President of Revived Harvard Critic Expounds Views and Aims of the "Fourth Publication"

Yes. The Critic again! It is traditional that a fourth publication appear occasionally at Harvard to rear its stalwart knob of a head and then to subside into nothingness and the realm of forgotten dailies. Such was the destined fate of the Critic, it was said, when that publication was relegated last spring to what the defunct Liberal was pleased to call its whited sepulchre.--under the anathema "they did not publish," and it is true that the Critic has again made up its mind to walk the face of the early.

Divorced from its illegitimate parents, communists, and neo-smart intellectuals --authors of a famous questionnaire--the Critic has started with an entirely new board of editors on an entirely now policy. It will again appear in its pamphlet form of over thirty pages, a quarterly magazine.

The policy, in the first place, is one of conservation. The editors feel, and have in this the concurrence of many members of the faculty, that there is a need and definite place at Harvard for a publication whose ends are not primarily literary nor informative, whose object is sane criticism and the intelligent expression of opinion.

The Critic was started originally on the catch-phrase "Difference not Indifference"--and the aim is not unpraiseworthy, for it predicates the existence of opinion, of something on which to differ. To many it may seem an absurd proposition that any opinion whatever should exist in college. There are, too, aceptics who doubt that any undergraduate wanta to read what author undergraduate has written. Whether this attitude is an expression of perennial Harvard indifference or a justified conclusion is uncertain. The aim of the Critic is to deny both; to deny by proving the contrary, by publishing specimens of undergraduate talent which expresses something more than more negation.

Its primary end, then is to draw forth criticism and opinion on controversial subjects related to Harvard. But at the same time there are matters which bear exposition and close discussion, matters affecting us closely and personally. There is for example, the question of the dininghall rates and the extent to which they are fair in contrast to club meals and the general profit-making scheme of the college; the problem of the poor boy among the sons of the privileged; the efficacy of the Student Council as an adequate expression of undergraduate ideas. Such specifically are some of the subjects the Critic plans to touch upon this year; and any articles dealing with these or related matters will be most gratefully received.

Criticize Conant

In a broader category is the matter of the tutorial system, which has remained a large question-mark across the face of departmental and University policy. There is the matter of the relation of the faculty and teaching staff to instruction and scholarship; this is a question of far-reaching consequences which is being discussed at length in University Hall. In the first issue is an article by a former member of the faculty which takes sharp issue with President Conant's policies. In all such subjects the Critic invites controversy and criticism.

Laski Featured

In every issue it will be the policy of the Critic to include an outside article by some well-known scholar, educator, or man of affairs: Among these Professor Harold J. Laski is appearing in one of the early issues. The Critic further plans to devote at least two pages of every issue, to book reviews, and to publish adequate criticism of books of serious and general interest. In so doing the editors feel they are filling a gap left vacant by all other publications.

An undergraduate publication, by definition, must rely almost wholly on the interest of undergraduates both for publication and sale. Articles therefore are earnestly solicited. To members of the class of 1938 who are interested in writing, such subjects suggest themselves as the section system, Freshman survey courses, Government 1, the inadequacy of Freshman advisers-all important problems which need discussion and exposition. Election to the editorial board will be on a basis of contributions published or assistance in office and publication work. To those interested in collecting subscriptions and advertising there is no business board. All these who are intested in trying out for the Critic--from any class whatsoever--are urged to see one of the Editors or the Business Manager