The Colleges' Contribution.

Nowhere before have the figures on this year's enrolment in the American colleges been compiled in so comprehensive a survey as appears on another page of this issue. Arrayed in such a nation-wide summary, the facts of the collegiate contribution to the country's man-power for war stand out very clearly. Twenty-one thousand fewer students are enrolled this year than last in 60 representative colleges and universities. The loss has not been confined to the men who have gone into national service after admission to the undergraduate classes but has also included a diminution of more than 3,000 in this year's entering class. The colleges have been hit, therefore, in their source of supply as well as in their main reservoir.

Taking the figures of male enrolment alone, the decrease is seen to approach 25 per cent. It must be remembered that such proportion of losses is as nothing to the reductions which institutions abroad have undergone. From them come reports that 85 or 90 per cent of all their undergraduates are at the front.

The possibility of a similar development presents itself in America. It is plainly foreshadowed by the Provost-Marshal General's prediction that the Government will find it necessary to include in the National Draft men of the ages from 18 to 21. Here is a serious possibility, but one which must be faced in all resolution. The Civil War was largely won by the men of these ages. Among them is much of the material which experience has shown best able to stand the strain of battle. The disturbance of their education, though most unfortunate, is less threatening to the country than the disruption of economic and industrial conditions which would follow the taking of men in the ages beyond the present draft limit. Of course it will not become a proper measure until after the largest possible numbers have been drawn to the colors from among the men of the existing draft ages, but if, when this has been done, need is still extant, the American colleges must, in patriotism and with good heart, follow the path already made glorious by the colleges of England and France. Boston Transcript.