Retaliation

In regard to the following letter and the clipping from the Yale News, printed in yesterday's Crimson, which gave rise to the discussion, attention is called to today's Student Vagabond, wherein the correct statement of facts is set forth.

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

Only after repeatedly drinking of the cup of despair by seeing the Harvard football team give way to bigger and better foemen on alternating Saturdays have I become reconciled to the judgment of the Great Middle West that Harvard has degenerated solely into an institution of learning. The crowning blow, however, has been delivered by the Yale News. The passing of the Greek Department at Harvard brushes away our last hold on culture. We are led to believe that as Apollo had Marsvas skinned a mile, so the Business School, suckled in the years of its infancy in the Classical Library, carries on the torch of culture. And I write with more feeling because not only the truth about Harvard has been exposed, but also about myself. For the five courses in Greek which the writer pointed out as constituting the curriculum at Harvard constitutes at the same time my sole instruction in that department as an undergraduate. The Yale News was probably not aware of the fast that this frugal array of courses, combined with a corresponding number of Latin courses, and a couple of courses in ancient history, and the necessary intelligence in wielding the facts contained therein leads occasionally to a degree summa cum laudte Now the truth is out. And yet I suspect that had I not been fortunate enough to present three years of Greek upon entrance to Harvard, I could have found solace in other Greek courses more elementary, and had I been fortunate to have studied Greek in my infancy, I could still have continued my study of Greek as an undergraduate.

My own limited experience both as student and teacher in other educational Institutions outside our own leads me to the suspicion that many of our smaller colleges have ceased to do any serious work in Greek, and some of the universities perforce by reason of the poor preparation of their students have degenerated into one sort or other of parlor-Greek. It is refreshing to me to be at Harvard once again, where for a student of Greek a thorough knowledge of the language is not an otiose desirability, but a necessity. Very sincerely yours,   Arthur M. Young 3G.