ADVOCATE OFFERS MORE THAN ITS TITLE IMPLIES

The reader of the current issue of the Advocate is struck, first of all, by the remarkable and wholly creditable variety of its contents. To call it a "Yale Game Number" is to tell but half the story. Football articles there are--and good ones--but the proximity of the biennial pilgrimage to New Haven does not prevent Mother Advocate from bestowing considerable attention on subjects of more permanent importance. The reader's second thought, if he be critically inclined, is a sense of artificiality, a palpable striving for effect, which is evident throughout the present number. And this is no less true of the prose than of the poetry. On the whole, however, the prose seems to be of a higher order than the verse, but this impression may very well be due to the subject matter in each case.

From the point of view of execution, Mr. Morrison's "Primitive Thoughts on Education" is the outstanding contribution. And its thought, while not by any means new, is always worthy of consideration. His central idea is one with which some of us certainly will agree: that the age in which we live is so intensely practical that few people have any thought to waste on true education. We are so busy learning how to be practical specialists that we utterly forget such minor acquisitions as intellectual power, mental development and "the art of living." Mr. Morrison implies another great truth--the only knowledge really worth anything is that which we acquire by our own efforts. That which is supplied to us gratis in tabloid form will ever be found wanting when we weigh it carefully. In this connection one can hardly refrain from wondering how many undergraduates really become acquainted with the Widener Library during the course of their College career. Apparently very few, judging by the general ignorance of the special collections and the complete helplessness of the average student when necessity sometimes forces him to resort to the catalogue room. As Mr. Morrison says, "Here are books from all the corners of the earth and card indexed! Plunge in! Learn to wonder and to love and live!"

Mr. Jackson's "Football From the Side-Lines" is one of the most interesting athletic articles that has appeared in Cambridge for many a day. It is a pity that such excellent material should be marred by a somewhat monotonous style. Also, one is almost provoked to laughter by the recurrence of the phrase "to this day." But anything can be forgiven the man who has the imagination and the ability to devise a new and fresh "foot-ball story."

The translation of M. Rostchakovsky's Open Letter to the Russian People is something of an achievement. It is such evidence as this that will enable the world at large to have some understanding of the temper of the Russian people and may help to make it realize that Russia intends to settle her own internal problems without foreign interference. Set down in black and white this seems a logical enough desire, but most of the world's statesmen have regarded it as an unwarrantable assumption.

"The Advertisement" has a really big theme, but its deserved effect is lessened by the mechanics of its narration. In the first place, the style is not wholly suited to it and the insertion in the wrong places of such asides as "Pass the matches" and "please, the matches" irritates the reader beyond words. O. Henry might have told the story in such a manner and still have been effective; Mr. Rogers' ear is not yet quite sensitive enough to get the effect he so obviously tries for.

In mentioning the verse one is tempted to make use of the adjective "slight." But very probably it is because the ears of some of us are not perfectly attuned to the sound of present-day poetry--if that be its proper name. Certainly thought counts for more than form, but form enormously enhances the effectiveness of thought. And, if this be a logical standard, Mr. Dobson's "Night Piece" undoubtedly produces a more pleasing effect than any of the other bits of verse in the present number, "A Thought" is, on the other hand more to be praised for its form than for its thought or its choice of words. But all this is subjective criti- cism of the rankest sort and by a person of instructive likes and dislikes at that!

As the only magazine of Harvard which can really lay claim to the title "literary," the Advocate is surely justifying its existence. And as long as it continue to give its readers such a variety of interesting and valuable articles as are contained in this issue, it will continue to find an ever increasing list of subscribers