BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS

The recent Harvard riot which was reported by Moscow newspapers as caused by hunger for food, and which the San Francisco newspapers attributed to hunger for companionship of Radcliffe belles was brought to a splendid anti-climax in court yesterday morning. Policemen under oath were a bit more honest than the press in admitting that Harvard students had been "grabbed at random" and arrested "without any idea of what they might have been guilty."

For ambitious ward politicians the incident has provided welcome thunder near election time. Perhaps they were misled by sensational newspaper accounts and if this is true they showed proper intellectual curiosity in demanding a "sweeping investigation of the case" for their own information. But the total result of the excitement and indignation of local officials was the fining of one man for violation of traffic regulations and police probation for three others of the two thousand involved. The state has spent money in investigation and trial; the district attorney and others have had their names spread over the front page. No doubt the politicians are satisfied.

In contrast to the attitude of pressmen and politicians, the court and the University have been sane and dignified in their treatment of the incident. The district attorney finally recovered from his first flights of fancy and treated the defendants with sensible geniality. The University acted properly in putting on probation men, who continued to cause disturbance after they were warned by officials. Now that legal sanction has been given the settlement of the case, the memory of the Great Harvard Riot of 1932 may fade with the memory of a beautiful Spring day.