THE PRESS

On top of the educational changes at Princeton comes news from Harvard that scholarships are to be granted to "brilliant young men from every state regardless of their resources." This cherished plan of President Conant's, presented before the Associated Harvard Clubs, is to enable Harvard to fulfill her duty to the country--"to be truly national, having a student body which is a cross-section of the nation."

This is a worthy plan in its purpose but how effective it will be in practice is an open question. It must be agreed that Harvard has definite benefits and advantages to offer the "middle-western" young men, but the initial assumption that Harvard has an inherent duty to the nation which it should fulfill is a somewhat dubious one.

It is interesting to compare this attitude with that of President Hutchins of Chicago, and President Wilbur of Stanford. Both have implied that Harvard and Yale have little to offer the Westerner that he cannot obtain at his State University in a manner more suited to the western ideal of education. House plan and tutorial system are not for the West, we are informed.

President Conant in another portion of his speech condemned the practice of working one's way through college as a "social waste." If one considers education from the purely intellectual standpoint, we agree with the President, but if one considers a certain amount of sacrifice and struggle necessary or beneficial as training for life after graduation, working one's way through college is not a "social waste." Furthermore, although financial independence is a primary requisite for the brilliant and creative scholar, nevertheless, to those who want only the general cultural value of a college education, our present system of self-support is adequate.

In the outlining of his plan the Harvard President mentioned those who were able to enter a University through "accidents of birth." Members of the silver spoon class upon graduation enter into American business and public life and in most cases have little need for much of the formal training they now receive. Higher education has not yet been directed at them, but they pay the bills and help support the college.

As long as college education fails either to provide a type of training individually and consciously desired, or to stimulate proper habits of analytic thought, as long as many students graduate with only a certain urbanity, and a number of social contacts, the retention in American universities of men of primarily social interests must continue to have only a financial justification. --Yale News.