It is of interest to note that while the Corporation, Overseers and Faculty are trying to secure a greater prominence to high scholarship in the University, the graduate students at Harvard in cooperation with those of other institutions are taking the initiative in an effort to give to the degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy, for which many of them are working, a significance which lax requirements in some universities and the granting of one or both degrees honoris causa in all, have in some measure destroyed.

This movement is inspired, if by nothing else, by a motive of self-protection on the part of men who will be dependent on the results of their graduate work in after life. For them the degrees in themselves are not necessarily a mark of distinction at present. That is to say, it does not follow nowadays, at because a man is an A. M. he has done a year of good work after graduation, or because he is a Ph. D. he has by two or three years of advanced study made any valuable contribution to his chosen branch of learning. Now the men that have done this, and are dependent upon the general recognition of the fact have the right to ask that the degrees be raised to the standard which, or else that some new degree may be invented which will be a fair indication of what they have accomplished.

We understand that when this subject is considered at the coming convention of graduate students in Philadelphia, a favorable tendency in the right direction will be reported from several colleges. As for Harvard's influence at present there can be no doubt. The standard of work required here for the two degrees in question is unquestionably a high one. With the exception of the conferring of the honorary degree of A. M., which is always done with discretion, both the master's and doctor's degree are marks of high scholarly attainment.