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To the Editor of the Crimson:

In an article in the issue of the Crimson for March 27th on "Broader Fields of Study, etc.," the statement was made that "History and Literature was the original field of this type," (i.e. the correlation of allied fields) "followed by Bio-Chemistry and History and Science. During the past few years examples of integrating two departments have been apparent in Classics and Government, Philosophy and Economics and others which operate without a special board of tutors."

This statement seems to imply that the Department of the Classics is somewhat of a laggard in the attempt to combine its own field with other related fields in a general program of humanism. The exact opposite is the truth. The first combined field of the sort described was not History and Literature but "Literature," in which either Greek or Latin is combined with some Modern Language. This plan was initiated by members of the Departments of the Classics and Modern Languages in 1903, History and Literature following in 1906. I happened to be a member of both committees and remember the circumstances well. It was in 1914 that the Department of the Classics, with its humanistic friends, organized similar programs in Philosophy, History, Government, and Economics. An association with Fine Arts followed in 1921. Bio-Chemistry appeared in 1926 and History and Science in 1936.

Instead, therefore, of lagging behind in this noble procession, the Department of the Classics is among the leaders. Those who have discovered that the thought and the art of Greece and Rome are not antiquated but abiding, naturally are eager to explore its many relations to the history of mankind and to the world of today. There is no "querelle des anciens et des modernes" at Harvard. E. K. Rand.