WANTED: MORE CHEERING.

The defeat of the football team on Saturday calls for little comment. Our substitute team showed its fighting spirit, but could not prevail. We should all have liked to win, but if it was Coach Haughton's belief that a better eleven could be developed for the Yale game by using the men we did and losing, we bow to his judgment and are glad of the result.

But what about the cheering? The writers of this morning's communication cry out against the lack of enthusiasm. It is true that the cheer leaders had to beg for better singing, but we have had only one mass meeting as yet, and good singing is not possible without much practice. The leaders did not have to beg for cheers. It seems to the CRIMSON that everyone was intensely interested in the game, and what cheers there were did Harvard credit. The trouble was, that the leaders did not call for cheers enough.

During the first intermission there was but one cheer; there were none at all just after Carlisle's second score or after the touchback. These were occasions of adversity when the team most needed the loud and hearty support of the stands. Why didn't we give it to them? More than once Captain Fisher has told us that cheering really does make a difference to the players -- especially when they are not veterans and when they are not winning. Surely he must know.

At Princeton, a week ago, we heard the whole cheering section call to the leaders for "more" and "more" cheers. If this were the custom here, certainly more would have been given on Saturday. There is a danger in this practice that the leaders may be induced to give cheers that will drown our own or our opponents' signals. This of course is not to be tolerated. Cheer leaders should be able to decide when not to lead cheers as well as when to lead them. The CRIMSON believes that it would be a good thing if the cheering section should call for more cheers as a regular practice.

If we were to have a mass meeting every night for a week before the Yale game, as the writers suggest, perhaps our vocal efforts in the Stadium might fail to be a pleasure to the ear on the eventful day. Yet we do need mass meetings, and we shall have them--one this week and two the next, beside a football pop-night. These must, and, we believe, will be well attended so that in the two games to come we can back up our team effectively. Let us sing before the games begin and in the long waits between the halves. Let us fill the short waits between the quarters and when time is out with cheers. We must not drown the signals of either team, but if we believe that there is any good in cheering, let us have a chance to show what we can do.