CRIMSON Confronts Praise, Scorn But Rarely Indifference

One professor recently picked up his copy of the CRIMSON and aware softly to himself. Staring up at him was his own picture and a story about his department which he had hoped would not appear. Its crumpled the paper into his pocket and glowered on his way to class. He did not, he decided, like the CRIMSON very much.

A few weeks later, an official in University administration looked over a copy of the CRIMSON. He noticed an article about the activities of communist units at Harvard in 1930a. This story would, he felt, explain the harmlessness of these units to the people around the country who are concerned about the frequent linking of Harvard and Reds. A few phone calls later, the article was being reprinted at the expense of the University for just such expense of the University for just such purposes of enlightenment. The official leaned back in his chair. The going had not always been smooth with the editors over the years, he reflected. But he liked the CRIMSON.

A candidate for board membership soon finds that everyone in the College has an opinion about the newspaper he hopes to join. And nobody ever hesitates to give it. By the end of his completion, and after talking to faculty, students, and townspeople, the candidate usually decides that most people are inclined toward the official's view. They like the CRIMSON, but always with some reservations. Completely overcoming these reservations is impossible; attempting to overcome them is the challenge of the paper.

There have been errors, for example, both in judgment and accuracy. Every Crimed knows the worst ones by heart and can reel them off as a hopeful chant against future mistakes. But for every misquote or proofing back, back are countless bright sports: the extra editions when a president resigns and when his successor is chosen; the announcement that, for the fifth straight year, the paper has won the Dana Reed prize for undergraduate writing; or perhaps, just the daily satisfaction is watching a paper materialize--sometimes as a weak paper, sometimes a strong one, but always a newspaper.

Within the four boards, each member can find more specialized satisfactions. The news boards thrives on the variety in their work and on the uncertainty of what the next assignment will be, CRIMSON interviewers have probed the secrets of Harry S. Truman, Eartha Kitt, and Wondell H. Furry with studied impartiality. A week's work might find a CRIMSON reporter in a Court room, at a soccer game, or at the scene of an accident.

For a member of the editorial staff, the question, is not where you are, but what you are thinking of. An editorial man should be versed enough in T. S. Eliot and D. D. Eisenhower that he can accurately judge a new performance of either. He will also have the dubious enjoyment of receiving letters which label his editorial views communistic and or fascistic, depending more on the particular bent of the reader than on the content of the editorials.

In the world of business, a hard account finally won is a bigger prize than the largest by-line. A business board candidate learns, too, that dummying ads and writing ad copy is no less as art because it is practiced for money rather than for aesthetic pleasure alone.

If is in this unlikely realm of aesthetics, that the photographic board has been making steady headway. The board's philosophy minimizes the un-imagination straight news picture. the emphasis a on the artistic picture which is still a good news picture which is still a good news picture; and portraiture has become more than smile-click thank you routine.

These, then, are a few of the satisfactions and challenges in newspaper work generally and the CRIMSON especially. The Daily Dartmouth once appraised the CRIMSON as "the newspaperman's news paper and the best undergraduate paper in the country." CRIMSON editors would be for more cautions in evaluating their paper. But this mark is one to shoot at and Crimeds hope each year to be worthy of the praise