SALT FOR A BIRD'S TAIL

"Life" is so clever, so subtle, that one finds difficulty in knowing just what inference to draw from the editorial reprinted below. After much puzzling, the CRIMSON has begun to suspect that it is being treated to a dose of sarcasm. If we were "Life" or even Lampy, we should try to give payment in kind; but being only a newspaper we must reply on blunter methods. In passing, it might be remarked that partial quotation is virtually mis-quotation:--"Life's" summary of the CRIMSON's point of view is accurate, but it is incomplete.

It is true, as Hazlitt remarked, that no young man thinks he shall ever die, and it is natural enough that he should not worry very much about a dubious here-after; but still "young Harvard" is not altogether sworn to materialism, and is willing to admit that things spiritual ought to play a greater part in undergraduate life. If a memorial chapel would encourage that side of life, we should "speak up" for a memorial chapel. But, as we remarked in a sentence which the editor has wisely avoided quoting, we do not believe a new chapel would have any such effect. It would seem rather like salt for a bird's tail--though perhaps "Life" would call it pearls before swine.

Even the graybeards of "Life" cannot really believe us so young and ingenuous as not to see the abstract beauty of an abstract memorial chapel. But that has nothing to do with the case. The purpose of a War Memorial, as the CRIMSON understands it, is to commemorate an ideal for which certain noble sacrifices have been made. The ideal was not merely spiritual; it was the greater one of service to humanity. A new chapel at Harvard would hardly typify that service:--it is not physically needed, and at best it would serve only those whose religious wants were least, in need of tending. Dormitories and a gymnasium, on the other hand, are vitally necessary to make the University effective in carrying for ward its best ideals. The dormitory for fellowship, the gymnasium for physical health and sportsmanship--either would represent one of the most admirable qualities of the men it commemorated. It would encourage similar qualities in the young men who come after, and it would be actively before all the students as a significant reminder.