[We invite all men in the University to submit communications on subjects of timely interest.]

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

In the present discussion of the position and influence of the Polo Club it is most unfortunate that a complete statement of all the facts is practically impossible. In a discussion of such a subject it is far easier to make assertions than to prove their truth; and consequently it is most desirable that such facts as are undisputed should at the outset be definitely set forth. In the first place, it is certain that the Polo Club has for a number of years sustained among students, officers, and graduates of the University a reputation for drunkenness stronger than that attached to any other Harvard organization known to be now in existence. This reputation may be undeserved, but it is none the less a fact which cannot be ignored. Second, it is well known that the headmasters of a number of prominent preparatory schools annually request their pupils not to accept membership in the club. Third, it is obvious that any college organization which selects its members largely in the first half of the Freshman year must in many cases base its choice on inadequate or mistaken grounds, thereby giving rise to injurious, because false, social distinctions. Finally, a club composed of Freshmen, and for which the older members feel serious responsibility only to a very limited degree, is beyond question peculiarly liable to unthinking outbreaks of one sort or another.

When an organization has a thoroughly bad reputation among men of all ages, among men who have known it intimately or who have watched it closely as well as among less well-informed persons, it becomes the duty of those who are responsible for its existence to prove-and not merely to assert-publicly that the reputation is undeserved. If they cannot do that, it is their duty to see that the causes for disapproval are at once removed. In the present case they must further show that the existence of such a Freshman club is not directly opposed to President Lowell's efforts to bring about greater unity in the Freshman class.

There is no question that members of the upper classes should have every opportunity for meeting and getting to know well as many Freshmen as possible. It is also entirely natural that the Freshmen themselves, in view of the size of the present classes, should form groups on the basis of congeniality and community of interests. But is it not necessary that a collection of Freshmen for either of these purposes should bear the reputation, whether deserved or not, that the Polo Club now has. The life of that organization can be terminated easily and quietly by its past members; and if they do not meet the facts, either by public proof that the Polo Club's reputation is undeserved, or by doing away with the grounds for complaint, they are responsible for a great injury to the younger members of the club and to the University as a whole.  1906