T HE other day, as I was mounting Bascom Hill in the slow-moving traffic, I overheard a remnant of a conversation between two very earnest young ladies. They were apparently discussing the dubious merits of a foreign language course to which they were being exposed. "But what I'd like to know," one of them was saying, with some vehemence, "what I'd like to know is this: what's in it for me? Just what will it get me?" There was almost a note of desperation in her voice. Her friend seemed at a loss for an answer. Then, after a long moment of reflection, she ventured timidly: "I don't know what it'll get you. ... An education, I suppose ...." Most of you, I am sure, find it neither expedient nor profitable to discuss such vital matters as you climb the Hill each morning, but surely, at some time or other, you have asked yourselves this question, with regard to every subject you are studying: "What will it get me?" And generally, what you really mean is this: What is the practical value of the subject in question; what is its "bread-and-butter," "dollar-and-cents" value, to you personally, and how and to what extent will it prepare you for the career or profession you have chosen or are about to choose. Now this is a legitimate question and I shall try to answer it as carefully as I can, although, as I shall point out later, it is a question which is frequently related to an imperfect comprehension of the ideals of a liberal education and of the purposes and functions of a University. The study of modern foreign languages does have certain immediate, practical, "dollars-and-cents" values and there are numerous opportunities of good jobs for properly qualified linguists. Our country's emergence from the war as one of the two greatest powers-militarily, politically, economically-has brought with it responsibilities and obligations which make it imperative for our Government, particularly the State Department and the armed services, to maintain large staffs of trained linguists. At the outbreak of the last war, the Army and Navy became acutely conscious of the grave shortage of men with specialized training in foreign languages and they were obliged to set up, hurriedly and at great expense, a large training program to supply this desperate need. Today our government recognizes that it is of prime necessity to know the languages of our enemies or our potential enemies as well as those of our friends and allies. "Waging the peace," or as some would have it, "fighting the cold war,"