Review of Graduates' Magazine

The Graduates' Magazine well performs the usual task of bringing us up to date on matters of the last few months. The leading article of the September number is an abstract of Governor Hughes's address on "Some Aspects of Our Democracy" delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa last June. One may regret that we are given only an abstract and not the complete address. Governor Hughes's stay in Cambridge was marked by very high demonstrations of esteem and enthusiasm for him on the part of both graduates and undergraduates; the exponent of the firm but quiet life must have felt himself adopted into Harvard fellowship. His Phi Beta Kappa address was a splendid climax for the year.

Mr. J. H. Choate contributes an appreciation of the late Chief Justice Fuller, which repeats the high praise given by all who knew the man. "There was a quiet repose of manner about him--the hall-mark of the true gentleman--and as manners make the man, this greatly emphasized the respect and growing reverence in which he was held as time went on. The gentleness and kindly courtesy of his nature won for him the tender regard and affection of all who came in contact with him, and I never heard of the defeated suitor, or the disappointed advocate, or of anybody else who cherished any ill-feeling against him. The dignity of the Court has been well sustained by Chief Justice Fuller, and he died beloved and regretted by his colleagues, by the profession, and the nation. He leaves behind him a most honorable and enviable record."

There is an abstract from President Roosevelt's introductory words as President of the Alumni Association entitled "Americans Should be Educated at Home." His words are eminently sane and repeat a familiar truth.

The Graduate from his Window tries to make out a difference between the loyalty to their colleges of English and American graduates. The difference is not so great as appears, I think. Loyalty is shown in different ways. The generosity of Americans is a trait distinctly national; the people of the old world expect the state to do what individuals attempt on this side.

The Graduate speaks well on the history of The Monthly as our literary barometer. In another article Dr. Bellows gives some interesting facts from the history of the Monthly since its foundation.

Other articles are the excellent words of Mr. Henry James, 2d, on the men who died in the Spanish War, "Academic Honors" by Professor E. C. Pickering, an enthusiastic review of Professor Babitt's "New Lakoon," the usual summing up of the last term, and an article on "The Significance of Dropping" by the editor, in which he points out by the methods of the actuary that the prospects of continued years are much less for men who are dropped than for those who take their degrees. Taking five classes from '76 to '85 he finds that 15 per cent, of the A.B.s have died, while of temporary members of the class 32 per cent are dead. This should certainly prove an incentive to learning.

There are several short reviews of re- cent books by Harvard men. From that on J. G. Brooks's life of W. H. Baldwin, Jr., I should like to quote these words: "This is a noble memorial of one of the finest Americans of the younger generation. To accomplish what Baldwin accomplished; to have deserved to stand as a symbol of what is best in our civic and business life; to die at 42, mourned by thousands, and respected by the leaders of the nation; and to have his life story told by so sympathetic a biographer as Mr. Brooks, was a lot which the most ambitious might entry. If every the force of right principle was demonstrated, it was though Baldwin's career.