(Ed. Note--The Crimson does not necessarily endorse opinions expressed in printed communications. No attention will be paid to anonymous letters, but under special conditions, at the request of the writer, names will be withheld.)

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

This college year, young as it still is, has seen a great deal of anxiety over the decline of the extra-curricula activity. Any manager, president or editor in the University will tell you that his organization is beginning to feel the effects of a decreasing number of candidates, and is study to offer suggestions as to causes of the sagging interest.

Dr. Fosdick to the contrary, there is no longer the lure al honor in the activity at Harvard. There are too many influences at work to discourage the "big man" idea. The Harvard undergraduate whose activities have placed him in the sun is rather pitied by his friends for the time and the energy he spends on something which does not appear to prove anything. Perhaps in his own mind he is beginning to curse the sophomoric ambition that sent him out for this or that.

A recent editorial in the columns of the CRIMSON advanced the thesis that undergraduates know what they want, and what they want is an education, in the academic sense of the word. That there was truth in this stand few will deny, and as few will probably take issue with the premise that the action of these two forces, the disappearance of glory from the undergraduate activity, and the bull movement in academic stocks, will tend eventually to the disintegration of many of the activities.

There are, however, a few places now held by undergraduates which will continue in their present status. The question is whether, at the end of ten years of development of the student body along its present lines, there will be enough men of the calibre required for some of these positions who will be willing to divide their time and abilities with work which yields no tangible return beyond a dead glory and that old bromide known as "experience."

The answer to this question may be found in the placing of some of the more important undergraduate positions on a remunerative basis. The major sport managerships, the presidency of the CRIMSON, and the presidency of the Phillips Brooks House, which are generally considered among the foremost student positions, are in fact real jobs, as stringent proportionally in their demands on time and energy of men whose resources are already taxed as an executive place in a corporation. The counter attractions to the part of student leaders that are now making themselves felt will be doubly powerful in a decade. Undergraduates of a future day may ask financial recognition of their role as student executive. This recognition might not be large, but sufficient partially to atone for the sacrifices which the responsibility entails.

The objections to such a state of affairs are legion, but the thought is no less valid. The American student is constantly arriving at a larger estimation of his own importance, and there is no reason why this may not expand to the sphere where he will not offer his valuable services except for the return which he would get for a similar effort elsewhere. Very truly yours,   R. G. West '29.