It is a matter of interest for the college that the Yale Glee Club gave $2,565 to the Yale 'varsity crew last year and that the Harvard Glee Club gave $500 to our crew. The difference between these two amounts is, to say the least, startling. One can't help asking why it is that the amount given by the Yale Glee Club is more than five times that given by the Harvard club. The latter is certainly as loyally supported in the college as the Yale club is, and it has practically the same facilities for making money. The plain logic of the figures quoted seems to be, therefore, that the glee club ought to give a great deal more to the crew than it does. And this furnishes us with the occasion for saying some things which we think should be said before the Christmas trip of the club.

There is danger that the glee club may forget the relation in which it stands to the college. The club has become a strong organization and like all strong organizations may come to regard itself as sufficient unto itself. The real source of the strength of the club is in the college which supports it so loyally, and to the college it has certain duties in return. One of these is to help as much as possible in the support of the 'varsity crew, a duty made even more binding by years of precedent. A reason which has always been prominent in our minds when urging that the club be allowed to take the western trip at Christmas is that the finances of the crew would be helped by it. If last year is typical of what we are to expect, however, the treasury of the crew is not going to be filled to overflowing with money of the glee club's giving. The college would have no cause for grievance in this if it felt that the club had given what it could afford to give. But there is a belief that there was considerable unnecessary extravagance last year, that money was spent in ways that the glee club had no right to spend it in view of its debt to the college and the pressing need of the crew. No one objects to the club having a good time during the trip and after it, but there are a great many who object to needless and selfish extravagance. There seems to be a disposition in glee club circles to regard it as merely a favor that the club gives anything to the crew, or gives a concert for its benefit. It is hardly necessary to point out to the officers of the glee club that it would be very unfortunate for the club to have this idea become prevalent in the college. The petition for the western trip is now backed by all the influence which the college can put behind it. But it is necessary to suggest that it would be very easy to have that petition meet an open hostility which could hardly prove anything else than fatal to it.