THE FOSTER-CHILD OF SILENCE

The futility of the suggesting placard and the dark and glowering glance has been proven again by the breaking out of another epidemic of cooperative study in the Reading Room of the Library. Two heads are not better than one when a constant flow of whispers pours from them and disturbs their neighbors. The cause of education is rendered an incessant lip service by these individuals, who are innocent of the knowledge that this method survives in the secondary schools of China, but has a place only in the elementary division of American schooling.

It is not surprising that this group is a minority; it is astounding to find that it is tolerated. Misplaced as any zenl for combined study in the workshop of a university is, it assumes proportions larger than those of mere annoyance when it thwarts an educational experiment. The Reading Period, it has been said, depend for a fair trial upon the co-operation of Library and student. The Library's assistance has been wholehearted and complete, that of the student deserves no impairment at the hands of the thoughtless. No one would wish a permanent "verboten" to be hung on communication in the Reading Room, but it would be not unagreeable if a tacit agreement of this nature should be in control for this month, at least. It is an unflattering paradox to the excellent co-operation of the Library during the Reading Period that within its seventh circle, an illegitimate kind of co-operation should rear its ugly head.