Helter-Shelter

Harvard is fertile ground for a reproduction in miniature of the chaos into which Greater Boston was thrown by the air raid scare of several days ago. And while the present tendency persists to laugh off the threat of enemy raids on the Atlantic coast as alarmist melodramatics, Harvard will remain vulnerable. It should be obvious that when even the experts cannot agree on the plausibility of such raids, the gamble is not worth taking.

Small specialized groups of students are being trained in the essentials of air raid defense, but the great majority is so ignorant of the matter as almost to neutralize the efficiency of the few. A plan must be initiated that will emphasize and reemphasize, for example, that Boston subways are no better than potential tombs in an air raid, or that water thrown on an incendiary bomb only hastens its explosion. The Boston papers have made a start in publicizing the A B C's of air raid defense. It is a subject that cannot be over-publicized. To be thoroughly effective, it must be put forward in a flood of pamphlets and posters that even the most ardent enemy of publicity notices cannot ignore.