THE PRINCETON-HARVARD-YALE CONFERENCE

The importance of the Princeton-Harvard-Yale Conference on Government and Economic Stability, the first of its kind in this country; and its success from an undergraduate standpoint rest entirely on the fact that the presence of well-known men actively engaged in government administration and business gave to the conference an atmosphere of basic practicality impossible to obtain in purely academic circles. The free and frank discussion, completely off the record, of present problems was not only strongly stimulating, but a vital factor in dissipating many a befogged undergraduate and academic idea. The frank disagreement and resulting argument of Dr. Arthur E. Morgan, Chairman of the TVA, and Wendell L. Wilkie, President of the Commonwealth and Southern Corporation at the same round table on government and industry; the expose of the New England hysteria on the question of Japanese imports by Robert L. O'Brien, Chairman of the Tariff Commission, at the table on foreign trade; the opinions of Mariner S. Eccles, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board at the banking table were only a few of the more outstanding evidences of the accuracy and sincerity of the discussions. In consideration of the men in government and business who were invited to attend the conference, there is this to be said. Instead of polite martydom to more than one illy-considered and naive undergraduate question, they were genuinely interested in contact with the undergraduate experiment and willing to help the experiment in every way. Moreover, in many case, they exhibited a personal delight at the chance to discuss the problems over the same table with the men of opposite opinion whom they had been fighting either in the newspapers or in the Supreme Court.

The stimulus to more than one open-mouthed and sometimes silent undergraduate delegate from each of the three colleges is undeniable; just as the clarity and accuracy in the presentation of the problems was surprisingly illuminating. If for no other reason than that stimulus and clarification, the undergraduate viewpoint was widened; the conference was a success, and its continuance at Harvard next February is justified.