EDITORS DAILY CRIMSON.- It was recently urged, in a communication to the CRIMSON, that the college should establish a course in journalism. The correspondent holding that by this means the student could acquire the experience given to law students in the moot-courts of the Law School. An interview with some of the best known and most experienced journalists of Boston, which it has been my good fortune to have, would convince one to the contrary. In their opinion such a course would be of no practical use whatever, unless a model newspaper office was established, and that is an impossibility. There is no system that can be taught outside of an office, for hardly two newspaper offices in the country are run on the same plan.

Again, very few real journalists would be willing to teach journalism, and could not if they would. This profession differs from the medical and legal, in that a man who has mastered the elements of these latter is equipped for any district in the country, since physiology and the principles of common law are always the same. In journalism every locality demands different work. The requirements as well as the taste of the public must be understood and satisfied. The journalistic knowledge which would suit Boston; for example, would be altogether unsuitable for Minnesota. The two essential characteristics of a journalist in any place are the faculty of "knowing what you don't know," and the faculty of knowing what person to interview for news, this latter being largely a matter of intuition. In almost every public movement, whether religious, political, charitable or social; no matter under how long a list of vicepresident or members of committee it may be managed, there is always one person, who, alone, is able or willing to give information concerning it.

For the college student, these gentlemen maintain that there is no practical course other than connection with a college paper, and they strongly advise connection with some outside daily at the time. A man should learn to know what he wants to say, and then say it in the clearest and fewest possible words. Good practice is obtained by reporting events for pleasure and comparing with the newspaper accounts. Much attention should be given to Law, History, and English Literature, as well as the other subjects mentioned by Mr. Reid.

On this subject Mr. Godkin says, "The more a man knows of everything, and the better he can make deductions from what he knows, the better journalist he will be The art of journalism lies in the expression; the science of it may be said to include all sciences When we say this, we say enough to show the absurdity of establishing a special chair, or opening a special class of journalism in colleges."

A.