The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-01-09
Boy Meets Girl Bureau Uses Psychology
 To Bring "SOcial Equival entS" Together
BY JAMES THRAsHER (NEA Service Stan COrrespondent)

ANGW 4OAh-ASV yOA yV9AA " AAAANA your social equivalent"2 Or, in the unacademic vernacular do you want Q date? If the answer Is yes, pull up a chair and listen to the story of Introduction"
 Introduction is O sort of Lonely Hearts Bureau in cap and gown although that description will doubtless cause the hackles to rise upon the youthful neck of Herbert Gersten, It's founder. It began, un. der the forbidding title of '"The so- cial Service Experiment" in New ark, N. J., year and half ago. And 1t expects to grow up to be a national institution.
 Just recently it moved into New York, conveyed by an advisory committee that includes sociology professors, ministers, a couple of physicians, and Dr. Mary E. Wool ley, former president of Mount Holyoke College.
 Gersten, who is now 2l, conceived and launched Introduction at Rut- gers University. But Introduction resembles the average college date bureau" about as much as the Att lantic Monthly resembles College Humor. Nor is this non profit ex- pertinent akin to the mail-order matrimonial agency. Its purpose Is explicit in the title and It's inten- tions, though honorable, are not matrimonial. The whole operation is very decorous and very scien- tiflc.
 You simply go to the 1ntroduc- ton office and fill out an applica- tion card. You put down the usual vital statistics, two references, your religion, education, chief interests and the sports activities which you can perform with reasonable grace. You also put down the age, height, weight, interests and activities of your ideal social equivalent"
 You are interviewed by Q trained psychologist, who seeks out any ui1- desirable qualities that might be evident through your conversation. Most registrarlts pass the test, how ever. If you're a civilian (man or woman) you pay 8 for the regis tration; service men may register for nothing.
 Introduction figures your "social quotient" and lines up some tenta- tive specimens for you. When you want a date you simply call the ot- flee, and they usually can fix you up in few minutes. Charge for the first date Is 40 cents to civilians and 35 cents to service men. After the first date everything, as far as Introduction is concerned, is for free.
 introduction started with a pure ly objective discussion between Gersten and his college roommate on the psychological ills arising from loneliness. Something ought to be done about It." said Gersten. And from such an unoriginal re- mark was born a highly original enterprise.
 After a few practice swings in his senior year, Gersten launched the "Social Service Experiment" right after graduation, setting up business in a room of his parents house in Newark. When his scanty capital ran out, he gathered con- tributions from prominent Newark citizens. It was pure altrusim, Gersten says: no donor got Q date.
 As more contributions and en- dorsements came in, the experiment moved to bigger quarters and ac- uuired the services of some volun- teer assistants. Gersten doesn't re- member who thought up the name of Introduction-says 1t was either Mrs. Charles Robbins, who is Mrs. Eleanor RooSevelt's second cousin. or Phil Smith, editor of the West Orange Review.
 In Newark, Introduction arranged the meeting of some 40 couples. It was discovered that S3.5 per cent of the registrants enjoyed the ap- pointment, generally speaking; 8l per cent enjoyed the company of their partner; 6S per cent wanted to see the partner again.
 The times have played right into Gersten's hands, though, when he started, he couldn't foresee the thousands of lonely service men and equally lonely girls in factory jobs that war would bring.
 More women than men put In bids for partners at the Newark office, but in the short history of the New York branch, it's been about 5o-50 proposition. To give you an idea of the clientele that introduction attracts, the first days registrants in New York included architects. engineers, physicists, soldiers, Navy officers and men, and one radio announcer. Among the women were an author, the assist: ant editor of magazine. social workers, secretaries, librarians, teachers and war plant workers.
 Gersten sees the situation thus: "A persons problem is to meet 50 congenial people of the opposite sex between late adolescence and marriage. and to keep from want ing to marry ali 50."
 Somehow, Introduction solves the problem. There were only two mar riages and one engagement result | ing from those 440 mixed d-double matches in Newark.