FIVE OF A KIND

Members of the Corporation are still purring over the rare specimen, known as Conant, that they bagged two years ago. While his habitat turned out to be the Converse Laboratory, he is quite human and promises to make as good a President as Harvard has ever had. Evidently, this in the last expedition which has been planned for the next decade or so; if one excepts an occasional safari to keep in trim, such as an honorary degree to another Al Smith.

For Charles Allerton Coolidge, Jr. '17 will be no stranger to this group. His father, a powerful member of the Board of Overseers, designed the Memorial Church and a number of the Houses. His partner, Thomas Nelson Perkins '91, of the law firm, Ropes, Gray, Boyden, and Perkins, has served on the Corporation for several years. His error, an unfortunate birth in Chicago, was rapidly remedied at Groton.

Must Harvard face a never-ending procession of eminent legal counsel from Ropes, Gray, etc. to preserve its prestige? Will it never have a man on the Corporation who is free from roots of Boston cultivation? While one or two representatives of Mr. Coolidge's species are essential, three makes one doubtful and five cause one to think politely of extermination.

Since Admiral Byrd is now returning from the South Pole, the present situation can be remedied. Certainly the Corporation might employ him to find out what has happened to the 40,000 graduates living west of Worcester, a town now freed from the Indian menace we are told. He might even find a well-fed mammal who not only lives in New York but was breeded there. Or better yet, he might find another Conant around Boston who could attend all the meetings and yet lend a new slant on the Harvard New Deal.