GRADUATE CRITICISM

Contributions signed by graduates in this week's Alumni Bulletin are striking in the similarity of their criticism, tacit or explicit, of the broad general policy of the University at present. Three letters condemn utilitarianism that leads to the abolition of Latin as a requirement for an A.B. degree, while an article by Moses W. Ware '02, effectively points out how essential for even so "utilitarian" a field as business is the elusive quality of culture or balance which is the highest aim of a college education.

Mr. Ware's definition of the purpose of Harvard College should command worthy attention. He says, "It's primary business, aside from the advancement of learning, is to educate people to adhere to higher thoughts, to develop better taste, and to have aspirations untarnished by unprincipled ambition."

The common tone of the article and letters is the fear that the present administration is allowing the qualities of character and those described thirty years ago under the head of ethics to be obscured by a modern brand of scholasticism. If we lose sight of this aim in the College, we might as well, to quote the letter of Mr. J. J. Wiggins '12, "Change the name of the old place, and call it "Harvard Square Normal School" or something like that, so that people won't get it confused with what it used to be."