After reading the article "Smouldering Illini" appearing in the latest issue of The Saturday Evening Post, it is evident that that publication has wasted a great deal of its time and money as well as the time and money of one, Kenneth L. Roberts, in gathering together through the agency of the latter, material for what is purported to be a first hand account of the University of Illinois campus and undergraduates. . . .

The general conclusion Mr. Roberts reaches, though he is polite enough not to state it in so many words, is that most of the students at the University are a "bunch of dumbells"; and with this opinion we are forced to agree, in the face of Mr. Roberts' quite apparent ability to decide just exactly what characteristics a person should possess to be "a dumbell." . . .

The chief "gripe," to use a genuine Illinois slang term, which the writer seems to find with the campus is that the "spirit of revolt" is entirely absent. Just what direction this revolt might take is not quite clear in the article but it is evident that Mr. Roberts was very much impressed by the stories of the old days when students were went to go out and tear down a college building or two before the dawn. . .

Other forms of revolt, such as protest against the no-car rule and compulsory military training, he finds to be mild, evidently because of the lack of mental alertness on the part of students. But in explaining the lack of protest against the unreasonableness of the 12:30 ruling, he appears a little illogical when he says that it may be due in part to the ingenuity with which ways of evading the rule are devised. . . .

The entire article aptly illustrates the futility of writing from casual impressions. We fear that the author failed not only to get around to the right places but that he failed to get around with the right people. The article does no good and had much better never have been written. --Daily Illini