"AN IDEAL TOWARD WHICH..."

"We should be able to say that any man with remarkable talents may obtain his education at Harvard whether he come from Boston or San Francisco. This is an ideal toward which we must work." Taken from President Conant's much-quoted first annual report, this paragraph is the inspiration of the latest action by University Hall.

From the income of the Edward Austin Fund and from general funds a series of large fellowships ranging from $400 to $1,200 are to be created for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The intention in this is to make it possible to relieve one potential genius of financial worries for several years rather than give several men smaller assistance for a shorter period.

Certainly this general aim of making it possible for any brilliant man to come here is entirely to be praised. In this period of financial distress more than over before there is a very great danger that men who are capable of noteworthy contributions to the intellectual life of the University will be unable to make the trek to Cambridge. But there is one unfortunate aspect to this policy: the entire stress is being laid on concentrating small funds into a few large ones. This is like putting all one's eggs in one basket. It would be well enough if anyone could devise an even reasonably satisfactory system of selection. But when a few men are chosen at intellectual random while other of almost equal merit are shut out entirely, the chances of mistakes in choice are overwhelmingly great.

Granted in a few cases large fellowships may obviously be indicated, but that is the exception, not the rule. In the vast majority of situations, after preliminary examinations, a large group is left within which there is little to choose. If the scholarships be greater in number and smaller in size, the chances of successful choices are tremendously increased.

That is the first danger--overconcentration of possible genius. The second is like unto it. A great many men are able to study here if they are given a small assistance only, between $100 and $400. These men will now compete in a greatly narrowed field, and, again, one in which the method of selection is woefully inadequate. Those are the two dangers to what is otherwise a noble attempt on the part of the President.