HIGH TIDE

If for no other reason than sheer physical limitations, the rush of American youth to the colleges that has been going on since the war could not keep up indefinitely. Reports of the numbers of new students entering universities for the past year reveal the fact that the tide has finally been checked. For the first time since the movement began, the rate of increase in enrollments is less than for the preceding year.

The inability of the institutions to expand as fast as the numbers of those desiring to enter them is the most obvious reason for this first abating of the movement that has been the despair of educational leaders for the last decade. Yet this may not be the whole story. If the pressure remained the same, there are still many colleges in the country that could do with a greater abundance of students, and at Harvard each Freshman class outnumbers its predecessor in spite of the increasing rigor of entrance requirements.

Another possibility is that the strenuous efforts made during the last few years to divert some of the flood at its source have had a tangible result. In contrast to the lean days of the past century when needy universities beat the publicity drums far and wide to attract customers to their displays of educational wares, the present attitude is distinctly diminuendo. College is a waste of time for many students; for a purely business career it has few practical uses; those who come for social reasons are an unmitigated evil. Such statements have become familiar to the reading public, and for the first time their sponsors have some grounds for hope that they have not all been in vain.