SAGES AND SERVICE

The Emersonian observation that scholars are too apt to bury themselves in their studies can hardly be applied with aptness to the students in theories of the present day. The appeal of the Concord sage has been heard and answered, at least by those professors of the University who make up the Harvard Committee on Economic Research.

Since it opened for business several years ago, this committee, which holds its annual convention today, has carried on with increasing success what is known as the Harvard Economic Service. At regular intervals throughout the year a business bulletin is issued which contains accurate comment on affairs of the day and forecasts for the future, both compiled by the leading economists and business specialists of the Harvard faculty. And last year a further advance was made when negotiations were completed between the Harvard Committee and a similar organization, the London-Cambridge Economic Service, conducted by members of the Universities of Cambridge and London. Once a month reports are transmitted between the two bureaus for the benefit of the subscribers on each side of the Atlantic.

It has long been a familiar cry of the "many-headed" that the business and economic courses which are offered to a student in college are relatively valueless in fitting him to meet actual business conditions; and that these courses are at best only theoretical, while what he really needs is Hard Experience. This may be true; but if it is, the success which has attended the efforts of the Harvard Committee on Economic Research remains to be explained.