B OTH as regards music and many other social activities, the year 1933 stressed the community idea to an extraordinary extent. The community is asserting itself in new ways as to how its affairs shall be carried on. Negatively it has insisted on retrenchments in civic business, including in many instances the schools; positively, it has proceeded to build up and support as public enterprises affairs that heretofore have been almost exclusively private. Sometimes these organizations are part of the governmental set up; sometimes wholly private. In a number of cities, such as Washington, Scranton, Wilkesbarre, and Meriden, Conn., well chosen and widely directed civic music committees have been formed and have taken an active part in planning the music for the community. There is abundant evidence that this tendency will develop rapidly in the next few years. It is being greatly accentuated by the national government, both through the committees appointed by national agencies and the adaptation of this procedure by local communities. Despite certain fatalities in municipal music--due to the continued depression-such as the discontinuance of the Municipal Bureau of Music in Philadelphia, this movement still persists strongly in such cities as Baltimore, where the city continues supporting the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the allied symphonic and choral work among colored citizens. In the past twelve months, unprecedented measures have been undertaken by governmental agencies, working, they believe, in accordance with the inevitable economic trends, to shorten the working week for the great majority of our people. Forty, thirty-five, thirty, and even twenty-five hour weeks are now common in the case of great numbers of our working people. The resulting free hours have caused wide discussion of what to do with this leisure time. The appointment by the President of a Leisure Time Committee in New York City, headed by Raymond B. Fosdick, has led to a host of comments. In September a National Education-Recreation Council was formed, at least tentatively, in this city, by representatives of all the well known social and other agencies whose work has bearing on the leisure time of people. In addition to the Scouts, the Y's, settlements, boys' clubs, adult education associations, the Music Teachers' National Association, Music Supervisors National Conference, and like groups, the Federal Council of Churches and the National Education Association were represented. In a number of cities there have been formed committees a widely representative of local agencies as this one is of national organizations. The December, 1933, issue of the magazine Recreation is devoted to this topic and contains most interesting addresses and quotations from articles long and short. Certain ideas emerge from this discussion which may well be applied to music. First, the new leisure time will undoubtedly give great numbers of our people the opportunity for carrying on activities which were difficult if not impossible with the longer working day. Second, the essence of leisure is the spirit of doing what one cares or chooses to do, rather than what one dislikes or is forced to do.