SCHOLARS ABROAD

Of the many prizes and fellowships offering a trip to Europe as the solid flesh to accompany the more nebulous haze of distinction lent by them, the larger part are a direct result of war-time and early post-war idealism. In those days of friendship and hatred, hope and vindictiveness, the idea of greater intercourse among nations as a cure for world ills found its widest acceptance; and the generosity of people on both sides of the ocean established a considerable number of exchange studentships. Since that time, other interests than purely philanthropic ones have bestirred themselves, and while these latter awards are less completely educational in purpose than the earlier, they likewise offer a pleasing example of what in 1919 was called international good will.

The value of these transatlantic excursions is rather less widely accepted now than at the time of their introduction, for, like so many of the lofty ideas accepted without question under the stress of circumstances, they have been viewed askance of late by the new philosophers of pessimism. Whatever the final verdict, there is one serious lack in the awards instituted shortly after the war, that is being to some extent replaced. The concession to the spirit of 1918 in omitting the countries recently enemies of the United States needs no longer to be made, and the number of American students at present in Germany and Austria is an agreeable proof that the international friendship of this movement is no longer one-sided.