WOULD IT WERE SO !

Messrs. Nathan and Mencken have directed their editorial gaze upon the Universities; in the February issue of "The Smart Set" is the fourth of a series of articles on "The Higher Learning in America". It is written by Mr. Gilbert Seldes, a Harvard man, and, naturally enough, is an article on our own University.

"The presumption remains at Harvard", he writes, "that a man ought to cheer his team if he wants to cheer his team; and that if he wants to read for honors in mathematics while the Yale game is going on he is no less a Harvard man, although he may not be having quite as good a time. There is a tradition which keeps all good Harvard men together: it is the tradition that they must be let alone."

What have we to say to this? For our own part we reply that we wish this were the case. In so far as it is true of Harvard today are we convinced that Harvard has more to offer than any other institution. The longer we are in college the more we desire to be let alone; the more we are annoyed by appeals to our college spirit, the more we are convinced that if an activity does not flourish there is no occasion to urge its support by the undergraduates, that if a club or a periodical can not survive on its own merits it ought to be allowed to expire in peace.

This is a position which many will frown upon--and rightly. For it does not consider this fact. Unfortunately among our numbers at least a half--most of them in the lower classes, although not all--suffered from delayed maturity to such an extent that by the end of their second year in college they were sufficiently developed to get something out of a Freshman year. They can not be let alone; if they are, they will get into trouble. Hence, instead of allowing them to sink or swim, we must support them on the water wings of college activities. Hence certain activities are given an importance disproportionate to their part in the college. Hence the CRIMSON urges undergraduates, as a matter of duty to support athletic teams--or for that matter to go to a lecture in the Union. Whereas, were it entirely desirable that a strict laissez-faire attitude should prevail at Harvard such misplaced emphasis and such expectations would be at once childish and in poor taste.

But, alas, such an attitude, although ideal, is not entirely practicable here. Some of us can be bound together by the tradition of indifference; the rest must have some more tangible bond of interest. Were it not for the appeal of athletics or of competitions for managerships, our school boys would fly off like feathers before an electric fan; Harvard would mean nothing to them, and the Subway would become for then, the only vehicle of self-expression. This fortunately, is but one of the many justifications for athletics; it is the only justification for college spirit.