One of the toughest critical yardsticks one can put alongside the modern short story is a two-word question: "so what?" A writer can blue-pencil his way to a clean precise style; if he can combine this with an ear for language and an eye for detail he can describe competently. But above all he must have something to say.

The new "Advocate" bats about 500 against this problem. Shying away from its recent preoccupation with non-fiction, it groups six short stories, most of which are surprisingly neat, precise, and cleanly written. Three of them cut a little deeper than straight surface description, and these are very good.

Fred Gwynne, president of the "Lampoon," has jumped leagues to write the best story of the lot. Called "Ronny," it describes with understanding the gap between the emotions of a small boy and his mother. Far different and nearly as good is Sherman Funk's "The Way to Travel." Funk rehashes the told, bruising discomfort of two squads in an Army six-by-six truck. His description of discomfort is no more vivid than that in a dozen war novels, but it is remarkable to find the "Advocate" writing on the level of the good war novel, and Funk's episode is bright and quietly humorous. The third of the good stories, "Candy for Souran," by Stephen Lewis, is a penetrating look at an abject little shop-keeper and his obese, immobile, and domineering wife.

The latest "Advocate" has its week points. The remaining three stories are either shallow or not particularly craftsmanlike. And all of the stories show raggedness and a tendency to wander outside their characters, to editorialize on what is going on. The long lead article on evangelist Billy Graham is a repetitive job of reporting; John Rogers' review of "The Cannibal" seems remarkably superficial.

The "Advocate" has scrapped its long and occasionally rambling articles for a crop of direct and often perceptive short stories. Its problem now will be to combine the reader-interest of those articles with the writing proficiency of the stories.