"Meistersingers" Once More

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Evidently Mr. Oettinger has restrained himself until he just couldn't stand it any longer. In his outburst he has intimated that he possesses an insight into editorial motives that is beyond the ken of ordinary men.

Mr. Oettinger implies that he is capable of gaining political enlightenment from "any of several national publications of positive merits," and this carries with it the implication that he is capable of selecting just such publications. Presumably he knows precisely how to discount the influence of the editorial policy that, to the casual observer, has seemed to align most of the national publications of positive merit with one or another of the political parties, and to subject them to the influences of that party.

He believes that the practise of discussion, to some extent inspired by editorials of the nature published by the CRIMSON, is a thing to be "squelched" rather than to be held as, in at least some sense, a preparation for a better grasp of political situations. Since only the speeches of National Committee Chairmen seem to have any direct effect on the choice of candidates and the election generally, all other discussion is of the "dud" variety. Mr. Oettinger has grown up unhampered by the rather vulgar experience of open discussion; he seems annoyed that others should indulge in so common a pastime when there are plenty of experienced politicians who could do it all for them, and so much more conventionally, too.

And finally, any communicant should be very careful about using a word like "meistersinger." Lots of us don't know what it means! JOHN G. CURTIS '22. October 30, 1920.