THE CHOATE AWARD

The Choate News, in winning for the second consecutive year the CRIMSON newspaper contest for preparatory schools, has succeeded in accomplishing a somewhat greater feat than even the silver cup donated to it would lead one to imagine. Last year the Choate schoolboys were commended for their publication of a sheet intrinsically sound in editorial policy, makeup and general appearance. In view of their repeating the former triumph mere laudatory comment is superfluous. If the editors of the Choate News were to he congratulated on an excellent newspaper last year, they deserve even greater praise for having maintained their high standard and repeated a performance which, as their rivals and judges at least know, requires mental and physical stamina. Moreover, in setting and living up to an excellent standard, the Choate editors have probably fulfilled the highest expectations of the CRIMSON Senior Editors of the Class of 1926, who created the fund for three cups. For inasmuch as the competition in its brief two year existence has come to be practically national in its scope, it might be safely remarked that a general improvement in schoolboy publications has been inaugurated by the competition.

In all probability the editors of the CRIMSON who instituted the contest had no other motive than the offering of encouragement to men engaged in work which, in both preparatory school and college, is altogether too much its own reward. With the award of the second trophy the contest can be said to take on a greater significance. Yearly the university and college daily is assuming a more vital position in the life of the institution and of the undergraduate. With its greater responsibility and influence it needs a distinctive type of man, a man with a trained systematic mind capable of embracing and understanding every phase of faculty and student interest and activity, a certain amount of initiative, scholastic ability, and the pessimism which comes only after a long attempt to please the public. Such men might be born, but in the newspapers field they are more often made. And if the university dailies are to have the best possible editors, it is incumbent on the preparatory schools, to supply them. It is for this reason that the CRIMSON cup is yearly placed at the goal of greater journalistic endeavor.