Childs Play

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

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

Bobbie and Johnnie, aged two and three respectively, were playing in their nursery with a handsome set of coloured blocks. They utilized these blocks as all children do--that is to say, they placed some on top of others and some next to others. Once they had all the blocks erected into a magnificently lofty column. For a moment they stood aside and admired their handiwork, and then Johnnie said impatiently, "Oh, let's knock it down! I don't like it. I want another pile." So, with mirthful glee they destroyed their tower and built another.

In the 1850's Harvard University constructed a chapel. In the 1930's Harvard University says, "Oh, let's knock it down. We don't like it. We want another chapel."

It was at least logically comprehensible that the University should want to destroy Appleton in order to build a chapel twice its size, though it is gratifying to know that we will be spared this "balancing" of Widener.

But that the Corporation, Overseers, and Alumni should plan to tear down Appleton and replace it with a chapel of virtually the same size is a sad commentary on the juvenility of those august bodies. We have often heard the maxim that one always contemns the architecture of one's grandfather, and it seems unfortunate that Harvard should be so taken with the desire to spend money and to heap up new bricks as to lose sight of this truth. William Stix '32.