Arthur N. Holcombe '06, Eaton Professor of the Science of Government, will drop Government 1b after the spring semester, it was learned last night. Holcombe has given the course at Harvard for 30 years; no other professor now teaching has taught a major course for that long a time.

A final decision on his successor has not yet been reached, but Charles R. Cherington '35, associate professor of Government, is expected to give the course, possibly assisted by another member of the department.

The dropping of Government 1b will not lessen Holcombe's teaching lead, as he will give a new graduate course--not yet selected--in its place.

Cherington now teaches the undergraduate courses in Government Regulation of Industry and the Problems in American Federalism. But V. O. Key, the chairman of Yale's Department of Political Science, who is expected to join the Harvard faculty next year, might give the federalism course and free Cherington for his new duties.

Government 1 is the basic course needed for concentration in the field. The second semester of it, in which Holcombe gives a weekly lecture, covers Modern Government with emphasis on the institutions of the United States, Great Britain, France, and Russia.

Divided In World War II

During World War II, the course was divided into two separate semesters; previously Holcombe had been one of the two lecturers in the full course.

Holcombe's association with Government 1 began in 1910, when he started teaching the course at Radcliffe one year after A. Lawrence Lowell '77 stopped giving the course because of his appointment as president of the University.

Holcombe started teaching the course at Harvard in 1921; William Y. Elliott, Leroy Williams Professor of Political Science, joined the course about 1930 and now gives the first half, Government 1a.

Holcombe now gives Government 103, Principles of Popular Government, Government 130, the National Government of the United States, and Government 230, a seminar on the Legislative Process.