The March Graduates' Magazine

The March number of the Graduates' Magazine contains Professor Peabody's opening address delivered in the Aula of the University of Berlin, on "Academic Reciprocity;" a delightful essay on local color in Harvard verse, written From a Graduate's Window, in a vein of kindliness end gentle humor that must inevitably re-establish that column in the affections of undergraduates at least, the address on "Emerson and Scholars," delivered at the opening of Emerson Hall, by E. W. Emerson '66; so much of Professor Coolidge's report as the Chairman of the Athletic Committee as bears on the question of professional coaches; an interesting account of Henry Dunster, Harvard's first president; topics from the President's Report; accounts of the new collection of classical antiquities and the coming Greek play; a report of the celebration of the New York Harvard Club; and the usual departments.

In the main the number is filled with matters of University news, which have accumulated during the past three months and with reprints of speeches or extracts from reports that have already been published. Consequently it will have a fresher interest for those of its readers who have not been in close touch with the University during the past months.

Perhaps the most immediately useful article, at least for undergraduates, is the collection of reports and votes which make up "The Football Situation." The Harvard football situation, such as it is, is therein contained with somewhat more definiteness than in any other publication which has thus far appeared, although any conclusion as to the future of the game is wisely left to be formed according to the temperament of the reader.

Optimistic undergraduates as well as those many graduates whose connection with Harvard is indissolubly bound up with traditions of classes will probably read with feelings approaching sadness the statement made in the news of the Winter Quarter that "It would seem to be the part of wisdom to recognize frankly that there are grave disadvantages as well as advantages in social organization along class lines, that as a result of the great growth of the University, the introduction of the elective system, and other causes, it has long since been outgrown, and therefore to abandon all efforts to revivify it, and aim instead at securing some new and more practical modus vivendi to take its place." The argument of which this sentence is the conclusion shows rather more of the effects of preconceived idea than of a fair review of the facts as they actually exist, and it is to be regretted that so dark a view of the state of Harvard classes is presented to the readers of the Graduates' Magazine.