When the Seventy-second Congress passed the Hare-Hawes-Cutting bill for Philippine independence, that was later rejected by the Philippine Legislature, ten Harvard professors wrote to the committees on Insular Affairs to stress the need for abandoning United States military and naval bases in the Philippines if the Islands were to be given anything like real independence. The Seventy-third Congress has just passed the McDuffie resolution granting Philippine independence, and one of the major changes in the new bill is the abandonment of military bases in the Islands and provision for abandonment of the naval bases. It is not maintained that the Harvard professors alone were responsible for the change in the bill, but their action is significant of the Harvard faculty's firm interest in practical affairs, an interest that popular opinion does not usually attribute to men of academic careers.

Professorial interest in the practical problems of the day has not been confined to any one field. The Law School recently concluded a five-year survey of the crime problem in Boston, with a view to recommending criminological and penological reform. The Medical School has just announced a discovery concerning the nature of filterable viruses, responsible for many contagious diseases. Harvard has contributed its share of "brain-trusters," with Professor James B. Williams a special adviser to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, with Dr. John B. Crane a special investigator for the Airmail committees of Congress, and with Dr. Edward Chamberlin assisting the Railroad Coordinator. Lecturers have discussed the New Deal in its economic, legal, and political aspects, and have often deviated from their regular schedule to discuss events recorded by the morning newspapers.

The stimulus of precept and example on the part of various faculty members has unquestionably increased undergraduate interest in current practical affairs. That this process has not gone far enough is due partly to pedagogical, partly to psychological reasons. Pedagogically, the professors have been unable sufficiently to combine academic theorizing with the practicality of the present. Psychologically, the students have been unable to sufficient extent to break down the walls of Harvard provincialism.