The Management of Memorial.

To the Editors of the Crimson:

The management of the Harvard Dining Association is a matter which directly concerns more than a thousand students of the University. There has been for a long time a latent but growing feeling of dissatisfaction among the members of the association, which will soon find expression and must be seriously met and considered.

In the early days of the association, when the membership was about six hundred, there were effective checks against the board becoming either too good or too bad. To quote the pamphlet distributed last year: "A secondary reason for keeping the board low is that a marked increase in price would cause a decrease in membership More over, the steward has a direct pecuniary interest in keeping the price down. With board at $4.00 he draws the full amount of his salary; as soon as the price rises above that his salary is proportionately decreased. He is, however, prevented from seeking cheapness at the expense of quality by the fact that his salary is proportionate also to the number of members. If board becomes unsatisfactory the membership will decline."

The association now numbers 1120 and has a waiting list of several hundred, which evidently presents fluctuations in membership on account of changes in the quality of board furnished. There is, therefore, no longer any check against poor board. This is exactly the point of the present protest.

One would expect, as the association grows in numbers, that the quality of board furnished at the fixed price would very noticeably improve. Each additional year of experience ought to enable the steward to provide still better board and service. Has such improvement been a marked feature of Memorial in the past? On the contrary, there has been of late a marked decrease in quality. Evidence of the quality of board furnished is found in the amount expended by the members for extra orders. The orders thus far this year amount to about seventy-five hundred dollars. A short calculation shows that this really means an average cost of board of $4.35 per member per week.

Why is this amount so large? Because at many meals the food brought to the table is uninviting in quality, and the only way to obtain good food properly cooked is to order it, and then, strangely enough, one gets the very best of food.

It is not possible to enter into detailed complaint here, but the frequent appearance at the table of meat and poultry unfit to be eaten, the lack of proper supervision of the cooking and serving of the food, and above all the monotony of the bill of fare, justify the assertion that no attempt whatever is made to please the members.

Possibly we are expecting too much of the steward. He receives about $5700 for nine months active service per year. During the past few months the writer has ascertained that the usual salary of such a position ranges from two to three thousand dollars. Several hotel men have stated with confidence that the services of a man fully competent to fill a similar position should be secured for three thousand dollars.

In brief, although the present steward receives a salary which is, to say the least, very liberal, his management of the Hall is characterized by apparent indifference to the welfare of the members, so that the Hall is rapidly losing the popularity which it should have under proper management.

A. W. K. BILLINGS '95.