Dr. Abraham Flexner in his challenging book on "University American, English and German" says that "colleges do not know what they wish: "Do they wish brains? Do they wish "industry? Do they wish scholarship? "Do they wish character, or do they "wish 'qualities that fit for leadership'? They swing blindly and helplessly from one to another." But if he reads the report of President Aydelotte covering ten years at Swarthmore College, he will find at least one American college that knows what it wishes to do. The answer is very like the one which President Lowell has made for the American university. It is implicit in the statement that the college of liberal arts is "a good place only for students with definite intellectual interests." President Aydelotte contends that it can deal profitably with students of various levels of ability, but only with those who are seriously in pursuit of an education and who have some conception of what it means. To introduce into the college merely professional or vocational training is to alter its character. It must substitute for the "utilitarian urge" intellectual curiosity--which is a rarer thing.

Swarthmore College has spoken for the American college not alone in words but in its scheme of honors work, with emphasis on intellectual ability and development. Nearly half of the seniors now undertake it. Here is a clear indication of the main purpose of the American college of this type. Those who take the honors courses are the constituency for which it primarily exists. Students with the serious intellectual purposes evidenced by a choice of the more demanding plan of studies and examinations determine the quality of the institution. In President Aydelotte's acquaintance with the students of today he is of the opinion that they tend more and more to plan for themselves, to be more intelligently critical of the teaching they receive and to look upon studies, athletic sports and extra-curricular activities with a truer sense of proportion.

President MacCracken of Vassar notes the same tendency--every reform looking toward increased independence on the part of the students. He urges an even greater degree of management of their own affairs so that they may function "as people should." And it is his testimony, as well as that of President Aydelotte, that the student response under proper guidance is characterized by "self-control, reliability, persistence and tolerance." Like views have recently been expressed by Dean Gauss at Princeton. There are signs that our colleges and universities are moving to a higher plane of intellectual life. Those who have been critical are seeing fruits of their persistent preaching. It cannot be doubted that the present period of necessary economy will have good effects in the quality of college experience. The "college of the moving picture screen" is disappearing. --New York Times.