WHERE THE BEST SCHOLARS GO.

Not long ago The Boston Herald announced on "unassailable statistical authority" that one out of every six men entering Harvard from a selected group of high schools in the vicinity of Boston received honors while in College. As a result of a like inquiry in "six fashionable private schools" only one man in thirty-five attained the same record.

Yesterday morning The Herald editorially wrote as follows:

"Now a patient statistician has gone over the records of Harvard law school, making a similar division. He finds that in the last five classes, among those who are also graduates of the college, eighty-six had come from private schools and 133 from the public schools. Presumably this represents the contrasting school groups which figured in the earlier test. At all events, what is the conclusion from these figures? It appears that one boy in every six of the private school obtained an honor degree in the law school, whereas only one in thirteen of those who had prepared for the college in public schools was equally successful.

"The remark commonly attributed to President Kirkland of Harvard College that the only use of statistics was in refuting other statistics suggests itself. But, more seriously considered, it seems likely that the law school stood with many boys prepared in private schools for the first thoroughly earnest intellectual effort. Not needing the monetary scholarships at college, they were satisfied with 'gentlemen's marks'; but, aroused by the call of professional ambition in the law school, they had thrown themselves into the work with enthusiasm."

While it may be true that a few men who loaf through College are able to settle down and achieve brilliant distinction in the Law School, the inference from the Herald editorial that such is the usual course of events among students coming from certain boarding schools does not appear to us necessarily to follow from the facts. It would be equally logical to deduce that since only one in thirteen of the public school men received honor grades in the Law School while one in six received them in College, therefore, public school men who had distinguished themselves in college felt above hard work in the Law SCHOOL! Certainly the Herald's deduction is more nearly the truth than this supposition, but still further investigation of the facts might prove that whereas by a process of selection those private school men, who went to the Law School, were in the first half, or first quarter of their number in College rank; on the other hand, among the public school men, the process of selection had acted before they came to College. Thus, since the average stand of public school men in College was very high, those of them who continued into the Law School might not be above this average.

Were this our only ground against the sentiment of the Herald editorial, we would surely be held for making a mountain of a mole-hill and quibbling over a point which was after all a matter of opinion. We cannot close our eyes, however, to the deduction that any College student might naturally draw from the Herald's conclusion, i.e. that earnest intellectual effort in College has after all little effect upon intellectual achievement in the Law School, and that if a man only makes up his mind to work hard i the Law School, it makes little difference whether he has worked hard, or not at all, in College. This is an opinion which has long been current, but which was conclusively exploded by President Lowell over a year ago. For this reason we take issue with the Herald.

President Lowell examined the records of all Harvard men who graduated from the Law school for the twenty years previous to 1910. He found that of those men who graduated from College with a plain degree-that is without a "cum laude"-38 out of 577, or 6.6 per cent, obtained "cum laude" in the Law School. Of those who graduated from College with a "cum laude", 66 out of 290, or 22.7 percent., won this honor in the Law School; of those who graduated from college with a "magna cum laude", 80 out of 204, or 39.2 percent; and of those who graduated with a "summa cum laude," 22 out of 34, or 64.7 per cent.

"Thus," he concluded, "the chance of obtaining a 'cum laude' in the Law School is almost ten times as great for a man with a 'summa cum laude' in college as for a man who graduated with a plain degree; for a man with a 'magna cum laude' it is six times as great; and for a man with a 'cum laude' between three and four times as great."

We do not doubt the "unassailable statistical authority" of the Herald, but we match against it other statistics of our own, of a variety that do not come far from fitting the definition of the worthy president of Harvard mentioned above. We leave it to the reader, if perchance he has not given up in despair, which of the conflicting deductions is most clearly substantiated by fact.