PRESIDENT LOWELL'S REPORT.

President Lowell's report, which is printed in full this morning, summarizes the advances made during the past year and outlines the changes and expansion to come in the imminent future. That Harvard University is in a period of transition and of extensive development is clearly shown by the report. If Harvard has been provincial in the past, as some maintain, and depended for its constituency on a particular section, the successful application of the new admission plan has opened the gates to men from all parts and all schools, and the development of Harvard into a great national university is well under way. The movement toward nationalization is attended by innovations designed to generalize and co-ordinate intellectual work. The new plan of concentration in a particular field of study, and the introduction of oral examinations in French and German seek to give students a rational scheme of intellectual work and the ability to transcend the bounds of their own language. Directly in line with these requirements is the proposed plan of general examinations that is to be put into practice by the Department of History, Economics, and Government. This scheme involves a more radical change in American educational methods than anything the University has done in recent years. It constitutes an admission of the failure of our present system of scoring courses to insure that the student will obtain a broad and comprehensive view of his field of study. At present one fills the requirements of seventeen isolated courses, and generally fails to note any connection between them. The new plan of examinations is devised so as to necessitate a great deal of general reading and to foster a co-ordination of related branches of study. The examinations will be set so as to insure a fusion of the knowledge derived from courses, out of which may develop a broad understanding and proper correlation of the subject as a whole. These changes in the matter of admission, oral, and general examinations are all phases of the same movement in education in which Harvard has taken the lead under President Lowell's administration and represent the development away from a system of cellar education to one of thorough mastery of a given subject in its various phases.

In applied scholarship, too, President Lowell dwells on the important contributions made by Harvard to the community in the past year. The closer relation between the Medical School and hospitals, and the wonderful discoveries made at the Medical School are subjects worthy of reiteration.

On the subject of athletics President Lowell urges against the over-emphasis of intercollegiate matches to the neglect of the physical welfare of the mass of students, and sounds a warning against the evils of commercialism. Perhaps the least enthusiastic portion of the report is this discussion of undergraduate athletics, which, though optimistic in tone, shows clearly the desire for a better adjustment of collegiate endeavor.

The remainder of the report is devoted to accounts of the other significant events of the past year. The generosity of the friends of the University is shown by the number and size of gifts, yet the needs of various departments are very pressing. The importance of the University Press in relation to the works of the scholars of the University is emphasized, and the gift of the Widener Library is at once a cause for unstinted gratitude and unreserved congratulation.

This report summarizes admirably the steps forward Harvard is taking to make education a broader and more vital force for those who are so privileged as to enjoy it and the efforts this University is making to come into closer touch with the whole people. It represents what Harvard is doing to make learning more vital as an intangible force and more beneficial in its practical application.