While the idea which found expression in a call for an inter collegiate Oratorical Association among the Eastern colleges is without doubt very valuable, and fertile of great results from an oratorical stand point, the enterprise might be termed slightly Utopian. If "J. F. M." wishes the college to "crystallize their ideas upon the subject" would it not be well for him to inaugurate the crystallization? Notwithstanding the fact that "such an institution exists between the colleges of six different western states" it still remains an open question whether "such an institution" is needed in the east "even more than in the west." "J. F. M." acknowledges that "more attention is given to oratory in the regular college curriculum" in the eastern colleges than in those of the west without caring to recognize the fact that the Oratorical Association among the western colleges is meant for a substitute, and a very poor substitute at that, for the instruction in elocution received at the eastern colleges. With all deference to the colleges of the west, it seems slightly unnecessary to incorporate into Harvard a tacitly acknowledged weakness of her humbler rivals. If they who desire the honor and eclat of oratorical victories would pay more attention to the fully competent and exceptional instruction in elocution already provided for the students of Harvard, there would be less thought given to "such an institution" as a National Inter-collegiate Oratorical Association.