PHI BETA KAPPA

The selection of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Robert Hillyer as the two speakers for the annual literary exercises of the Phi Beta Kappa will give the affair a requisite Harvard tinge and at the same time a wider significance, national and even international. They are notable additions to the list of Orators and Poets, which during the long existence of these exercise include many of Harvard's most eminent graduate.

Under these circumstances the exercise attained a prominence proportional to the importance of those who spoke there, and the Auditorium of Sanders Theatre was invariably crowded. The demands of other activities of graduation for more attention have in recent years caused some difficulty in regard to the date of the affair. The use of Friday of Commencement Week has been found to be impractical, for the competition of the crew races that day is strong, and the fact that Commencement and all its ceremonies are past has tended to make the day something of an anticlimax, although the quality of the Orators and Poets has not deteriorated.

The two men selected this year for the offices are in line with the distinguished tradition of the past; and the change of date brings the exercises at a time when most of the graduating class is still in Cambridge and able to attend.