Four Wheel Drive

With traditional contempt for the churlish mouthings of eynies, Harvard undergraduates have energetically launched the Food Relief Committee on its current drive to aid European students. Last night a brief recount of the contributions to date showed that the College program was rumbling down the alley with increasing speed, surpassing in some houses the amazing $4.60 average donation of last summer's campaign. With the exception of one well-padded hardease who responded to the solicitor's pleas with a zine penny, students have expressed sincere concern and admirable generosity towards the tubercular scholars of Greece and China. However, the College comprises only one of the four zones of University effort, and its remarkable showing is dangerously off-set by the disappointing record of the faculty and the 900 non-resident students.

Although the populous Houses, Yard halls, and graduate school dormitories are expected to bear the brunt of the drive, their donations alone cannot fill Harvard's high quota, and the campaign will stall unless every commuter and faculty member contributes his share. The fact that the meager contributions of commuters have not kept pace with the general enthusiasm is largely due to an unavoidable technical imperfection in the campaign. Unable to solicit donations by a door-to-door method, the committee relied on individual letters to bring in non-resident funds and has rammed up against the same problem that baflies every charity with a mailing list. Where experts consider a ten percent return on letters average, the Food Relief quota for commuters has necessarily been placed at close to seventy percent. Minor difficulties such as distaste for the gummy side of stamps, lack of ink, and the ever-present aversion to mailing a letter should not, deter any student or faculty member from giving to this vitally important program.

Organized on the basis of last summer's results, the Food Relief Committee has aimed high. So significant a project should not be allowed to fail because of apathy or inconvenience.