SIX MILES OF WALKS TO BE MACADAMIZED

For the last time, the task or removing all six miles of board walks from paths in the Yard, and in other University property has been completed. Announcement has been made that a four-year program of macadamizing the present walks will start this summer. If appropriations are generous enough, authorities hope to eliminate all wooden walks by 1935.

The custom of laying down board walks annually during the winter season is half a century old. It was instituted by the Corporation in 1880 largely because of student agitation end of the editorial policies of the CRIMSON and its progenitor, the Magenta, whose columns for seven years warmly espoused the movement for plank walks. The first issue of the Magenta, appearing on January 24, 1873, contained the following editorial: "We wish the College would lay plank walks in the yard: As we wade through our classic enclosure on the sloppy days of the January thaw, or, when the signal man at Washington turns the water into ice, as we gracefully measure our length in front of the University, we think of this. We do not find fault with the management of our beloved institution, but we mildly hint that plank walks, such as are each winter on the Boston Common, would be a blessing to Faculty and students."

In recent years the high cost of laying down six miles of boards and the increasing upkeep necessary for the renewal of wornout planks has made the annual expense almost prohibitive. Authorities decided to macadamize the paths when they found that the funds spent on temporary walks would in ten years pay for the cost of cementing all walks.