In recent numbers of the Bulletin I have observed, with some amusement, not unmingled with sorrow, the palpitant emotion of certain contributors to its columns anent the alarming tendency of preparatory school graduates to choose for matriculation other colleges than Harvard. The glamor of athletic supremacy, which for some years has been Harvard's, has not, apparently, resulted in an increase of applicants for admission--far from it, if the latest figures from Andover and Exeter are to be believed. And yet, does not the remedy for this condition lie in Harvard's own hands?

To me, looking back with a comfortable perspective over an experience of some fifteen years in teaching and numerous hours of the period of time spent in attempting to explain and make attractive the numerous and devious methods of admission to Harvard with which we have been favored during those years, it seems that the time has come to consider seriously some of the unreasonable admission requirements which tend to make the nervous candidate shy at the thought of Harvard. If we wish to compete in numbers with the other large universities, why not, in the name of common sense, remove some of the hurdles and hazards which turn prospective entrants in ever-increasing numbers to the welcoming gates of other abodes of learning? I am not an advocate of the certificate method of admission; on the other hand, I am no believer in the super-boy and boys, who, taking them by and large, work harder in their years at preparatory school than they ever do afterwards in college, are inevitably influenced by the contrasting difficulties of admission to the various universities whose fame is greatest throughout the land. Certainly the Harvard requirements are not of such a kind as to make school student gird up his intellectual loins for further frenzied effort.

The Latin requirements certainly explain why many sub-Freshmen prefer to hole out on the New Haven green rather than hazard the artificial bunkers and traps which guard the course to Cambridge. If we are willing to temper the wind to the handicapped lamb, let us by all means knock down a few bars and allow the relieving breeze to guide him gently to us; if not, why indulge in poignant grief at our own exclusiveness? Let us be honest with ourselves and others--let us retain our artificial barriers and glory in the fact that we have them in order to eliminate the lazy and inefficient, or let us remove them if we wish to compete on equal terms with our rivals in bidding for our students.  Communication to alumni Bulleti