(The Crimson invites all men in the University to submit signed communications of timely interest. It assumes no responsibility, however, for sentiments expressed under this head and reserves the right to exclude any whose publication would be palpably inappropriate.)

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

The Boston Sunday Herald's article in commemoration of the semi-centennial of the Museum of Fine Arts contained passages which implied that the original programs of the director and the chosen architect were inadequate, and that after their resignations, the city secured a model building, and the Museum a progressive regime. This impression would be more unfortunate, were it not that the writer's information was so inaccurate. The facts are: (1) By forcing the Director's resignation the Museum lost and New York gained one of the most distinguished men in the country, a man who has given the Metropolitan the place the Museum of Fine Arts wished to have, and which now it never can have. (2) The architect originally chosen, after months of detailed labor, had his work taken from him, and he was made the consulting architect. When he realized that he was not deceived in his suspicion that he was being studiously ignored, he also resigned. His successor, like the apprentice of Michael Scott, the magician of the ironic legend, made a pathetic fiasco relieved only by faint reminiscences of the original design.

The leader of the controversy was a man whose character unfitted him for the part he coveted. Life in Boston became impossible for him. The two man whom he deprived of the opportunity of rendering their city a long-cherished service have left in their work, here and in other cities, many eloquent witnesses to their rectitude and genius. They have no need of sorry vindication from the spectacle of the present museum. To point the obvious moral, considerations of nepotism, social ambition and sordid jealousy prevailed over the clear reasoning of enthusiasm for the arts and devotion to the commonwealth, with the inevitable result. J. B. WHEELWRIGHT '20.   December 7, 1920.