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In The Nation of March 11, Mr. Edward G. Bourne takes up the cudgels in defence of Yale, and attempts to point out some of the alleged weak points in the arguments used by Mr. Page. Mr. Bourne, in a very plausible and, to the general reader, convincing way, endeavors to drag into the discussion the scientific and theological departments of Harvard and of Yale. He tries to justify himself by saying that Harvard has opened to undergraduates of the academic department "many of the courses of the Divinity School," besides most of those of the Scientific School, and that therefore a comparison of the two colleges is necessarily unfair to Yale, if in that comparison the Sheffield School is disregarded. This position is not well supported by the facts. It is true that many of the courses in the Scientific School are open to members of the college, but it is also true that fully twice as many of the regular academic courses are open to members of the Scientific School. Thus one argument is more than neutralized by the other. The same may be said in regard to the Divinity School.

Mr. Bourne adduces as another reason to account for Yale's slow growth, the fact that "some sixty per cent. of her students come from outside the state, a large proportion from the West;" that the Western colleges have been improving rapidly of late, and that thus the competition with Yale for this Western contingent is increasing from year to year, - the result of which is detrimental to Yale. Mr. Bourne wholly forgets the fact that Harvard's percentage of undergraduates from the West is not decreasing, but, on the contrary, is growing rapidly and continually. What explanation can he offer for this, other than that which Mr. Page has already given?

A few of Mr. Page's arguments, however, Mr. Bourne is justified in opposing, and he does it in a manner wholly befitting a gentleman and loyal graduate of Yale. His loyalty is of the "true blue" kind, - a kind which seems hardly as common now as it did twenty or even ten years ago.