HARVARD MEN IN LAW SCHOOL.

The fact that not one of the men elected this year to the Harvard Law Review Association was a graduate of Harvard College has been the occasion of much comparison between the work done in the Law School by Harvard men and students from other colleges. It is natural to suppose that the representation of Harvard men on the Law Review should correspond in some degree to the standard of ability displayed by them in the school, and a comparison based on the reports of the Law School for the last ten years amply bears out this supposition. Prior to last year Harvard men have received 42 per cent. of the LL.B.'s cum laude granted by the school and have constituted 46 per cent. of the men elected to the Law Review. Moreover, the classes in which the largest proportion of degrees with distinction were awarded to Harvard men have also had the largest representation of Harvard men on the Review. In the sudden drop from the average which occurred last year the parallel is still evident; for, accompanying a representation of only 23 per cent. among the men who received their degrees cum laude, the Harvard men had a representation of only 13 per cent. on the Law Review. It appears safe to conclude, then, that the elections to the Law Review offer a fair indication of the relative ability displayed by Harvard men and those from other colleges. The Harvard students in the present third year class have so far made a most disappointing record in the Law School work, and the failure of the Review Association to elect any of them is due simply to their failure to achieve the required standing. All these facts point to a marked deterioration within the last two years in the quality of the Harvard men in the school and a decline in their ability to compete with the graduates of other' colleges.

The Harvard Alumni Bulletin endeavors to account for this situation by the theory that, since the Harvard Law School is the path of least resistance for Harvard men and of greatest resistance for men from other colleges, the Harvard men are of greatest resistance for men from other colleges, the Harvard men are likely to represent a lower standard of ability displayed before entering the school. Such a theory might well account for a general low standing of Harvard men, but it can hardly apply to a sudden decline. If such a condition prevails, it must have developed within the last two years, for until last year the balance, which is now against the Harvard men, stood decidedly in their favor. Though the proportion of Harvard students enrolled in the school at any time before 1911 averaged only 34 per cent., they received 42 per cent of the LL.B.'s cum laude and constituted 46 per cent. of the members of the Law Review Association; while last year with 25 per cent. of the total enrollment, they received only 23 per cent. of the LL.B.'s cum laude and constituted only 13 per cent. of the Review Association. Furthermore, of the Harvard graduates enrolled in the school at any time, approximately 25 per cent. have been men who have taken their college degrees with honors, a fact which hardly indicates a low standard of previous ability.

Nor can we comfort ourselves with the belief that Harvard's representation has fallen off in the proportion of exceptional students which it contains. The number of honor men who enter the Law School has shown but little variation, either absolutely or in relation to the total number of Harvard men. Of the Harvard representatives in last year's class, who made such a poor showing both in graduation honors and in the Review elections, eighteen, or 30 per cent., had taken their college degrees with distinction; while of the Harvard men in the class of 1909, who took 41 per cent. of the LL.B.'s cum laude and had seven of their number on the Law Review, eighteen, or 27 per cent., were graduates with honors of the College. Of the Harvard men in the present third year class, who show but little promise of improvement over last year's record, twenty-one, or 43 per cent., were honor graduates. There is no ground, then, for supposing that the Harvard men in the Law School at the present time do not represent as well as those of previous years the general average of ability of Harvard graduates.

We are left, finally, with only one alleviating circumstance--the fall in the proportion of Harvard students to the total enrollment of the school. This fall from an average of 34 per cent. to one of 25 per cent. is a fact by itself to be deplored; but it goes only a very little way toward accounting for a fall of from 42 per cent. to 23 per cent. in the proportion of LL.B.'s cum laude taken by Harvard men, and a fall in Harvard's representation on the Law Review of from 46 per cent. to the 4 per cent. to which it is now reduced. There appears to be no escape from the conclusion that the recent Review elections indicate a real deterioration in the quality of work done by Harvard graduates in the Law School. Such a deterioration presents a problem which all Harvard men are called upon to face.