More Wherefores

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

On Monday April 6, there appeared in the CRIMSON an editorial in no uncertain terms upon the unsatisfactory conduct of the Student Friendship drive. I should like to make clear a few points which the self-satisfied and apparently brilliant editorial writer seems to have overlooked In other years the drive has been conducted in January when the students had much more ready money than they have at this time of year. The Seniors are raising money for their endowment fund, the Freshmen have been called upon for class fund contributions, and the term bills are due in a very short time. These obstacles would all have been avoided if the drive had been conducted earlier. That unfortunate circumstance can hardly be attributed to the man in charge, as the editorial writer so kindly put it. As we are not allowed to take any of the money contributed to the fund in order to defray the expenses of the campaign we found it impossible to give a dinner to the collectors. In fact, the dinner, which was given to the collectors of this fund last year has not yet been paid for.

The vagueness and uncertainty as to the purpose of the fund attributed to a few of the collectors is perhaps more truly due to their unwillingness to enter into the spirit of the thing than to any lack of proper instruction. In a group of over one hundred collectors it is possible that a few may not do their best, and this is probably proven by the fact that 22 of the original group of collectors assigned did not even reply to the request of the committee. Every possible effort was made to instruct the collectors individually on the opening night of the drive. This is no commentary on the work of the collectors, for their response in general was most satisfactory.

As regards publicity I should like to say that last year the CRIMSON gave one or more streamers across the top of the paper as well as double column headings to support the drive. This year no such cooperation has been given and in fact at least one man prominently connect off with the news department of the CRIMSON is opposed to the spirit of the drive. Furthermore, such a personal comment as this in a CRIMSON editorial: "The collectors themselves seem quite ignorant of its why and wherefores, apparently having received no adequate information from the man in charge. Under such management this drive has met with more success than it nominally deserves. Harvard has contributed a thousand dollars on faith and the memory of last year's efficient drive" could scarcely be called constructive criticism or wholehearted cooperation. J. C. McGlone '26