ON TRIAL AGAIN

Mr. Frank Vanderlip, banker and economist, has recently indicated his preference for the western as compared with the eastern student. The college man from the West, says Mr. Vanderlip, is far more eager to learn, but is handicapped by an inferiority complex. Mr. Don Seitz, Managing Editor of the New York World, in his article published in the CRIMSON this morning, while hesitating to draw any invidious distinctions, attacks the same problem--lack of eagerness for intellectual knowledge, lack of interest in the questions of the day.

Assuredly the American college--particularly the college in the East--is under fire. As if the opinion of men like Mr. Vanderlip were not enough, we have been told even by alumni, inspired by "youth movements" and educational nostalgia, that Harvard has become a third-rate institution when compared with the live, enthusiastic young colleges of the West.

Harvard has never been inclined to wear its heart upon its sleeve and the charge of indifference is not a new one. But it has always been possible to reply that, without any sentimental enthusiasm, Harvard has maintained an attitude of sanity and solid thought. It is tempting to suggest that in their search for intellectual enthusiasm, our critical reformers have overlooked real intellectual development and accomplishment.

But Mr. Seitz and other critics have touched upon an essential point in deploring the lack of interest in world problems and affairs. Sentimental enthusiasm has little to recommend it; intelligent interest is a necessity in the development of citizenship. In whatever way such interest is created, its importance in an institution of the kind Harvard aims to be is undoubted. Mere intellectual development is of little avail without practical application.