The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-08-30
Snobbishness Is Ruling Spirit At
 Harvard, He Says

Under the title, '"The Pride of In- tellect,' John Hobbie Jr., condemns the spirit of snobishness, which, he says prevails at Harvard.
 MT. Hobbie says:
 The writer proposes to consider a few features of one of the most con- serVative of American colleges Two years ago after he had been out of the high school four years he went to Har- ward full of enthusiasm for the college and it's opportunities. But two years contact with the student body and an understanding of the attitude of Har- yard men toward those outside the classic realms of Cambridge" have re- duced that enthusiasm to almost noth- ing.
 One of the first attempts that the newcomer at Harvard vii notice is the assumption of superiority that charac- ter1zeS nearly every one connected with the college. Along with this irritatin g snobbishness is often found a lack of character or of any definite purpose in life, other than to enthuse and shout over the college games, to grace some lady's parlor, to absorb a vague and indefinite something called culture and to be gentleman Harvard men will almost without exception de- ny this, but outsiders who have come in contact with them will recognize
 
 It cannot be said that the students are entirely responsible for their atti- tude. Many of them have been so sur rounded with wealth and luxury all their lives that they are nothing more than spoiled pampered children. Others who have not been so shielded from the world, and who come to college with some idea of the realities of life, find themselves so subjected to the influ- ence of the college that they uncon- sciously absorb the prevalent attitude of the institution. On every hand the student is having the greatness of Harvard, and the glory and honor of being a Harvard man, dinned into his ears. It is not to be wondered at, then, that most of them acquire the idea that Harvard is better than any other college, and become blinded to the manifest faults and shortcomings of their institution.
 The most apaprent deficiency of Harvard College, to an outsider is the way in which it stands aloof from the real life of the world. It's courses are to great extent academic and inn practical, and give the student no &C., quaintance with the actual problems of life. Students spend their time in gaining knowledge of some ancient language, or in absorbing tales of an c1ent civilizations, and imagine they are becoming educated.
 One or two examples will suffice to make clear this remoteness from real life in the course offered at Harvard. A year ago a large number of students presented a petition to the college au- thorities, asking for a course in Social ism, to be given from a sympathetic standpoint, and to be easily accessible to those wishing to take it. After a year of waiting, a course of this kind will be included in the curricu- lum next year, but will be open only to those who have spent a year in studying the cut and dried orthodox economies. Another instance of this academic cock-sureedness is seen in the standards set up by the English deparment. The writer has never been able to see wherein the work of recog- nized literary geniuses like Shakes peare and Milton excels that of a gilmore modern, but outlawed, writer like London. He can enjoy Shake speare, but is, to speak plainly, bored by Milton. London, on the other hand has a freshness and an inspiring style which the classical writers lack. It may be that the writer has poor tastes, and is not cultured but he must