ODI PROFANUM VOLGUS

The announcement of plans for the organization of an alumni society of Phi Beta Kappa in Boston, aimed at the development of liberal scholarship, indicates that a very real need may be filled. The founders declare that our day requires "a philosophy of education which will prevent youth from being in a hurry to grow up." This, and similar crusades, Phi Beta Kappa will endeavor to formulate and to popularize.

One of the strings upon which captious critics of our college system delight to play is the uselessness of the national honor society. It is alleged that brilliant achievement in the arts and sciences implies a social responsibility, which Phi Beta Kappa has never adequately shouldered. It will be remembered that in the publication which the society inaugurated last year, its leaders promised to break their long silence, and speak to a confused world with the authority which attends recognized ability. The world economic situation was analyzed in its several phases, national discussion of a quiet kind was provoked, and then the society entered the noiseless tenor of the quarterly way. The critical chorus, temporarily silenced, has resumed its cavil.

This new step should supplement the American scholar in presenting the work of Phi Beta kappa to the world. It can scarcely be denied that whatever constructive movements may have been furthered individually by its members, the casual character of its alumni organization has made it difficult to assess the productivity of the society as a whole. The lack of emphasis upon the social features of its collegiate branches, in itself appropriate, has had the result of leaving it heterogeneous and disunified. It is to be hoped that this alumni fusion will facilitate important collective contributions to intellectual activity. Certainly thee is no other large body which, conceding the premises upon which American higher education is based, would be so well fitted as the vanguard for the ideas and the initiative which the problems of a complex society demand.