IMPASSE

In the latest issue of The New York Times Magazine the American public is given an intimate and revealing glimpse into the lives and souls of every type of American undergraduate ranging from "the wealthy private institutions of the East" to the "great State universities of the Middle West, where democracy takes more obvious forms". While the author points out the deplorable falsity of the motion pictures affecting to depute undergraduate life and the justifiable student derision, he not only succeeds in digging pitfalls for motion picture directors in general but succeeds in relegating himself to a similar precarious position. For while undergraduates might tolerate a cinematic absurdity in which the beautiful "co-ed" acts as water boy to the football team and promises herself to the man who makes the winning touchdown, they certainly will not tolerate having aspersions cast upon their manly ability to appreciate football.

Harvard bears the brunt of the most startling accusation. After the author has celebrated the passing of the "rah rah boy" he states that out of the 2500 men at the University of Chicago only 40 joined the football squad. "At Harvard," he continues, "the situation is not so extreme, yet there is said to be a feeling there in the more aristocratic circles that football is not quite a gentleman's game".

Inasmuch as the author pessimistically presents his charge as a fiat accompli, it seems imperative to rise up and remind him that he is dangerously on the verge of offending certain Boston sport writers who pride themselves on having classified Harvard football long ago. Their diagnosis has boldly proclaimed that there are altogether too many "gentlemanly" gentlemen in Harvard football for its own good. Such a clash of reliable judgements naturally brings the question to an impasse.