We invite all members of the University to contribute to this column, but we are not responsible for the sentiments expressed.

To the Editors of the Crimson:

An old editor of the Harvard Advocate condemns a sketch in our last number as "indecent in conception and disgusting in matter."

This is strong language and we feel called upon to answer the charges brought against us and defend our action in its publication.

It was not unadvised. Modern art where it treats life demands realism and we contend that realism only ceases to be real art when the emotion it excites are such as we afterwards regret as having relaxed our moral fibre. Judging "Kid" in this most serious way we cannot find that any one's imagination would receive injury from its perusal.

Again, realism ceases to be art when it acts so strongly on our nerves that we cannot dismiss its images at pleasure.

In replying to this second charge we cannot find the details of our unvarnished sketch so "disgusting" that they try our powers of aesthetic endurance beyond the limits of legitimate literary enjoyment.

We do not feel called on to consider the point whether it presents college feeling or not, as the Advocate has never been confined to that limit.

In conclusion, we welcome criticism and shall always be glad to give a reason for the faith that is in us. We do not like a certain kind of Sunday-School reading any better than Tom Bailey did, but we shall always welcome stories about persons who are all good and as they ought to be, when the stories are also good literature.

JOHN ALLYNE GADE,Chairman of the Literary Committee of the Harvard Advocate.