Competition at Silver Bay.

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:--

Since now is the time to make plans for the summer, the Silver Bay Committee is endeavoring to bring to the attention of all men in college the advisability of spending the first ten days of vacation at the conference on Lake George, N. Y., from June 25 to July 4. About 800 men from over 60 colleges and institutions of New England and the Middle Atlantic States will be present, and it is but natural that at a conference like Silver Bay one comes into contact and into competition with those whose ideas on some subjects are entirely different from their own. If there is any truth in the charge that there exists at Harvard a feeling that the college body which comes together at Cambridge from all parts of the country, and even of foreign countries, is sufficient unto itself, and does not need the broadening influence of contact with men from other colleges, Harvard men should be ready to defend their ideas and their college institutions against those of men from other colleges. Silver Bay offers just such an opportunity for the submitting of Harvard standards, principles, and ideas to the tests which other colleges may wish to apply to them. The spirit of friendly rivalry and competition is felt throughout the conference:--in the athletic games, in the discussion groups where present day problems are considered from the Christian point of view, and in the social relationships. The competition of which I speak is valuable for several reasons:--it broadens the individual, giving him a new outlook, and crystallizing his opinions into convictions; and it makes the individual college delegation consider carefully, in the light of what they have learned from men of other colleges, whether the organizations and institutions which exist at their college are perfect, or whether they need to be reorganized or revitalized. No college man with red blood in him shuns competition with men who play the game squarely, and it is this type of man who is needed at Silver Bay this summer to maintain, strengthen, and give to others those high standards of thought, and action which Harvard has always exemplified.  F. W. WILLETT, 1G.R