PROFESSOR TURNER

Like examinations the undergraduate usually takes his professors as inevitable, and the consciousness that they are devoting the best of their years to the service of youth is but rarely gained. When a professor has been connected with the University for over fourteen years, however, when he has made a host of friends and admirers among his students, the knowledge of his intention to retire from the staff comes as a sharp reminder of all that he has done for the College and its members. And since Professor Turner has carved for himself an enviable niche in the hall of America's great historians Harvard's loss is realized by scholars and men of learning everywhere.

To those who have even barely begun the study of American history the value of Professor Turner's contribution to American scholarship needs no comment. "The Rise of the New West" focussed attention on a dominant factor in the development of the United States which had theretofore been largely neglected by historians. A grasping of the full significance of the frontier in American history, its far-reaching economic effects, its faculty of molding national character, its persistent influence in politics, is an achievement of which any scholar may justly feel proud.

After his many and successful years of research and service to the University Professor Turner can not be begrudged a well-earned holiday. And while his loss is severe, the hope arises that it will not be complete. Professor Turner is leaving Harvard, but one hopes, not the field of American history which he has cultivated so brilliantly.