BETTER BACHELORS

Statistics are sometimes inconclusive, but always interesting in the consideration of any problem. In a recent number of the Harvard Graduates Magazine there has appeared a flock of figures which seem to be both. They have been compiled by ex-president Thwing of Western Reserve University, now president of the United Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa, and bear upon the past records of men who have taken honors in the Harvard Law School during the last half-century. The records which he chooses are clearly typical, and represent the mark of nearly five-hundred of these wise men.

These statistics prove conclusively that the character of studies pursued by the best law students while in college was not of a technical nature. Modern languages lead the list in popularity, with history and ancient languages both more popular than economics, and science and philosophy ahead of mathematics--ordinarily considered the most popular among men of legal mind.

The conclusion which Professor Thwing draws forth is this: that the best training for a lawyer in college is the solid, but broadening study of languages. For these teach a man both to reason and to express himself. The best lawyers were not those who in college tried to get pre-season practice by studying subjects related to Law, but those who learned to study successfully anything worthy of interest.

Further statistics and these are more enlightening still--trace the careers of prominent Law School graduates through life, and show how attainment in college augurs success in Law School, and that, in turn, success in public life. Among the graduates of the Harvard Law School are some of the most prominent men in the country.

What is true of the Law School is true to a greater or less degree of any other graduate school of training, be it professional or business. The greatest service which the College can do is to offer students a useful background rather than a technical foundation.

There are other institutions which offer technical training. Although men have neither time nor patience for four years of conditioning work, these four years have proved of enough benefit to those who do have time for Harvard College to content itself with serving such men to the best of its ability. There is also a Harvard University where men may afterwards receive their technical training. The better Bachelor of Arts a man is, the better Doctor of Laws he is apt to become.