Harvard Through Lorgnettes

(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 with-held.)

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

The editorials of the second issue of the Harvard Critic express the same apologetic point of view as those of the first. "We know that this is poor stuff, but then this is Harvard, academic, in different, intellectually moribund Harvard; what can you expect?" Once more the editors cry out for someone with something to say.

One is inclined to wonder just what they have managed to say themselves. A total editorial force of eight has produced two book reviews in the last six months, and nothing else. To be sure there has been the editorial column, filled with announcements, and two windy manifestos about the deadness of Harvard and the need for the Critic, but further than this criticism is wholly negative. Where do they stand, these editors who damn at once the aristocracy, who pay their dues and take their D's, the middle class, who find their sex at Radcliffe and Wellesley, and the working classes, grade grubbers. In so far as it is discernible, their attitude seems to be that brewed at the tea tables of Brattle street and Shaler Lane, a prim pursing of the lips at the mention of kidnapping, deb-chasing or codfishing, and a muttered "boys will be boys."

Obviously not leading a vigorous intellectual life of their own, the editors spend their time alternately flaying every other group in the University and the neighborhood, and extending a rotarian handshake and clap on the back to anyone with anything to say. They aim not so much to start people thinking, that demands a point of view, and a certain amount of mental activity, but to find people who are thinking, to hang onto the bandwagon if there is one.

It is evident that at the moment the Critic cannot arouse Harvard's overstuffed middle class from its lethargy. The last two issues have proved that the editors belong to this same middle class, "parasitical, living off other people's ideas," completely laking "the idealism of youth." Where they find their sex, will perhaps be indicated in the next installment. John P. Coolidge '35.