Back That Ballot

This week the proposals for food reduction made by the Student Council Committee for Food Relief will be presented to the student body to accept or reject. First reaction of dining hall gourmets will undoubtedly be to utter loud moans at the thought of gastronomic deprivation. Yet, actual balloting should reveal unqualified approval of a plan to help relieve untold suffering in Europe at the cost of very slight sacrifice here.

Conservation of nearly one ten of wheat per week is no small contribution when added to the savings of similar programs being organized throughout the country. Equally important, the University has agreed to turn over one thousand dollars weekly to the Committee if the proposals are accepted in full by men in the College, Union, and Business School dining halls. These funds, together with other contributions, will be used to purchase food on the Boston market, through recognized relief agencies. In this way not only will strategic foodstuffs be conserved here, but they will be taken off the open market for shipment abroad.

This is no undertaking to mullet the Dining Hall System. The money turned over to Harvard food Relief will be an indirect contribution from University students in response to President Truman's appeal. On the other hand, no one need fear that Lehman Hall is going to make a profit at his expense. Any funds saved above the specified amount will be turned over to the Committee after a general accounting in June.

Only a month of spring term remaining, this program if adopted will receive but a brief trial period before it is subject to re-approval by summer term students. Sacrifices involved are picayune compared to the widespread suffering in devastated areas throughout the world. By deliberately isolating idealism from practical action, the man who rejects unreservedly the Food Committee's proposals might well question whether all his learning is more than a mouthful of platitudes.