Cylchgronau Cymru

by Muriel Joliffe, B.A. and W. F. Jones, B.A. ABOUT 80 delegates, representative of some 20 nationalities, met at Dresden last July to study the history of Student Self-Help and the organisation of the German Student Co-opera- tive Association, and to consider the wider appli- cation of the Self-Help principle. The Conference split up into 9 Commissions, which discussed Student Co-operative Methods, the Work Student, Student Buildings and Health Services, Voca- tional Guidance, etc. At these Commissions the delegates pooled their experiences and suggested new ways of approach. The Student Self-Help Movement is most highly organised in America and Germany. Conrad Hoffmann, in outlining the history of Self-Help in America, traced its beginnings to the early pioneer days and instanced Abraham Lin- coln as a typical example of the Student Self- Helper. Many of these early students came from poor families and it was necessary for them to earn their living while in College. Originally no organised effort was made to secure employment for would-be student workers but eventually, as the demand for jobs increased, Student Employ- ment Bureaux were established. The statistics of these Bureaux reveal the astonishing fact that at some of the American Colleges 85% of the students earn the whole or part of their expenses. On the Continent Self-Help is of quite recent growth. During the economic stress and general impoverishment of the early post-war period large numbers of students were faced with the necessity of earning their own living and many were on the verge of actual starvation. The splendid work done by European Student Relief at this time has profoundly affected the attitude of Continental Students to their fellow students in this country STUDENT SELF-HELP and in America. The will of the German Students to win through this crisis gained expression at last in the Ger- man Student Co-operative Association. This is now the chief Student Self-Help organization in Germany. Its Headquarters at Dresden serve 52 branch centres and are responsible for all kinds of Self-Help enterprises, including Student Kitchens, Loan and Scholarship Funds, Employment Bureaux, etc. The Loan Fund, which was organised only 3 years ago, has already given loans to some 25,000 students, and the National Student Employment Bureau has been able to find vacation posts for 20,000 students each summer. In the course of the Conference one Commis- sion was held to discuss Self-help for women. It was found that on the whole there was a heavy weight of tradition against manual labour for women students. In France, however, public opinion seems to be in favour of the Self-Help idea. Thus in Paris, the women students earn money by assisting Americans with their shop- ping. In Esthonia there are numerous craft schemes for women students and in Jugo Slavia the women work in schools for peasants. In the U.S.A. the women students often work as waitresses, saleswomen and governesses, and in one university there is an organised exchange of university and factory women for a short period in the summer. The question as to the extent to which Self- Help methods can be applied in the British Isles is a very vexed one. In Wales, however, the con- ditions seem rather favourable, and the Self-Help idea is gripping the mind of the student world already Self-Help Commissions are in existence in some of the colleges. RHWNG DIM A DIM U farw'r duwiau oil i gyd Rhag pwyll y byd gwybodus, A dyma daith rhwng dim a dim Yn mynd yn chwim a chymysg. Er hyn, nes darfod dyfod im Y dim sy'n ddiwedd damwain, Caf gofio'r mwynder gynt a gaed Lle bu fy nhraed yn rhodio. A gwyped Rhaid, pan ddel fy nhro I gwympo i ddiddymdra, Fod unwaith ddim, er pob rhyw boen, A wybu hoen ei hunan. Chwefror, 1927. T.G.J.