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To the Editors of the Crimson:

The letter of Mr. Lewis on the distribution of Yale game tickets in the CRIMSON of December 1, not only raises several interesting questions of detail, but also puts very clearly the two essential elements in the distribution of tickets: namely, that the method of distribution and the preferences be publicly stated; and that the method be announced before the game and not afterwards. It is a great task to deal out 32,000 or 35,000 tickets on any system, but it is a task performed every week in grand opera season by the Boston Theatre. We all realize the rush and the vexation, but plainly the nervous strain of the process is much increased if the manager is to be subject to heavy demands for a preference.

That the process was not perfectly performed is sufficiently proven by the indisputable fact that a member of the Corporation, one of the most eminent and respected graduates of Harvard College, received one of the worst seats on the whole field. Imagine, if you can, a gentleman offering the use of his grounds for a tennis tournament, without being tendered a special and honored place! Yet the members of the Corporation are as trustees the owners of Soldiers Field: it is only by their consent that the grounds can be enclosed and entrance fees charged. As a matter of fact some members of the Corporation spent a large amount of most valuable time in directing the building of the seats and making sure that they were safe; yet although the attention of the management was especially called to the propriety of reserving seats for all the members of the Corporation, it was not done.

I notice in the statement of the graduate manager among the preferences, "Graduates' Athletic Association applications, 1362;" followed by "Graduates' applications, 9892." Does this mean that the members of the Graduates' Athletic Association had a preference over other graduates? Two years ago they had such a preference, and there was a general protest. This year the question was raised before the distribution, and it was stated by the CRIMSON, after inquiry, that no such preference would be given. If it has been given, can the graduate manager state what service the Athletic Association has rendered which entitles its members to any special consideration? If no preference has been given, why do those 1362 tickets specially appear, and why should the secretary of the Graduates' Association have had any function in the assignment?

The preference to the New York Harvard Club again seems questionable: many members of the Club have been extremely generous in fitting up athletic grounds and towards other college interests, but the general relation of the Harvard Club towards building up the University is no greater than that of the Associated Harvard Clubs of the West, who do not appear to have had any special privilege. Why should a New York graduate who belongs to the Harvard Club have a better chance at tickets than his classmate who has not joined that club, or another classmate who lives in Boston?

The real principle ought to be that a Harvard game is a University event; that what supports the teams is the enthusiasm of the whole body of undergraduates and graduates; that the contributor to athletics does not contribute in order to get the preference of tickets, but for the furtherance of a sport in which he is interested. The present system does not secure an audience which is distinctly from the University communities: near me on the grand stand sat scores of people who were simply members of an outside public interested in a great sport. It is right for the public to have an opportunity to come in after the University, but the system applied this year was somehow such that a member of the Corporation was assigned one of the most undesirable corner seats, while thousands of people who had no claim on the College were occupying good seats.

The efficiency of any system for distributing tickets must be measured by what it effects, and in the general rejoicing over the success of the game, we ought not to forget that we have still to evolve a method of assigning seats at great games under which the advantage of a connection with Harvard shall be enjoyed by Harvard graduates, without personal preferences, except to the Corporation and Overseers, where preference is well, to participants in the game, as players and coaches, to purchasers of special Athletic Association tickets which are a general subscription to athletics, and to undergraduates. No club and no association should be able to confer a preferred status on its members.  ALBERT BUSHNELL HART.