CONANT DEFENDS BUSINESS SCHOOL AGAINST CRITICS

Frankly acknowledging the substantial volume of criticism directed in recent times at the Graduate School of Business Administration and its place in Harvard University, President Conant last night in Baker Library pointed to his own field of chemistry for a defense. To critics of the Flexner school who assert that a business faculty has no place in an educational institution devoted to the pursuit of liberal arts, Mr. Conant told Business School students: "We are dealing here with a profession and not an art Business is the oldest of the arts and the latest of the professions.

"Only 300 years ago chemistry emerged from a despised art, alchemy, to a profession; and it was a long, slow and painful process." Mr. Conant advised applying the analogy to business. "The old alchemists, a very secretive crowd, who tried to keep for themselves the secret of their art, had only a casual regard for the truth. But the revolution came with a pamphlet entitled "The Skeptical Chemist' . . . . I think a skeptical spirit is to be recommended in studying business procedures."

The occasion for Mr. Conant's speech was the welcome night of the Harvard Business School Association. Edward F. Yaggy presided, introduced the speakers, and enumerated the organization's coming activities.

Dr. Irving Fisher, noted Yale commodity-dollar advocate and a frequent visitor at Hyde Park, will speak to the Association November 11 on "Monetary Policies Under the New Deal." Other activities planned are monthly stag beer nights and winter ski trips.

Dean Wallace B. Donham '98 followed President Conant and complained all he had "left to talk about" was "the Glee Club, the Chapel, and the CRIMSON." He told the future business administrators to take auto trips "to see New England while the leaves are turning."

Referring to his speech before the Boston Advertising Club Tuesday at the Hotel Statler, he declared he was certainly critical of the New Deal, but "in an effort to be constructively critical." Certain things should be saved, he said, such as "personal freedom and liberty, freedom of the press, and the ability to combine security with progress." Pointing to the "new frontiers ahead," and calling them "just as challenging as those of the past," he stated his faith in a future for the nation just as great, alluring, and inspiring as ever before.

Mr. Yaggy struck the same note in emphasizing preparation for "an examination to be held all through your life," as much more relevant than the various business school exams