Illustrated Covers Wide Field

By characterizing the Illustrated as a periodical whose ideal has been "popularity first," I do not believe I shall be incurring the enmity of its editors. Neither a special interest nor the publication of the best efforts of the board--or of the candidates!--have been the goal. Whether or not consciously formulated, there is little doubt that the guiding principle of the Illustrated has been to attract and please readers. The field has been a wide and an open one. That the Illustrated is ever better filling this field the present issue bears witness. From whatever angle one views it there is no doubt of the attractiveness of the December number.

The account of the growth and work of the 47 Workshop by Mr. Reniers is a deserved tribute to one of our most competent organizations. No one doubts the success of Harvard-trained playwrights, but whether an author can be thus "produced" is at least an open question. Mr. Reniers's proof of the University's need of a home for its dramatics is an admirable example of special pleading. It is only to be regretted that convincing the audience is not equivalent to starting work on the building.

Though Mr. Bullard suggests it in his article, is the loss of the Freshman-Yale game a sufficient proof of the failure of the present inter-dormitory football system? I am very much inclined to doubt it. Since the loss of training in team-play is represented as the chief obstacle, Andover's record of two victories and two defeats under a somewhat similar system would seem to be quite inconclusive evidence. On the other hand, it may be said that at other schools very marked success has attended the introduction of the interdormitory plan.

I have been told there was once a day when the Illustrated fell just short of complete respectability. It is a hard judgment; but the scorn of the established literary institution for the yellow upstart is proverbial. The United States is said to be daily gaining in military strength by the European adoption of the Kilkenny Cat policy. By a similar path the Illustrated has emerged into the front ranks of the University's "best." It is to be both expected and highly desired that the Illustrated will do an ever increasing share of the representing of Harvard to the outside world.