The Modern Language Association of America.

The association bearing the above name was recently organized in New York. The object of the association, as stated in the constitution, is the "advancement of the study of the Modern Languages, and their literatures." The officers of the association are a President, Secretary and Treasurer, and nine members, who together constitute the Executive Council, which has the general management of the association. Any person approved by the Executive Council may become a member of the association by the payment of three dollars.

The Executive Council contains among its members, representatives of several of the leading colleges of the country; Columbia, Johns Hopkins, University of Michigan, Williams, Cornell, and Brown, each have a member of their Faculty on the Executive Council. Quite a large number of Western, and Southern institutions are also represented in the association.

The Cornell Era says of the association, "Besides holding its annual conventions, which are proving to be occasions of much interest and profit, the association desires and hopes to establish at an early date a Modern Language Journal, in which shall be centred the energies which are now divided among a variety of periodicals of a more general character. Embracing as the association does in its membership a majority of the prominent educators in modern languages in all parts of the country, it is believed that such a journal would command an able and intelligent support, and exert a powerful influence in advancing the objects of the organization. As regards the pursuit of Greek and Latin, while the attitude of the last convention toward the study of the classics was liberal and sympathetic, and the necessity of a knowledge of those languages as a sound basis for investigations in modern philology and literature was amply acknowledged, it was felt that the modern languages, including especially English, should occupy an equal position in college courses; and one of the principal purposes of the society is to secure everywhere for such studies that recognition which in some institutions they have already gained."