The announcement that Magdalene College Cambridge, is about to bestow an honorary fellowship on Mr, T. S. Eliot, our leading modern poet, is another illustration of Magdalene's rising academic prestige and the curious variation of the fortunes of colleges. The days are easily remembered when Magdalene numbered under 30 undergraduates, most of them wealthy men who spent their time in hunting and polo. The college used at that time to borrow men from other colleges to "make up a Rugby XV. Now I believe the under graduates number about 180, and the college is stiff with Blues and Regions Professors in embryo. The buildings and gardens of Magdalene were always charming, and now it is adding new buildings, by Sir Edwin Lutyens, harmonizing admirably with the old. They involve the pulling down of some picturesque old black and white timbered houses, which is regrettable, but the ultimate effect will certainly be fine.
Mr. R. S. Eliot, the new fellow, used to be the particular pet of the highbrows and the beau ideal of iconoclasts. But since he wrote a successful poetic drama "Murder in the Cathedral" which quite ordinary people could understand, he has been displaced by younger rivals in revolt and incomprehensibility. His promotion to the ranks of college dons of-course finishes him.
Report on Labour Conditions 'A' report on conditions in 1938 just published by the Ministry of Labour shows that the total number of work-
Jess increased by about 166,000 as compared with 1937. Yet the numbers employed were higher than in any previous year except 1937 and over 20 per cent. higher than in 1924, which was considered a good year. The logical deduction from this is that there are always too many people in England for the work available.
But is this really so? The report of the Commission on unemployment relief published last week commented on the numbers of young men who never have worked and seemingly never will. They refuse to go to the "Siraining camps, Which teach skilled ades and have a good record in cing their men, and appear perfectly prepared to live on the dole forever. The Commission hints plain-that only coercion of some kind will cure this rottenness, Again, it is really intolerable that bers of girls should be allowed draw the dole while there is good ployment offering in domestic service and foreign servants are be-imported to take it
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.