The German Embassy has the honor to refer to the esteemed note of
September 3 of this year—No. 811.111 Colleges 62/25 [26]—and to call attention to the enclosed application
addressed to the Department of Labor by the German Students’
Co-operative Association on December 3 of this year. The Association
expresses therein the request that it be granted the admission to the
United States of 50 German work students (sic)
for the year 1931, according to the agreement concluded on February 4,
1926. Details of the circumstances upon which this request is based are
set forth in the enclosure.
The Embassy deems it worth while upon this occasion, and upon its own
behalf, again to call attention to the high cultural significance which
it attaches to the efficacy which has heretofore characterized the
exchange of work students as a means of promoting understanding and a
mutual inspiration to intellectual relations between the American and
the German peoples. It therefore has the honor to give the present
request its warmest support.
[Enclosure]
Mr. Herbert
Boehmer of the German Students’ Cooperative
Association to the Second Assistant Secretary of Labor
(Husband)
My Dear Mr. Husband: In reference to our
today’s conversation we have much pleasure in handing you herewith
application for the admission of 50 German work students during the
coming year, 1931.
In support of this application we beg to submit for your
consideration the following:
You indicated during the conversation which we had with you during
the summer in Washington that the 35 students admitted in April were
the maximum which you could allow to enter during the present year.
The considerations which guided you in this decision have been
appreciated by our organization in spite of the fact that this
sudden reduction in the number of students admitted meant a very
serious blow to the whole institution of the student exchange and to
our work in maintaining this institution.
At present there are 124 students in this country, a group of 12 of
whom is due to leave during the month of January, 1931 and another
group of 48 in April, so that a total number of only 64 students
will remain after that date in the United States, of which again
about the half will be due to leave in the fall of 1931. If,
therefore, the 50 new students are admitted for that year, for which
the application is now being made, the total would remain about 100
or exactly the half of the heretofore figure.
The figure for which we now apply is moreover the absolute minimum
for which it is possible to maintain the work of our organization. A
reduction below this figure would place us before the question of
completely giving up our activities, as has already been suggested
by some of those who are supporting it financially in Germany and we
submit that it would, in view of the experiences of the past and the
acknowledged inestimable value of this exchange, be a very great
loss if the whole institution had to be abandoned for all time just
on
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account of a pro
tempore condition of economic depression which in the opinion of all
experts is already on the wane.
With reference to the latter we wish, however, to add that it is not
our intention to have the students all come over at once, but in
such groups as locations can be found for.
We fully realize and appreciate the objections of the Department of
Labor but beg to submit that the 50 students for whom this
application is made could not conceivably upset or even impair the
unemployment situation in this country. Our students are, moreover,
taken care of by our organization, are not immigrants come to stay
and cannot in any respect become a public charge whilst here. For
this reason we have cause to believe that neither on the part of the
American Federation of Labor nor of any other institution will there
be any objections raised against the entry of 50 work students in
1931.
In respect of the whole question we beg to make reference to repeated
expressions since the conclusion of our agreement with the
Department of Labor on February 4, 1926, to the expression made in
the matter by the German Embassy and to the recent conversations
with Dr. Edmund Stinnes, one of our most enthusiastic sponsors in
Germany, had with you in October. The institution of work students
exchange which is based on the principles of reciprocity, offering
the same facilities to all American students in Germany who wish to
avail themselves thereof, has proved to be of greatest educational,
social and economic value to both countries and should be upheld by
all means.
We finally wish to voice our gratitude for the kindness and
assistance rendered during the past years and express the sincere
hope that the good will of the Labor Department may be extended to
us for the future.
Yours respectfully,
