YALE BESMIRCHED

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

We Yale Men returned from Harvard last weekend wrapped in the shining garb of victory, but besmeared by Crimson mud-not mud from the football field (though we had that too), but mud slung by the ill-informed, ill-meaning Harvard CRIMSON. So we had a better football team this year, does that mean that Harvard has to make up for it by accusing Yale Men of excessive cheating? The CRIMSON said, (at Yale) "there is certainly a lot more talk about it(cheating)." This, anyway, is a step in the right direction for Yale. From your implication it follows that at Harvard there is a lot of cheating, but no one talks about it--Harvard appears to be "corrupt and contented."

Your CrimEson, I mean CRIMSON, continues its expose by accusing Yale of "... Eager Striving." Is it unsound practice to "heel" the NEWS for eight weeks? Don't you Harvard boys believe in working for what you want? I don't mean to play the part of Joe McCarthy, but the CRIMSON might be renamed The Crimson Daily Worker. At Harvard, I gather no boy can auspiciously reap the rewards of his success.

One more point: if Yale's fraternities are really too crowded or if there are too many "small rooms" for Harvard's liking, remember nobody is forcing the Harvardians to attend our parties.

No hard feelings, worthy opponents, but let's grow up! We have stopped the physical riots, now let's stop the verbal riots. --A. CUSHMAN MAY '50 Yale

--Ed Note. The CRIMSON hardly accused Yale man of excessive cheating or implied that "at Harvard there is a lot of cheating, but no one talks about it." The CRIMSON's statement was "it is impossible to tell whether there is more cheating at Yale than Harvard, but there is certainly a lot more talk about it." That means just what it says.

If Mr. May had read beyond the headlines, he might have discovered that the CRIMSON did not imply that "it is unsound practice to heel the News for eight weeks... or to work for what you want." The CRIMSON emphasized that the heeling itself is not unsound, only the fact that many Yale men have only a perfunctory interest in the organization they are heeling, their real purpose for such extra curricular activity being ultimate memberships in a senior society. As President Griswold told the CRIMSON: "Down here we need to start doing things for their own sake, not for what they will lead to." We also refer Mr. May to the Yale News cartoon "To Be or Not to Be" which appeared shortly before Tap Day in 1950. The cartoon showed a mass of scrambling Yale men ascending to a heaven labeled "secret societies" by means of a ladder whose rungs were "Activities ... athletics...fraternities."

The CRIMSON is baffled as to why Mr. May believes we feel there are too many "small rooms" in Yale fraternities. Far from declaring this situation the CRIMSON's article was down right envious.