Adonals

With the announcement of the editors that the "Harkness Hoot" will not be published this year, another colorful chapter in the history of Yale undergraduate publications comes to a close. The course of a radical publication at Yale follows a definite tradition, inevitably ending either in conservatism, extinction, or both. The "Hoot" has chosen the more consistent path.

It is with misgivings that we view its passing. An apposition journal is usually a healthy intellectual influence, no matter how distasteful its attacks may be. And the assaults of early "Hoot" days were not lacking in virulence by any means. The jolts given to undergraduate complacency were many and telling. The frequent overstatement and violence were at least partially justifiable on the grounds that they undoubtedly drew marked attention to certain valid criticisms.

But the "Hoot" upon occasion did more than this. At times it was definitely constructive, even scientific. The analysis last year of the NRA anticipated by six months the present basis for the only well-founded objections to that legislative hodge-podge. The review of the English department was dispassionate and thoroughly sound. The specific recommendations for an extension of tutorial and seminarial instruction here were based on an intelligently formulated educational theory and were financially practical.

Such rational articles as these gave the "Hoot", despite its frequent sops to sensationalism, a justifiable function. It is a sad commentary on the undergraduate body that such a review should prove financially impossible. --Yale Daily News.