MARCHING ALONG

This coming Saturday afternoon the Army band will parade on Soldiers Field in all its resplendent garb and martial array, and the rival Harvard band will likewise march and will likewise suffer from the comparison, especially from the aspect of precision and novelty of performance. Admitting that the U. S. Military Academy would be a rather lofty standard to which the Harvard band should conform, still the performances of last week and the week before have only clinched the impression that an evolution is in order. Regardless of musical excellence, gold braid and epaulets with really snappy formations create an atmosphere that the sailor cap, sweater, and black tie somehow fail to achieve.

The continuance of this prep-school appearance and monotony of performance is not only a reflection upon the college, but more accurately it represents a poaching of a free good on the part of the H.A.A., since the band is an independent organization and bears the brunt of expenses for music, uniforms, such as they are, and even is assessed by the University for the use of Sanders Theatre in which practice is effected. Moreover, since the band could be made into an integral feature of the gridiron spectacle by a comparatively little positive action and funds, and since in the last analysis to send customers away pleased would be to the ultimate advantage of the H.A.A., it behooves the Athletic Association to assume the control of the organization and consummate the necessary changes.