In the current issue of the Alumni Weekly appears a curiously skeptical editorial. . . . It "humbly suggests" that the Princetonian adduce facts and figures to establish its contention that a general decline of interest in extra-curricular activities marks the Princeton Campus today. "Has the Princetonian made a thorough survey?" asks the Weekly (which has a "trace of the Missourian" in its make-up). If not, let its candidates set to work compiling statistics on competitions and squad turn-outs for the last five years in order that it may speak with authority.

A touch of irony attaches to the amusing unbelief of our esteemed contemporaries from Missouri and to their strange unwillingness to be alive to the obvious In view of their impressive reasons for skepticism--several conversations with undergraduates--we call to their attention the statement of an eminent philosopher that doubt itself is irrational unless grounded on positive evidence.

It would be idle to attempt a summary in one sentence or in one paragraph of our reasons, frequently expressed in our columns during the past year, for the conviction that extra-curricular activities are at present on the wane. Individualism, lack of interest in all class elections, a decline of respect for a Varsity "P", thinning competitions for the Princetonian and Tiger, rough sledding for the Intime, the failing popularity of baseball, smaller squads in football, apathy in regard to "student government," the tremendous rise of informal sports like squash, golf, and tennis, consternation of advisory athletic committees about the new low struck by Princeton teams--these are among the considerations which have led the Princetonian to affirm a belief which is widely held on the Campus. The specific causes of present conditions we have tried to set forth in a number of previous editorials. That they are not peculiar to Princeton is evidenced by similar testimony from the Williams Record, the Dartmouth, the Yale News, the Harvard CRIMSON, the Pennsylvanian, the Cornell Sun, and the Brown Herald, whose conclusions in general bear out those of the Princetonian. . . . Daily Princetonian.