1903-04 Volume 28 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

io6 THE SCROLL.not often lead his class all through life, but the chances arevery much in favor of his doing much better than the averageof his mates. In the current Atlantic Monthly Prof. A.L. Lowell, of Harvard, has been at some pains to computethe chances of the high scholars to win distinction. Hetakes as a rough and faulty, but available, measure of distinctionthe list of names in Who's Who in America. Thatmeasure he applies to graduates of Harvard College between1861 and 1887. He finds that of these graduates one inevery thirteen and three-tenths is included in that book.But of the men who ranked in the first seventh of theirclass, one in seven is in Who's Who, as against one in sixteenfor the rest of the class, and one in five for the first fourscholars. This ought not to surprise any one. High scholarsin college are not invariably abler men than their fellows,but they are apt to be abler as well as more diligent.Mr. Lowell has gone farther and tried to discover how itfares in the matter of distinction with the college athletes.Still using Who's Who, he finds that of the members of theHarvard University crews between 1861 and 1887, one inthirteen and two-thirds is in the book. But of seventy-twomembers of Harvard nines between 1869 and 1887, onlyone, Mr. Lowell says, is in Who's Who, this sole representativeof baseball being apparently Dr. H. C. Ernst, of Boston,pitcher and bacteriologist. Of ninety-three Harvardfootball men who were on the elevens between 1874 and1887, three, or one in thirty-two, are in Who's Who. Itwould appear from these figures that the outlook for distinctionin afterlife for college athletes is not good. But itshould be remembered that Who's Who is a defective measureof distinction, still more so of success; and that it is especiallydefective in the case of athletes. The book—anexcellent work of its kind—includes a great many writers,and the more noted professors, scientists, artists and politicians.But lawyers, doctors, and men of business are notgenerally included unless they happen also to be writers orpoliticians. Among Professor Lowell's own mates of theHarvard class of '77, there are more notably successful menwhose names are not in Who's Who, than that book includes.Athletes rarely make good poets, writers, painters,or professors, but they are believed to average pretty wellin general business, so that the conclusions about them derivedfrom questioning Who's Who must be taken with distrust.A Harvard athlete was until recently a partner in