An Old Etonian has made, through a letter to the
Times, a strong appeal to the Governing Body of Eton, and to others who control our Public Schools. It is necessary, he says, that they should at once prepare for inevitable changes. Greater output of work will be needed on all sides to balance the consumption and waste of the war ; therefore a careless eight years at Public School and University can be the lot of very few. With all due distrust of too early specialization, we agree that an easy indefiniteness will be far less possible. The writer goes on to the financial case. Parents will have less money to speed on their SODS' education. If, there- fore, the schools are not to suffer by the loss of these boys, and if the families are not to lose the benefits that they have enjoyed, perhaps for generations, the expenses must be reduced. Here there is no room for any disagreement. It would be disastrous if a great school and the boys of a good stock, perhaps bound to the school by strong ties of tradition, should both lose the advan- tage.; they can confer oa each other. A sound public spirit must enforce economy, and not look askance at reductions of expenditure in luxury, in food, dress, games, and other spheres in which the modern boy has been in danger of being too well off. He has no desire himself to be a pampered darling.
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