THE COMMITTEE'S FUNCTIONS.

When the Athletic Committee requested the appointment of an undergraduate committee to confer with Faculty members and with the Athletic Committee on the present tangled situation, we expressed some regret that final action on the winter sport proposal had not been taken before a further move was contemplated. We did not intend, however, to cast any reflections on the wisdom or the necessity of the appointment of such a committee.

The CRIMSON is convinced that the discussion that has raged off and on for the past four months is doing Harvard a great deal of harm, and we favor any move that is going to help the Athletic Committee to come to a decision that will be satisfactory and absolutely final. If the new committee can perform this service, the delay in deciding the present issue may have been worth while.

It is the committee's duty, therefore, to work rapidly and quietly, and to place no delay on the formation of a working athletic program for the future. But it has a larger function, in the fulfillment of which it may do an enormous amount of good.

There has always been in the past a Glamentable lack of understanding between the teaching staff and the students, due party, no doubt in the Harvard system of instruction by lectures and conferences. The Faculty does not always understand the undergraduate world, and the ways of the powers that be are to most undergraduates incomprehensible.

Such a state of affairs is absolutely contrary to what M. Tardieu, in speaking of this University, has called "solidarity ... and the American spirit that inspires every achievement." It is contrary to Harvard's welfare; and can, we believe, be corrected somewhat by the existence of this new committee. We look for a better understanding all around, mutual benefit to be derived but above all we look for a prompt settlement of our woes.