HARVARD LOOKS WESTWARD

An avowed darling of President Conant's educational program is his plan to attract to Harvard scholars of exceptional ability from the Middle Western and Western states by means of generously large scholarships. The President's announcement Saturday night that next year his prize scholarship plan will be extended to include students from Kentucky and Iowa is an encouraging proof that Harvard's unique experiment is moving forward.

Begun last year with a grant of ton scholarships to students from the Middle Western states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, the plan was pronounced a success by Mr. Conant after examining the records of these men during the first semester. The belief is reasonable that next year's students from Kentucky and Iowa will do equally satisfactory work at Harvard. The success is due in large measure to the ample size of these awards. Starting from $200 TO $1000, according to the financial condition of the recipients, they are renewable throughout the college career and may ultimately reach the sum of $1200. A student unhampered by the necessity of working his way through college will doubtlessly show good results, Mr. Conant believes, and his recognition of the value of security should be commended as realistic wisdom.

The policy of choosing students from states not yet widely represented at Harvard is as important as the financial provisions of the program. Although the East has always furnished by far the largest number of Harvard's undergraduates, the University can not afford to shut its eyes to that larger and increasingly important part of the country. President Conant's scholarship plan promises to overcome the practical difficulties in the way of the Western student mentally, though not financially, equipped to study at Harvard.

The President admits that his program is severely hampered by lack of funds. The regrouping of several smaller scholarships now offered will not be enough. A group of a dozen Middle Western and Western students at Harvard under the Conant plan is no more than an encouraging beginning to a program which has as its ultimate aim the inclusion of deserving young men from all forty-eight states of the Union. It is to be hoped that financial means will be found to permit the further development of a plan not only of proved success, but one of-great expectations.