"A FIRST CLASS SNOB."

Senator Hollis '92, if the Boston newspapers quote him correctly, which, in the experience of the CRIMSON is problematical, has come out with the frank confession that Harvard made a snob of him; not a half-way snob, either; not a second class or steerage snob, but, to use the words attributed to the Senator, "a first class snob."

This would be distressing indeed, for both the Senator and the University from which he was graduated were it not for the fact that Harvard has always been its worst (or best) critic, and has always esteemed its self-criticism a virtue. Such being the case, the gentleman from New Hampshire has been virtuous to the point of sanctimoniousness, for this is not the first time Harvard has felt his barbed shafts.

Criticism, however exaggerated, is welcome. It makes men ask, "Is the critic right?" The CRIMSON can hardly dispute Senator Hollis's own testimony that he is a snob for he probably knows best, but it can question the conclusion that some might draw, that the Senator's case is typical and that Harvard makes all men "first class snobs."

It depends on the man. The University possesses no philosophers' stone nor does it profess to have mastered a formula for transmuting base into precious metal. It does the best it can with the material that comes to it.

The CRIMSON thinks Senator Hollis spoke with characteristic impulsiveness when he says that snobbishness is all that he acquired during his four years here. Surely he also acquired the ability to think for himself. His utterances in the Union last year and at Lynn Thursday prove that. The Senator isn't really as terrible a fellow as he says he is. He is a rather valuable sort of snob.