TAKE A NUMBER

Although men have, until comparatively recent times, persistently sought to find some mystical significance in numbers their efforts have met with but little success. The attempt to prove that qualities of good and evil are inherent in the number 7 and the number 13 respectively, has been virtually abandoned; human ingenuity has turned rather to a study of numbers in their relation to each other. While the mystic has discovered that numbers in themselves signify nothing, the mathematician has found that numbers in series or in combinations may mean a great deal.

A similar discovery has apparently been made by the History Department during the past year. Students, professors, and outsiders have long racked their brains in an effort to discern some significance in the numbers assigned to the various history courses. What the number 30 has to do with Modern European history or 14 with that of the French Revolution has remained as much of a mystery as why 3 should lead to a knowledge of the Roman Empire or 32 to the general history of the United States. But it has recently been discovered that numbers, in themselves meaningless, can carry great significance if arranged in proper sequence. Beginning with several changes in next year's "Announcement of Courses of Instruction" the History Department has decided to have low numbers signify elementary courses while the larger numbers represent progressively more advanced courses.

The sentimentalist who loves anything tinged with tradition and the unreasoning individual who sometimes values meaninglessness for its own sake may shed a silent tear over 30 and 32, no longer to be counted among the progeny of the History Department. But the true prophet of progress cannot but hail the advent of efficiency in a field where it has been sadly wanting.