COME AND GET IT

Buried beneath an avalanche of facts, figures, and uninteresting detail there is in the report on Law School eating conditions this inescapable fact: no more than one third of the men are satisfied, and probably one half are dissatisfied, with conditions as they exist today. Such a general statement is necessarily subject to qualification on many different scores, and is based on returns from only one half of the graduate body; but nevertheless it carries important implications for all students -- undergraduates and graduates alike--who have hopes of obtaining from the University their daily bread.

Ever since old Memorial Hall -- still standing, in spite of recent reports--was converted from a dining hall to an examination chamber, graduate students have been in need of an acceptable substitute. Restaurants about the Square have served as a sort of stop-gap, and so prospered under the arrangement that they were ready to fight even the small student cooperative which is now safely located in Andover Hall. Their fight, which probably included pressure on the Cambridge Savings Bank to deny an important lease, was unsuccessful, and today the cooperative is clear evidence that the problem can be solved.

In this connection it is interesting that, according to the committee's report, a surprising number of Law School men are unwilling to help organize a similar cooperative. Probably there are several explanations, principally that the Andover scheme had not proved successful when the report was distributed, and secondarily because of what Life magazine so colorfully termed their "fierce" scholarship. Also, there was doubtless some feeling that if nothing were done from below, a wind-fall would suddenly descend from above, and "authorities" would place a dining hall in their laps.

This attitude is unfortunate, and if half of the fierce Langdell Hall scholars really want a common dining hall, some ambition and initiative on their part must be shown. They--and their undergraduate colleagues--have a right to expect from the powers that be, at least an appropriate building and adequate financial aid; but on the other hand they must not forget that such aid was only extended earlier when an energetic group of students had exhausted every other possibility. It is sometimes said in the Sunday Schools that "God helps those who help themselves"; and University justice has a disquieting habit of patterning itself upon the divine.