THE FIRST SHALL BE LAST

The lament of Mr. Walter Prichard Eaton which is reprinted in these columns is but a formal expression of feeling shared by many Harvard men. Professor Baker has gone and as long as his work continues to be a force in the modern American theatre--and that it is a force Mr. Eaton has ably proved in the remainder of his article--Harvard must be content to berate herself for her own stupidity. Every achievement of the Yale Theatre is an emblem of Harvard's negligence.

Any future college trained dramatists and theatre technicians must apparently be drawn from extra-Cambridge fields. Eugene O'Neil, Philip Barry, Sidney Howard, Kenneth, Macgowan, Robert Edmund Jones--these men will have to be regarded as the first fruits of a tree which was never allowed to reach its fullest maturity. Whoever wishes to follow in their steps must seek another institution for the inspiration of an academic theatre.

When Professor Baker left the University in 1924 the CRIMSON then "extended to Yale its congratulations not only for securing a man of such talents, but also for possessing governing authorities broad-minded enough to look at the drama in its proper light and handsomely to provide for its instruction." Those sentiments are still valid; each year will necessitate further congratulations--and further regrets.