"THEN, STAND--"

Although the Stadium is snow-cov-covered, graduates continue to write to the "Alumni Bulletin" about football. We hear opinion after opinion about who gets the tickets and who ought to get them, why, and why not. All this is pretty much beside the point; it is only fair to give the H. A. A. its chance to act voluntarily. Some time ago it made the following announcement: "A new committee will shortly be appointed. The H. A. A. will give its ideas to the committee, and it hopes that before another Yale game many of this year's problems will be history." No doubt the committee will soon appear; let us hope the promise of it will not become history in the meantime.

Now another line of approach is suggested by Mr. Thomas W. Slocum '90 in the "Alumni Bulletin". If the capacity of the Stadium could be enlarged, most of the dissatisfaction would be eliminated, and what remained would be inevitable, under any scheme of allotment. Mr. Slocum gives a practical suggestion for such an enlargement. "A wooden ramp," he says, "could be put over certain sections of the present seats, with cleats at proper intervals for the too rest." These sections would then be set aside as standing room for men. The advantage is evident--at least twice as many spectators could be accommodated as could be seated in the same space, and "there are many thousands of Harvard enthusiasts who would prefer to stand throughout a game than not to see it at all." In opposition, the only criticism that suggests itself is the steepness of the ramp--but that could probably be overcome by the carpenter's ingenuity. Favorable arguments are plentiful. Surely it is easier to remain standing than to execute the continued jack-in-the-box motion required under the present plan. And when ten large individuals are assigned to a row that nature and the carpenter cut out for only nine puny specimens, there is presented a problem of cubic capacity to which there is only one answer.

As a beginning next year the wooden stands or possibly a few sections in the Stadium proper, might be built in the form suggested by Mr. Slocum; then, if the experiment worked, it could be extended to more sections; while if it was unsatisfactory, nothing would be last.

We hesitate to recommend such a proposal without adequate knowledge of the constructional difficulties involved. But the plan is so simple that it sounds reasonable; it is used in England to take care of soccer crowds that sometimes number 100,000. If it is feasible, it might prove somewhat of a godsend to the committee appointed by the H. A. A. to solve some exceedingly knotty problems.