THE WASTELANDS

Colleges in the opinion of Payson Smith. Commissioner of education in Massachusetts, are a waste of time. In this he is upheld by many who have more in defense of their statement than he.

But to know exactly what he denotes by waste is rather imperative before one suggests that his statement is as superficial as it is general. If he means that one does not learn plumbing in college or exactly the best way to dodge the income tax or make pongee pajamas he is probably correct. But if he means that in the four years at college the undergraduate does not learn better himself and the world as well as the worlds which have preceded this phenomenon of bath tubs and Bolsheviki, he is certainly treading difficult ground.

In a systematized world where subways and taxis and efficiency make life, a continuous contact with the machine, four years of "waste" when one is not interested in selling soap or suspenders ideas or conjectures but is interested in roaming through Plato or in wandering down the pleasant paths of literature are rather worth while. And if there were more who could best enjoy and use them there would be fewer efficiency experts and more sanity, fewer commissioners, and more education.