Bitter Beer Alone

Once this fall, after the Yale game, the management of the Harvard union counted to three, held its breath, and let women into the dining hall. Except for that lone daring experiment, Yardlings have been forced to face up to inflationary restaurant prices if they wish to dally over their dessert with a girt. Confronted by an apparently arbitrary union policy, students are irritated by other inconveniences caused by eating out, minor inconveniences that would be overlooked if there was any sound reason for the Union's all-male atmosphere.

At the beginning of the term such a reason existed. Even the occasional admission of women might well have complicated to the point of chaos the problem of serving efficiently unprecedented numbers of Yardlings. But now that last-minute breakfast stampedes and 1 o'clock lunch hordes alike are handled with speed and dispatch, the union should be able to admit women guests, at least on Saturday nights, without too great a strain. The Houses, also operating well over normal capacity, feed women five times weekly. In addition, the Union management has found that one or two hundred diners more or less make little difference in planning a meal, and admits to a sharp decline in Saturday attendance, probably caused by students off on weekends, which would simplify the problem of guests over-stepping the Union's capacity.

Before the war, women were admitted to the union only in such exceptional cases as the Yale game weekend. What was then an unpopular policy is today an unfortunate one. Yardlings are no longer all straight from high school and beyond question deserve the same privileges as occupants of the Houses enjoy. And at a time when veterans and the increased number of commuters emphasize the are-old disunity of Harvard student-bodies, the Union should not add itself to the list of social facilities the University lacks.