SCORES B. Y. O. NOTE FROM HARVARD CLUBS

The CRIMSON has obtained the following letter written by Mr. H. H. Noyes '02 to Mr. C. T. Greve '84 president of the Associated Harvard Clubs, in connection with the notice sent out to members inviting all those who were planning to attend the annual meeting to bring their own liquor. The letter follows:

Mr. Charles T. Greve, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Dear Sir: Some time ago, I received the invitation of the Association Harvard Clubs which bears your signature. I appreciate fully that this red-letter circular is a cordial social invitation and nothing it contains is intended to be taken seriously but the spirit of good fellowship for which Harvard Clubs are famous, and especially the Harvard Club of New Jersey, to which I belong.

Cites Radical Tendencies

Nevertheless, the circular extends one invitation which struck me very forcibly, and I hope you will allow me to express my point of view in regard to it. Several of my friends among New York school men are following with great interest certain centers of communist influence which we have in New York. There is a school here which half-staffed its flag on the death of Lenin and which systematically prepares its disciples for teaching positions trine that democracy and capitalism are failures which can only be wiped out by bloody revolution. An assistant principal who is one of its pupils made the remark to me, "You mustn't object to revolution as a means of improving our government; this country was founded on a revolution." I see a considerable difference between the American Revolution against the tyranny of George III. and a revolution of the workers against majority rule in a democracy, but not they.

Danger Lies in False Security

However, I believe there exists a greater menace to our democratic government by rule of constitutional law and majority decision when a wealthy and educated class begin to think that our democracy and our capitalism are so sage and secure from attack that they afford them the privilege of exemption from plain provisions of the law and the constitution. The test of democracy is not obedience to a law we all favor, it is our attitude to a law we may not like. Even if we don't like the 18th amendment, let's obey it. We asked the railroad shopmen, a year ago, to obey an act of Congress which placed the adjustment of their wages in the bands of the Railroad Wage Board and our attorney general declared them rebels against the government if they refused. They undoubtedly thought they were out for a living wage and decent living conditions for their wives and children, but they obeyed. Is being mildly thirsty a better excuse."

Regrets "B. Y. O." Note

These considerations will explain why I am sorry to see in your circular, the invitation, "Oh, R. Y. O. in connection with the feature of the entertainment at Detroit. Some who attend undoubtedly have cellars which were legally acquired more than five years ago but "Its transportation is hereby forbidden". Others are presumably invited to patronize bootleggers, who are mostly aliens pursuers a caress of crime Colonel William Harvard said the other day that respectable citizens have become the accomplices "of a lot of rotten criminals in order to get a drink". Between Maplewood and Newark there is a street of houses, every one worth over thirty thousand dollars and all occupied by people who can't speak decent English. It is called "Bootleggers Row".

Should Thirst For A Principle

Government figures show that something like a hundred Federal officers have been shot and killed during the past year and no man is shot for taking bribes. Instead of merely joking about it I believe it is about time for decent law-abiding Americans to volunteer to go without a drink. There was nothing much the matter, as far as I ever heard, about the quality or healthful properties of the tea on King George's ships in 1775, but for the principle of the thing a man was socially ostrcized if he drank it. There is a principle of the thing today that ought soon to take its place so that such a socially influential body as the Associated Harvard Clubs will at least frown upon it.  Yours very truly H. H. NOYES.

P. S.--As a trip to Europe seems to make many a man boozier than ever, it is interesting to see that Sir Auckland Geddes recently made the following remarks to a London audience: "I don't think the people of England recognize amid the mass of stories of violation of the prohibition laws of the United States how strong the feeling of the best minds of the best people of America is on the subject of prohibition. Given the American problem, given the American climate, I think that if I were an American I would be a prohibitionist.