Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-27
HARVARD BOASTS
LATIN STANDING
Remains Only School Requir-
ing Its Study for Degree
in Classics.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
BOSTON, July 81 (NANA).-"To
the confusion of the enemies of the
classics!"
1t is gray professor who proposes
the toast, but there are 40 pink-cheeked
Harvard undergraduates who leap UP
with a shout to drink it down 1t de-
tracts nowise from the zest of their
toast that it comes to cap ballad Of
derision of Yale's Latinless degree.
I'D value more load of bungholes,"
the professor declains to student de-
light. than pale A. B. degree-a Lat
Unless degree"
Alone in Requirement.
So. chuckliig at Yale, which follows
Princeton in sacking the classical re-
quirements, the Classical Club of Har-
ward fingers over the toasts Of its an
nual banquet in gay mood. The rich
red wine of the classics still courses at
Harvard. She stands alone now. of the
great American colleges, in the classical
requirement.
Exultant professors in the classical
department have dug up statistics to
show that twice as many students at
Harvard are concentrating on Greek
LdIul StuulcS DIS ~ years ago. 10
be sure, the number makes no great
total, but they have to have five sec
tons for advanced Latin for freshmen
where there were only three
This trend at Harvard owes its In
tereSt to the fact that 1t sets dead
against the prevailing current of the
times that elsewhere seems to be car
rying the classical studies that were
the fundamentals of learning in grand
foN ~ &c. d.
limbo.
Best Literature Is Reason.
What's the reason?
The best literature and the best
ideas" Prof. Milan Parry states blandly
when the committee of tutors was
asked why an increasing number of
Harvard students, prefer Latin and
Greek.
1t was Prof. Parry who acted as
POSTMASTER at a recent Classical Club
banquet. and the students who cheered
the confusion of the enemies of the
classics-at Yale-talked better than
the run CT college men. That was the
first impression of the Classical Club
group that and their conscious su-
periority.
Your classical student is able to put
his best foot forward. His speech Is
smooth and finished His writing is
easy to read If it is all on the sur
face. at any rate it is a polished
surface
There is, at least, the suggestion of
something underneath. which. in the
case of too many technical college
men, you have to probe for, with no
clue in the hating and ungran1-
NAUTICAL exterior. There are Phi. DIS in
science who can't speak sentence
that does not crate on the sensibili-
ties OF all who give even lip-service
respect to English.
To memory comes a high school
teacher who always said that her Latin
students were the cream of each class
They make the same boast in the
classical department at Harvard and
they are aided and abetted by allies
in the literature asd arts departments.
More Honor Graduates.
The classical department boasts the
largest proportion of candidates for
honors at Harvard
That means that our men are better
quality than the average" says Prof
w. c. Greene. chairman of the clas-
steal tutors, as he contemplates the
record OF his men with satisfaction.
More kudoS are attached 60 the
classics. The president of the Advo-
cate is classical man. And the presi-
dent of the Crimson. And so it goes"
But don't make any mistake about
Latin. A committee that recently in
vestigated Latin America found more
boys and girls studying Latin than
all the other foreign languages put
together
But the men who choose to con-
centrate in Latin or Greek at Harvard
are not to be confused with those re-
luctant students who, defaulting in
their entrance requirements, take a
Latin course to satisfy the language
requirement.
These classical concentration men
come joyously and expectantly to Latin
and Greek, having tasted it enough to
find it the only branch of learning
that wholly satisfies their souls.
Except the few who are going to
teach. it is their souls satisfaction that
they have in mind. For it will get
them no jobs and make them no
money.
(Copyright. 1881, by North American News
paper Alliance, Jnc)