Lighting the Way

Today the Harvard community stands, almost alone, as a final bastion of academic freedom. Amid the hoots and jibes of intellectual muckers and muckrakers, with the tocsin of false alarm gleefully tolled in state and national legislatures, each student must prepare himself to carry the weight of freedom. Harvard independence has been extolled by its alumni, exhorted by its deans, and recently received the accolade (if not the coup de grace) of recognition by Henry Luce.

In realization of his increasing duty to maintain the mens sana in corpore sano, each student must steel himself to shun the more debilitating comforts of modern life. His ancestor, before the era of central heating and indoor plumbing, was fit to meet the charges of heresy and decadence leveled by the spiritual forebears of Clerk Dorgan and Senator McCarthy.

But the anti-intellectual forces of Cambridge have bumbled onto a devise that could sap the will to resist and the fighting edge of Harvard's academic flower. A signal light now stops traffic at the corner of Massachusetts and Holyoke. The calculating city council, which has its own supply of scouts, placed this light at the spot most likely to cause trouble for Harvard. With Hayes-Bickford's emergence as a favorite of young intellectuals taking a leisurely break between rising and lunch time, this corner has been essential for the physical health of Harvard. Dodging the vigilant cabs, cars and trucks that patrol Massachusetts Avenue was enough to test the mettle of any normally sedentary thinker. With black coffee and pleasant sophistry his reward, the scholar risked the crossing each day, sharpening his senses and developing trim reflexes. The Jungle ruled in Mass. Ave., and the Harvard man either emerged its master or, found unfit, was sent reeling, to eke out his $30 stay at Stillman.

Now an electronic policeman is there to shepherd the student across, gouging his strength and competitive spirit, leaving him dependent and weak. Other schools have football, Harvard should at least have dangerous crossings, where dodge or be struck is the rule and pedestrians eye one another with mutual respect. Massachusetts Avenue must not be turned into a Welfare Street, an intellectual game preserve. Keep the Freedom of the Roads!