THE BEST PAPER

In order to obviate the danger of excessive cramming and to prevent pre-examination nervousness Harvard has decided not to announce the names of the ten English students chosen to compete with Yale next week until after the competitive examinations have been taken. The avowed purposes of this decision are important but by no means include the only benefits which should accrue from it.

Mrs. Putnam's object in establishing a fund for intercollegiate contests of a purely academic nature was twofold: to foster general interest in scholarship, and to enable the student to demonstrate his loyalty to his college through scholastic attainments. Desire to gain a place among the college's intellectual representatives might well stimulate the average undergraduate to scholastic endeavor, but it would scarcely serve as an added incentive to do well on the examination itself to any but the ten picked men if their names were announced before the event. Under the present Harvard plan, however, at least every student who stands high in the English Department will feel an added obligation on him to put forth his best endeavors. Since it is not known which students are to bear the weight of responsibility of Harvard victory or defeat all will to a certain extent feel that responsibility.

If the interests of general scholarship and loyalty are served, however, by the Harvard plan of withholding the names of the competitors until after the competition is over it might be inferred that they would be even further advanced by reserving the choice of competitors until the examination has been taken. In other words, the ten best papers in each college would be compared, rather than the papers of ten men who may not necessarily represent the best the college has to offer. The chance to turn scholastic attainment to account for the glory of the college would thus be determined by the examinations themselves; the possibility of winning recognition would be open to all students taking the examinations; and the features of an intercollegiate sport contest would be practically eliminated. And not of least importance each college would be satisfied that it was being judged on what would unquestionably be its students' best efforts.