Old Corruption

(Ed. Note-The Crimson does not necessarily endorse opinions expressed in printed communications. No attention will be paid to anonymous letters, but under special conditions, at the request of the writer, names will be withheld.)

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:-

In my Freshman year, I joined the Harvard Union. I used my membership enough so that I again joined in my Sophomore year. That year, I found I hardly ever entered the building when I could not have done so as a non-member, so I determined not to join again. Thinking that I would be automatically dropped unless I signed up again as in the two previous years, I merely ignored the Union. But the Union did not ignore me. It seems that when I first joined I made an agreement that I would notify the Union of my intention to withdraw before October tenth of the year of my resignation as a member. Hence, when I received a membership card in the mail on October eleventh I was liable for the dues for the current year-some ten dollars-which I was in no way anticipating.

Now it seems to me that the ruling which requires the signing of this agreement is basically poor. Undoubtedly my experience is not unusual, as freshmen, we sign so many agreements that we are more than likely to forget details of this sort before another year has come around. When we sign up for the "Crimson," we are not liable for four year's subscriptions. Why are not the two cases parallel?

I would suggest for consideration of those in authority that the ruling be changed so that those men who wish to continue as members of the Union from year to year be requested to sign their names at the desk in the main hall of the Union at the beginning of the year. This would be no great inconvenience, as it would only take a minute of time away from the first visit of these men to the Union a visit that any man desiring to rejoin the Union would be certain to take during the opening weeks of college.

In this way, there would be no men caught in the manner in which I was caught and forced to pay ten dollars for a membership which had proven not worth that much to me. Under such an agreement, men not likely to frequent the Union would not have to visit it to resign, and men likely to visit the Union would have to waste only a moment's time signing up for another year. Sincerely yours,   Philip Donham '30.