A Current Events prize competition has been announced by the New York Times for 11 of the leading universities of this country. A prize of $500 and a gold medal will be awarded to the student who writes the best general examination, and $250 and a gold medal for the winner of preliminary examinations in each college. The universities to which these prizes are offered are Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell Princeton, West Point, Annapolis, the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago, the University of Virginia, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Examinations in the individual colleges will be conducted as the colleges themselves see fit, no restrictions or regulations having been established by the national committee. On May 15, the winning representative from each college will take the final examinations for the national prize. The final candidates are to take examination simultaneously in their respective colleges, instead of all assembling in one place.

Holcombe One of Judges

Dean Hawkes, of Columbia, Colonel Holt, of West Point, and Professor A. N. Holcombe of Harvard have been chosen as the national judges. Professor Holcombe will announce the arrangements for the examination here toward the end of this week.

The field covered in this contest includes current events of political, economic and social significance.

The examinations are to test not only the student's knowledge of facts and events, but also his understanding of their relative meanings and his interpretations of their importance.

The Times, speaking editorially of this contest, says in part: "The results of the examinations which will be held in these several Institutions before the end of the academic year, each institution determining the content and method of its own examination, should be at great significance and indicate in what ways the newspaper may be a more general and effective means of education in America. They should also be helpful to the whole movement in adult education. The incidental inter-university contest will open a new field for friendly intellectual competition in subjects of universal human interest and, if successful, should give a permanent place to current events as an extra curricula interest if not as a curriculum course in all higher institutions of learning.

"'The continuum of events,' says Einstein, 'exists as a background for phenomena, and when happenings occur in any region whatsoever the events are there ready to give forth their testimony'--but all to no avail if there are no minds there ready to receive the testimony and add it to the individual continuum.