1933 VERSUS FRANKENSTEIN

"It's a hell of a big country, Mister."

If Paul Engle were a Harvard graduate, he would find these words an appropriate description of his alma mater. For the last three hundred years Harvard has manufactured candidates for the "society of scholars", and today it is well equipped to oil some ten thousand of these animals, sheltered within its portals. Another Freshman Class of a thousand men will make small impression on the ceaseless tide. It will disappear under the dormitories in the Yard to show its head only at required intervals when it must produce study-cards or fill out House applications to adorn crowded files. Twice a year its members will receive grades from the august Faculty which wields in this light way its powers of honors and probation. University Hall, where the deans hold their desperate feasts, is only a step from one's quarters but yards of red tape stretch from the lowly Freshman to the arrogant dean except when the former is about to resume permanent residence at his home. In fact, Harvard is not only "a hell of a big country" but a veritable frankenstein.

In some such light will the man who has made a failure of College regard it in after years. To avoid this experience, he must realize that Harvard is "a Hell of a big country" and that a big country can be an impersonal one. After the cheering sentiments which will be drilled into 1938 continually during its first week here have died away, the Freshman Class will be face to face with this issue. The best weapon is initiative. While neither the Faculty nor the deans are alarming ogres, you must take the first step in opening relations with them. If and when you do you will find that these personal contacts lend value to your entire college career.

These four years are the only ones which you can make what you want. While they may not be the happiest ones, they belong to you in a sense no others will. Try and make something out of them. If your ambition is to become a social success and become a final clubman, do it well. If your ambition is to become a scholar, do it well. If your ambition is to become an athlete, do it well. Or if your ambition is to become a literary light, do it well. While G. K. Chesterton may have said. "What's worth doing, is worth doing poorly," you are more of a person if you are skilled along some line. In accomplishing this, do not forget that the national student leaguer, the final-clubman, and the grind all have their points.

A strong offensive is the best way to subdue this frankenstein monster. He must defend himself against well-planned strategy which puny insects have conceived with the help of the monster's different members. This is the one method for successful vaccination against him if you do not possess that natural immunity, indifference. A successful campaign will gain you his respect and possibly in the distant future an honorary degree. Who knows?