Objections to Lengthening the Class Day Exercises.

To the Editors of the Crimson:

There are two points that should be considered before the celebration of Class Day is extended over two or three days: first, that this change would be, in all probability, acceptable to only a portion of the class; and, second, that it would involve an increase in expenditure by the individual members of the class which would have most serious results.

In the first place, it is fair to assume that in addition to the twenty-five percent of the class who spread, there are not more than twenty-five per cent who receive so many invitations to spreads that the business of entertaining and being entertained is, for them, exhausting. Granting, for the sake of argument, what is by no means established, that all these men desire a large season of festivity, and that a three-day celebration would be less of a strain than the present one day, we have still to consider the case of the other fifty per cent-the fellows who neither spread nor get more than one or two invitations to the spreads of their more fortunate class-mates. These men find Class Day just long enough. They take perhaps half a dozen relatives and friends to Sanders in the morning, to the Tree in the afternoon, and to Memorial or the Gymnasium in the evening. If a spread or two be included in the program, the day is completely and pleasantly field.

For such men, and for the few who can not afford the expense even of so slight and simple entertainment, a two-day or three day celebration would be a calamity. They would be forced to wander about with nothing to do but envy the elaborate hospitality of their richer class-mates; and the inevitable result would be that they would cease to entertain at all. Class Day would thus become a mere fashionable show, full of extravagance; a festival which the rich man would naturally enjoy, but which the poor man would have no share in. Any change which could lead to such a state of affairs can be regarded only as the worst evil which could possibly befall us.

That such would be the outcome of the proposed extension is the opinion not only of the writer, but of many Seniors, and, it would seem, of most graduates. Out of nine alumni recently consulted on this question,- of the classes of '41, '46, '50, '61, '64, '68, '81, '83, and '84,- only two favored the proposed change; the rest were unanimous in their belief that a longer celebration than has hitherto been customary would inevitably be more elaborate, more expensive, and, in general, such that the poor man would be sharply divided from the rich; and Class Day would be no longer the dear and beautiful festival which it has been for more than fifty years. '97.