"How Use Doth Breed a Habit in a Man"

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

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

It is time that someone called attention to the "racket" that has been going on in the University for a number of years:--the Maintenance Department's "repair racket."

During the winter I happened to break one leg, with its adjacent rungs, of a black-and-gold chair of the type supplied to all dormitory rooms. I took the broken chair to the Janitor's Office, and forget about the matter until my term bill appeared with a charge for $5.68. I protested this unreasonable amount to the Bursar's Office, and received the following itemization: Carpenter stock, I left arm (it was actually a leg, but no matter)… $.60, I front rung $.07 (granted), I side rung $.07 (granted); Carpenter labor $3.00 (with the proper tools on hand the time expended could hardly have been over thirty minutes); Paint stock $.24 (granted); Paint labor $1.20 (allowing for plenty of leafing time between coats!); and Trucking $.50 (I could have perfectly well taken the chair to the shop myself; no one warned me beforehand that there would be any charge for the two minute trip from my House); Total $5.68. The University Purchasing Department quotes these chairs, sold singly to professors only with a special dispensation from the President, at $12.00 each now. Bought in quantity from the manufacturer they must cost considerably less than twice the total charge for repairing one leg!

Furthermore, the Bursar writes that he "feels that the usage of the chair by balancing on the two rear rungs was rather more than you would expect an ordinary chair to stand and does not feel that there is any reason for reducing the cost of the repairing because it did not stand this sort of treatment."

And I have heard of many instances of fellows being charged $1.75 and more for replacing a single pane of 7 1-2 by 9 1-2 inch glass.

May this be a warning to all and a free advertisement for unemployed Cambridge carpenters in search of a large territory for trade! Our room leases may stipulate that we may be searched at any time by University officials looking for a clapper, but there is nothing to compel us to trade with the Maintenance Department. Eugene Du Bois '33.