REDUCTION AD ABSURDUM

Today's announcement from the H. A. A. brings to a head dissatisfaction which has been festering for several years and which found expression last fall to no effect. No one underestimates the thankless work of assigning big-game tickets, trying to fit 35,000 people into 29,500 seats. But it is more than exasperating to find, after the years of practice the Athletic Association has had, the same makeshift tactics which brought annoyance to everyone and disaster to many last year. In the future crowds at the football games will be as great or greater than they are at present and now is the time to settle the question of ticket allotment once and for all.

In the first place, why was it not possible to have estimated the number of tickets applied for more carefully and limited more applications to two at the outset? There would have been little objection raised if this arrangement had been plainly stated in advance. The allotment may seem to be a mechanical matter, but it neglects human values which are not easily adjusted. Is it fair to men who have asked friends from a distance to cut down on their applications on scant notice?

In the second place, today's announcement that fifty per cent of the undergraduate applications for the Yale game are to be reduced by lot, makes it difficult to restrain an outburst of honest wrath. Since words will not make more seats we are forced to be content in offering two suggestions to make the blow a little less intolerable.

"By lot" is an absurdly unsatisfactory method of choosing the victims. If any have got to suffer, it should be those who have the most chances to see the games in the future as undergraduates. The three-ticket allotment should be cut by classes, not by chance, beginning with the Freshman and working up as far as necessary.

One point further, which is raised with some hesitation, is the question of complimentary and preferential tickets. No one will deny that the players and substitutes have earned their right to extra tickets. Outside of these comparative few, it seems hard to understand how the concrete part of four of the best sections in the Stadium (in case of the Princeton game) should be filled by the invited guests of coaches, officials, former players, and other privileged applicants.

After all, the team belongs to the undergraduates; and the alumni, even football heroes in their generation, should concede first choice to them. The situation is likely to grow worse rather than better. Last year's errors were condoned on the score of unforeseen conditions; but the present mismanagement in the ticket allotment shows no lessons learned from the past.