PHI BETA KAPPA GIVES PRIZE FOR BEST ESSAY

Right in line with its new policy of taking a more active part in the dissemination of knowledge, the Harvard Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa yesterday announced the selection of George L. Haskins '35, as chairman of the newly-created Committee "for the publication of an undergraduate essay showing distinctive originality and independent thought."

With him on the committee will be Phillippe P. Dur '35 and Arthur W. Todd '35. All three of these men were elected to the Junior Eight only a month ago. In opening the field for the publication of an essay is to carry on the work of such endowments as the Straus Fund which has now been used up in printing and publishing prize essays.

Hoping to encourage interest in essay work and to increase the activity of the Harvard Chapter, the Committee has chosen a Faculty committee consisting of George H. Chase '96, John E. Hudson, Professor of Archaeology and Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Francis O. Matthiessen, assistant professor of History and Literature, and Lawrence J. Henderson '98, Senior Fellow and professor of Biological Chemistry, which will make the choice of the winning essay. It is expected that the Committee will reach its decision about June 15.

A neat little cloth-bound book appearing in September will be the honor given by the Phi Beta Kappa to the undergraduate whose essay is considered by the Committee the best piece of work done during this college year. Departmental and Bowdoin Prize essays will constitute the field from which the essay to be published will be chosen. In commenting on the newest activity of the honorary society here, Professor Chase said, "This is an admirable scheme and a very profitable one for Phi Beta Kappa to undertake. I am much in favor of it."