Eliot Night Lunch

(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:

Each morning in your editorial columns appear with harmless regularity bits of innocuous criticism concerning University policy on stale and moot points while standing out in bold relief before your very eyes are all the flagrant flaws against which you refuse to act. It is relative to one of these flaws that I send this communication to you: The Eliot Night Lunch. Students are enticed by convenience of location into this subterranean palace where they are told that by a simple signature most marvelous things are produced. The scheme would be a very commendable one if it were not for the fact that the student that enters the fairy palace is bled by outrageous prices. For instance: the price of a glass of tomato or orange juice is listed as twenty-five cents; something that cannot possibly cost the Dining Hall System more than ten cents, granting every inclusion of fixed costs such as overhead and service. And at that an infant could tell you that the same juices are diluted practically fifty-fifty. This applies to practically all the listed articles on the Eliot House Menu.

Moreover the University is absolutely sure of getting its money. No bad debts can exist behind the compulsory bond. The concession is a virtual miniature gold mine. In the square on the other hand where prices are far more nominal, charge accounts exist in sparcity because the merchant has no positive guarantee. Consequently students are driven into the arms of the Night Lunch Counter because there a charge account is accepted. One thing must be done to end this gross exploitation. The University must run the Night Lunch on a non-profit basis and make public its accounts to guarantee the security of this basis. Moreover I condemn the CRIMSON for letting conditions roll along in the same old rut. Understand, that the institution of convenience such as the Night Lunch is a valuable one but it must be affirmed that wholesale filching of students' pockets by means of the term bill credit system is high robbery of a respectable but none the less irritable sort. Emuel Q. T. Gladpebble '40.