An Opposite View.

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Germany drinks beer; Russia vodka; France absinthe; England ale. The obvious moral is--If you seek peace and prosperity eschew the demon rum! I do not seek to emulate Mrs. Nation--the eminently illustrious "Hatchet Carrie," nor am I an embryo Anthony Comstock. Yet I believe in total abstinence for college men. However, the question of total abstinence is not necessary for the present discussion. It is an undisputed fact that to countenance Hogarthian over-drinking at smokers and dinners is to create an undesirable impression on the outside world and particularly in the minds of parents and boys who are preparing to choose an "alma mater." The situations of undergraduates, as well as of graduates, go a long way toward making this decision. The present question is not simply one as to the morality of undergraduates, or whether it is or is not harmful to quaff the amberous lager. The question is this: are we willing that drinking shall be set up--as it surely will be by the outside world, if continued,--be a Harvard ideal. Are we willing to express such an influence? For temptation is largely a matter of emulation. Are we not drifting into Tuetonic "kultur," and into "basest hedonism"--as expounded by Harold E. Stearns of Boston American fame?  LLOYD REILLY '17.