Coop Juice

For several reasons the Harvard Co-operative Society in its recent annual report rejected a proposal that it should sell cheap booze to its members. And quite wisely was this done, although not for the precise reasons that the Coop chose to make public.

The Coop argued that selling liquor might "cast reflection not only upon the Society but the University community as a whole." This may well be, but such prudery is rather out of place in the latitudinarian atmosphere of Cambridge. Closer to the real point was the statement that dispensing redeye to the populace might lead to "untoward incidents."

Untoward indeed would be the incidents resulting from the Coop's becoming a cut-rate liquor store. The dangers inherent in making large quantities of intoxicating beverages available to the masses is quite as obvious as the inadvisability of serving firewater to Indians. Uncouth and boorish fellows are partially restrained by the high prices set by the international liquor cartel and the tax policy of the Federal government. Anything done to disturb this delicate balance would unleash nightmares of drunkeness and debauchery such as are seldom seen, even in Cambridge.

Yet another reason dictates the wise policy the Coop has chosen. To sell cheap liquor, a co-operative society apparently must put its own label on the goods. The repugnance of being served a hooker of Old Co-operative Rotgut is matched only by the nausea which would be a certain aftermath. Even supposing the Coop could stock a line of palatable intoxicants, one would still object to unfamiliar and untried brands. In opening a Budweiser, one knows what he is getting into. But who dares guess what would go into a Pale Bundy Ale.

Undoubtedly, however, the economy-minded and undiscriminating would soak up these strange brands with the appalling result already described. Thus the Coop is to be roundly congratulated for keeping the power to indulge where it rightfully belongs--in the hands, to use Hamilton's phrase, of the rich and well-born. Cheers.