INCREASING CIVIC INTEREST.

College seems to be no place for the gospel that the world is too much with us. It is a quarter of a century since a voice came out of the wilderness of books declaring that book learning is not an end in itself, that history is to be studied in the light of the present and great ideas in the light of immediate service. The curriculum can make only partial response; courses may extend further into the present; some may treat of the most recent developments of society; but still there remains a demand for closer connection with the outside world. We are inevitably condemned, for four years, to be onlookers, watching the current of events, but observations may be made constant and more intelligent.

The opportunity afforded by the Speakers' Club of discussing and gaining intimate knowledge of the issues of today is in line with this modernist movement. And the project begins auspiciously with an address by Professor Taft, who has not only been in the current of things but has guided its trend. He comes to plead the necessity of the increase of civic interest among students. The authority of so eminent a jurist, if not the eagerness of undergraduates, should give him a numerous and well-disposed audience.