How to make teaching as a profession attractive to men of ability-how to put it on a plane where it can compete with other occupations-this is a problem which will demand much thought and some action by the people of this country within the next generation. The leadership in such a movement must come from those who, having enjoyed the advantages of a college education, go out into the world to play their part in the control of the nation's affairs.

The New York Times quotes the results of a questionnaire sent to a number of former school teachers drawn into government service during the war, of whom but nine per cent expressed the intention of returning to teaching, and proceeds to elaborate the reasons which make school teaching an unattractive profession. The chief difficulty is financial. The war and the accompanying business boom have undoubtedly been large influences, and the recent business slump and fall in prices may have in part offset the tendencies drawing men away from teaching. With the constant increase which is looked for in the net enrollment of our many universities, endowment campaigns can hardly provide a complete or lasting solution.

The point is this: Under the existing state of affairs teachers in both universities and schools are underpaid, especially by comparison with men and women of equal ability in other pursuits. And the institutions of learning are for the most part on the bare edge in regard to finances, despite their campaigns for funds. Most of them are overcrowded, so that the efforts of the teacher are spread over a great number of students. The result is naturally that education suffers materially in both classes of institutions alike.

It would be a bold man who would try to present a complete solution to the problem; but one fact stands out as obvious-that it is the mission of the college-trained men of the next decades, the men who are best able to appreciate the value of education, to present to the people of this country the situation which its institutions of learning are facing, and to be leaders in every effort to keep both universities and schools up to the highest level. The responsibility, in the last analysis, lies in the hands of the people. But, who are to present the needs of education, who are to urge its importance to the country, if not university graduates? They can do the country a signal service by keeping the subject in the public eye, by urging legislative support for education, and by preparing the way for individual donations. -Cornell Daily Sun