SEVERAL weeks ago a petition signed by six hundred students and expressing the wish for a new dining hall to be conducted on plans similar to the Memorial Hall system, was submitted to the Corporation. The first result of this action was seen yesterday, when through the Secretary of the University the Corporation presented another scheme differing in many respects from the one ascribed to by the six hundred petitioners. Messengers were at once sent about to canvass the college for names. It remains to be seen how far the plan proposed by the Corporation will meet the approval of the University.

Obviously a dining hall is, to a certain degree, dependent for success on the patronage of the students, but it is equally dependent on the principles of its organization. The new hall, is on the face of it, not what the students asked for. The question is, however, whether or not it will fulfil to the best advantage the needs of the University. A committee from the Board of Directors of Memorial Hall, in a protest published in the form of a communication, lays down very clearly its arguments against any such plan as the one now proposed. It maintains, as a result of careful investigation, that for anything like satisfactory board, the difference in costs per week at Memorial and at the new association would be a question of but a few cents. The chief argument in favor of the scheme is the increased opportunity for economical living. But the question is whether or not there is any necessity the additional provision. The Foxcroft Club is now without a waiting list and in no immediate prospect of having one, hence this demand does not appear a very urgent one. Yet even granting that there was a need to enlarge its accommodations, it must also be admitted that there are fully six hundred men, who are petitioning for dining commons which shall be, to all practical purposes, the same as Memorial. Evidently, the wish of the corporation is to combine the one possible future need and the present certain demand so that one huge hall will answer both purposes. The objections to this plan are many; the Board of Directors of Memorial have stated the more important ones Apparently, then, the table d' hote-a la carte system will not satisfy the great masses of men who are seeking a second Memorial Hall and one without the pest.

The committee from the Board of Directors ends its protest with a renewal of its former petition, which thus far has been ignored by the Corporation, but we sincerely hope we may some day see it granted. It seems a pity that when such a scheme was proposed which promised satisfaction to all and success financially it should be forced to give way to one which we believe does not fulfil the wants of the University.