NINE AND THIRTEEN

Overshadowed by the importance of hurricane rehabilitation and the electric European situation, two otherwise commendable new activities at Harvard have blossomed this autumn without the customary fanfare which is rightfully theirs. Perhaps this anonymity exists because the number of people involved is small; perhaps it is due to the fact that neither of the groups has yet had time to produce any outstanding contributions to their particular field. For the nine new Nieman Fellows and the thirteen new graduate students of the Littauer School of Public Administration, who compose what are probably this University's smallest departments, have barely considered the work which lies ahead of them. It will be a year, possibly many years, before any accurate estimation of the worth of these latest Harvard educational innovations can be made.

But, like Dr. Bock's newly announced experiment in "normal" analysis, the handful of men studying in these fledgling learning outlets have the responsibility of pioneers. The frontier, a difficult and uncharted one in both cases, is theirs to push back. Years hence the work they do now will become only too evident. But for the present, the important fact is that the work has been commenced. The idealistic aspiration of the two founders have for the first time taken concrete form. It will, however, be the newspapers of the future and the public officials of the future who will either condemn or affirm the convictions of Mrs. Nieman and Mr. Littauer. Meanwhile the responsibility and initiative rests squarely on the shoulders of the nine and thirteen.