The CRIMSON has recently tried to avoid as much as possible that style of "reform editorial" which is so common in College publications. Yet we think it does no harm, once in a while, to touch such subjects, when a large number of undergraduates have decided views thereon. Such a topic we believe is "Fire-escapes in Yard Buildings".

We have often called attention to the lack of fire protection in these buildings, but the warning has gone unheeded. We understand that there has been at times some agitation toward a reform, but apparently nothing has resulted. We feel strongly that it is high time the Corporation took the matter in hand, and accomplished something.

The dormitories in the Yard are not fire-proof by any means; in fact they would prove docile victims for the flames. However, the only protection afforded consists of a few extinguishers and some scrawny ropes. And to make the situation worse, the gas lights in the halls are extinguished at 12 o'clock, leaving the halls and stairs in inky darkness. The stairways in Matthews and Weld are so arranged, with the sky-light directly above them, that a fire once started would have a full sweep from the ground floor to the top, and would cut off the inmates from this means of exit.

An ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure in this case, and a few thousand dollars expended now would save hundreds of thousands, not to mention lives of students, in the future. In the first place the lights in the halls should not be turned out at midnight, for the event of a fire a stairway without any light is as good as a hose without water. Furthermore, ladders, hose and better fire-escapes should be provided for each dormitory.

As one of the Faculty who lives in a Senior Dormitory, recently put it, "The College will get a dreadful scare one of these nights."