Scholarship "Candidates" Deprecated.

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

The suggestion made in Saturday morning's CRIMSON editorial that Phi Beta Kappa should be more widely advertised, and that men should be urged to try for it, is dangerous; for it aims at the basis upon which true scholarship should rest. Scholarship should be a matter of taste and innate ability, rather than a conscious striving for an immediate and tangible reward. There is already, with the numerous stipends, too much professionalization of scholarship at Harvard.

This should not be increased by an advertising campaign on the part of Phi Beta Kappa to induce men to "come out." The man who "comes out" and "makes" the fraternity by hard labor, just as he would make the CRIMSON, is not likely to be a very good scholar by taste and choice, and in after life he is too likely to confine his interest in scholarship to resting from his grinding and to displaying his hard-won key.

At present a speech is made to Freshmen by the leading scholar of the Senior class; in English A the attention of the new men is called to the valuable scholarships which the University offers; and, touching the honorary fraternity of scholars, a sober and dignified statement of the purposes of Phi Beta Kappa is published at the beginning of the year in the CRIMSON. Surely this is enough to acquaint every student with the fact that there are certain rewards for intelligent study. There is no need of lowering the dignity of Phi Beta Kappa by issuing a call for candidates. C. LAPORTE '16.