JOIN THE RED CROSS!

Although the time for enrolling in the Red Cross has been extended to today, the memberships have been coming in with disheartening slowness. So few have joined that the secretary of the committee advised the CRIMSON not to print the number, for fear of disgracing the University! Suffice it to say that Harvard ranks the lowest of all the colleges which are conducting a campaign. The committee sends out an urgent appeal for more enrolments.

Religious organizations often print comparisons of the amounts spent by the American people for missionary work with amounts spent for various forms of indulgence. The figures for alcohol run into the billions; automobiles, tobacco, moving pictures and chewing gum follow. Contributions for missions usually reach a few hundred thousand dollars. Such a table ought to be compiled with reference to the expenditures of college students for war relief and for luxuries. There would be an interesting, if shameful, comparison.

We live at the best period of our lives in the most comfortable circumstances, and at a time when the rest of the world is suffering all the horrors of war. When we think of Belgium bleeding, Poland starving and Servia smitten by fever, does it seem a great sacrifice to spend a dollar to help a little in the Red Cross work of mercy?