STOVER AT YALE

Yale, it seems, no longer goes in for the individualism which made New England and Henry Ford what they are. For Yale men are sliding into a rut--a rut of Stoverism. The heart of every little Eli beats for one thing only: to be more like Dick Stover, heroic figure from the blue mists of Yale legend who was that most extraordinary of all curiosa, the typical Yale man. What position more enviable than living the life of Stover, the life of a good fellow, with evenings at Morry's, with the respect of all Freshmen, with the notoriety of a man who has made a name for himself in campus activities.

The "Yale News" has exposed the whole monstrous situation during past weeks in columns which, if placed end to end, would probably reach from Portland to Tallahassee. With the self mortifying zeal of Simon Stylites (since the News is in the middle of the corrupt business which it is trying to clean up) it has told of Yale's perverted passion for "campus prestige." Everyone, we are informed, dives into the rough-and-tumble for extra-curricular honors. No place at Yale for the lonely stag, the wall flower; every man has to make his "Y" in something or other. Studies can ride--they're not important. But the canker is even more loathsome than this; for almost every "activities" man is living a lie. He doesn't write for the Record or the News because he likes to, but because he is a crass fame-grabber, because he wishes to climb the well-worn ladder of extra-curricular activities to social success.

All this is of academic interest to Harvard, no more. Cambridge students might conceivably applaud the crusading "News" for its sensational controversy, and might further suggest that this portrait of the typical Yale man be entombed with sundry other material in the steel shaft down at Oglethorpe which is to be opened in the year 8000. Beyond this, the big fight reminds them of tempests and teapots. Harvard men, with their much publicized and smugly-prized indifference, fall off of the other side of the wall. Which is the worse is a decision for the gods. Mortals can hope, however, for a meeting some day at the top of the wall.