INTERFERA

As ever larger numbers of students work their way through college, it has become a mater of course to assist them with scholarships, loans, an employment, a policy which the public approves with democratic enthusiasm. So keen is this fetish for higher education for all at any cost, that even the government offers indigent scholars approximately a million and a half dollars monthly.

But few champions of this cause seem to heed the repeated complaint that men laboriously eking out their tuition and living are not really deriving any advantage from their studies. Without denying the value of university training, an observer might doubt whether it is of any worth to those who must endure privation and exhaustion to secure it. Wearied by part-time jobs, their hours for study limited, these people are hardly in a position to enjoy the intellectual and social advantages of college. Their frequently inferior work tends to degrade the standard of teaching, and save for a few superior individuals, it seems dubious whether a degree is worth this price.

Granting bigger scholarships to gifted students is one step to better the situation. But alloting stipends such as the Emergency Relief Administration maximum of $20 a month is only to prolong the misery. Nothing short of an economic revolution can provide everyone with funds sufficient for proper utilization of academic opportunity. Until then, the affirmation of President Dennett of Williams deserves attention: "What appears to be needed is not more college graduates, but fewer and better ones."