The spring number of the Graduates' Magazine, which appears today, opens with a sketch of the life of the late Roger Wolcott '70, by Bishop William Lawrence '71, accompanied by an unusually good photogravure portrait of the late Governor. The article is written exceedingly well, and has none of the stereotyped dryness which is too often found in such sketches. the author has told the story of Governor Wolcott's life from his early school-days, and portrays the personality of the man with a happy appreciation of his character. This cannot fail to impress every one who knew of him, especially the great number of students whose knowledge was limited to hearing him speak in Cambridge on different occasions, as he so often did.

Professor F. W. Taussig '79 has contributed a short sketch entitled "Harvard in the West." This is a summary of the impressions which Professor Taussig received on his westward trip last December, put into concrete and readable form. It is indeed interesting.

The most important article in the number is "College Work and the A.B. in Three Years" by Professor Edwin H. Hall, which discusses the question as to whether or not it is feasible for the undergraduates body as a whole to change from a four-year course to a three-year course, without reducing the sum total of work accomplished by the ordinary student. To obtain trustworthy data on this question, about fifty students were selected from the "middle third" of each of the four college classes, from whom statistics were made. Some of the results are printed below, taking the statistics for each class in 1899-1900.

The average Senior takes 4.08 courses, spending 567 hours a year in the formal class-room work connected with them, and 544 hours outside the class-room in reading, preparation for examinations, and necessary writing. The hours of work gradually increase from the Senior down to the Freshman year, where the courses average 5.17, the hours in class 531, and the hours in outside preparation 761.

The author goes on to say: "The figures go far to show that the Harvard undergraduate is not the arrant idler he is sometimes supposed to be. On the other hand, they cannot be said to lend much support to the belief that he is more studious than his predecessor of twenty-five years ago. . . . The fact seems to be that the undergraduate studies about as much now as the undergraduate of his father's time studied." The working time of the present ordinary undergraduate could be increased, but the boy does not go to college merely to study. The public has a warmer feeling for colleges than for technical schools, because colleges are places for high aims, high opportunities and high spirits. "The college student, while learning to work intelligently and vigorously, should have to more work put upon him than he can carry without a prevailing sense of strain or hurry."

The final conclusion is that the three-year course would be bad for the students, because it would require them to divide their attention between too many subjects at one time, and to require them to spend a larger portion of their time in the class-room with less self-sustained work. To change from a four-year to a three-year course, without alteration in the amount of work, would be "bad for the reputation of the College, because it would set up a pretension that the Harvard A.B. had not been lowered by the change to a three-year practice, a pretension which neither the men of other colleges nor the public at large would be likely to admit."

"A History of the Harvard Lampoon," by W. B. Wheelwright '01, is a little eulogistic, but at the same time contains many interesting facts which are unknown to the general public.

R. C. Ringwalt '95 writes on "How to Improve Intercollegiate Debating." Considering the present prosperity of the University Debating Club, he thinks that the "artistic side" of debating has not been developed to keep pace with its popularity. Too much time is now spent on the process of narrowing the question to the issues, and too little on discussing the issues. This makes the audience feel that much is being said on irrelevant matters, before the sides come together. Mr. Ringwalt then suggests that a brief be submitted by each side to the other, feeling that the small portion of "surprise" thus lost would be more than balanced by the more scholarly discussion.

"Harvard's Opportunity in Medicine," by Dr. William T. Councilman h'99, pleads for a better organization of the various departments of the Medical School, as the first means of securing greater freedom for the students, and correspondingly greater progress.

The number also has a photograph of M. Gaston Deschamps, a cut of the new A. D. Club-house, and a photograph of the late Charles Cotesworth Beaman '61, with a biographical sketch by J. E. Wright '61.