To The Manner Born

If you are a Harvard man you must have "the Harvard manner." That seems to be a self-evident proposition. It is never argued, but taken for granted, it crops out in the most unexpected places. When anybody offends you by seeming to affect an intellectual superiority, just look up his antecedents and if it turns out that he was once of our fellowship (even as a student in the Summer School) the whole thing is explained. This notion that all Harvard men run true to type has travelled far.

In a recent issue of the New York State Bulletin, which is the official organ of "an independent, non-partisan, Statewide civic organization for constructive legislation and responsible and economic government," there is a well-deserved tribute to the services rendered at Albany by Senator Ellwood M. Rabenold '04. The writer of the article pays bomage to Mr. Rabenold's moral earnestness, his personal integrity, his profound grasp of the real problems of state, and his altogether exceptional effectiveness as a speaker. These qualities, one might think, would suffice to make anyone an altogether acceptable Solon. It is not often that any legislator is so fortunate as to possess them all. But no; Senator Rabenold has serious faults. For it appears that in spite of his civic enthusiasm and high principles he has the misfortune to be addicted to the use of imagination and in kindred ways he has "exhibited the Harvard manner." This, it seems, is a damning disqualification in anyone who frequents our halls of legislation. Harvard Alumni Bulletin