UNDERGRADUATES DESIRE COMBINATION.

Whenever anyone acquainted with the University asks what is the Harvard literary magazine, the Harvard undergraduate generally hesitates, thinks the question over, and then answers that there is no distinctly Harvard literary magazine. Under the present division of the field there are two papers that have more or less claim to literary fame, most of which is tradition, however; and they are struggling alone under a financial burden that saps their energy and threatens their destruction. If numerical circulation may be taken as a criterion of a paper's success, these undergraduate papers come very nearly being failures. As for general interest in their welfare and in their contents, little can be said. It is the usual thing for the review of a number to arouse more enthusiasm because of its clever criticism and subtle shafts than the number reviewed.

It is undeniable that the undergraduate body desires a merger of the Advocate and Monthly as so to eliminate the weaknesses and defects of this present struggle for survival and to breathe into a combination of effort a new lease of life. If these papers look to support from the public whom they serve, they should take heed of this general desire and combine their efforts to establish a literary magazine that shall be worthy of Harvard. For several years, the plan for union has been before the two boards and the undergraduate body, and it has failed of realization because of mutual jealousies, to a certain extent, and of persistent clinging to traditions and sentiments to a large degree. However, the time has now come when one of the papers realizes fully the advantages of the proposal and is willing to sacrifice some of the past in order to give Harvard a stimulating and really literary magazine. Only a portion of the other board is now the obstacle to the application of the proposal, and it is a pity that a minority should oppose the desires and interests of the entire academic community. Harvard should be represented by a literary magazine that represents the best in a literary way that Harvard undergraduates can produce, and the Advocate and Monthly should unite their resources and found a new paper of which Harvard may well be proud.