Alumnus Opinion

(Ed. Note--The Crimson does not necessarily endorse opinions expressed in printed communications. No attention will be paid to anonymous letters but under special conditions, at the request of the writer, names will be withheld.)

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

As a Harvard graduate not so long loosed from the fold, and as a former CRIMSON editor, I wish to congratulate you on your wise decision to remain non-partisan in the presidential campaign this year.

The CRIMSON opens itself to the gravest condemnation, however, when it becomes even less serious than the Lampoon in dealing with problems which will effect the destinies of our nation for the next four years. It is easy for a clown to be non-partisan. That the CRIMSON should give more prominence to the trivialities of a King-George-for-President Club than to a meeting at which a representative to the United States Congress, a Lieutenant-Governor of this state, and a president of the Massachusetts Republican Club were speakers, does not indicate too much discrimination on the part of the editors.

May I suggest in this connection that the CRIMSON has been in a rather amusing way attempting to cut its own throat? Every presidential year the CRIMSON has held a straw poll which has heretofore attracted considerable interest. This year rather than receiving the respect it deserves, there will be a great temptation to laugh off the result, in view of the clownish behavior of the CRIMSON itself.

You speak of the value of this poll, stating that "nowhere is sound information on political questions more readily obtainable than in a university like Harvard". I am inclined to question the truth of this statement when the CRIMSON has done everything in its power to discourage a sober consideration of the principles and issues at stake.

Your failure to call your readers' attention to the gross misrepresentations of figures adopted as a campaign expedient by one of the presidential candidates indicates that the editors of the present board are not alive. And if the editors must have their joke, why not poke a little fun at what Al Smith calls Mr. Hoover's "statistical essays"? At least, the editors will be calling attention to the fact that Harvard College is surrounded by a nation. L. O. Pratt '26.