, itself, has traveled the length and breadth of the State in making exhaustive social surveys.

Lectures and discussions conducted by the heads of State Bureaus on various phases of their work are being introduced by the Department, giving the student an opportunity for seeing the wheels of State machinery in operation. This step is but the first of a series designed to place students in direct contact with actual administrative duties. It is the opening wedge by which specially qualified persons are encouraged to enter public service as a life career.

Department activities, however, have not been restricted to conferences and revitalizing classroom work. In cases where the need was urgent, it has taken steps to organize social agencies. Thus the Department founded a State Municipal League and started a municipal reference library. Largely through its influence a committee was appointed to investigate Oregon's hydro-electric possibilities. But the greater part of its work in this field lies in arousing existing institutions-public and private to a recognition of the importance of their work. As soon as a committee was appointed to draft a workmen's compensation bill, the Department at once sent all its available data bearing on conditions within the State. The graduate student who had made original investigations along this line was hired by the committee to continue his studies. His services proved so valuable that later, when a permanent compensation commission was organized, he became its salaried statistician.

While few sociologists now agree with the Spencerian dogma that human society is an organism functioning like an animal, nevertheless the advantages of such an analogy are apparent. The Department has found that best results follow if the social organization of the State is treated as a distinct entity-almost a personality-and subjected to critical analysis much the same as a zoologist examines his specimen. To present the civic operations of the State to the student in concrete form the Department has started a social museum. Already it contains many charts filled with social data pertaining to Oregon. When completed, the museum will serve two functions. It will give the student

a birdseye picture of the way in which all the welfare agencies of the commonwealth-public and private-function to produce social advancement, and it will be a storehouse of information for social statistics.

The most recent activity of the Department is The Commonwealth Review, a periodical designed to record social progress within the State and to serve as a means of co-ordinating all the agencies for social uplift in order that civic advancement in Oregon may be accelerated.