(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 Editor of the CRIMSON:

The writer of the article in the "Graduates Magazine" mentioned in your editorial of this morning is, it seems to me, unacquainted with the facts in the matter whereof he treats. He accuses undergraduates of neglecting to form private libraries and cites in proof of his statement the second-hand book business about the Square. This is by no means a proof of lack of undergraduate interest in books, rather, insofar as it bears at all upon the subject, it is a tribute to the discriminating taste of the students. For, useful as the Heath series of modern language text books may be, or convenient as the Everyman edition certainly is--in the classroom--no true bibliophile wants his bookshelves lined with such text-books. It is altogether fitting that they should be disposed of at the closing of the course in which they are employed and it is equally reasonable that the man buying such books for use during a few months should buy such second-hand copies if he wishes.

But there are far more potent proofs that undergraduates are forming libraries. The Dunster House Bookshop, now in its fourth year, caters, in its own words, only to the Literati, the discriminating buyers of good books. And the Dunster House Bookshop relies chiefly upon the undergraduate body for its support. Within the last few months two other shops have commenced dealing in this class of books: the Community Bookshop on Boylston street and the new department in the Cooperative which deals only in fine books and first editions imported from London. It is only very recently that, while in one of these shops, I overheard an undergraduate asking the clerk for one of a set of finely printed books which he was collecting.

The writer in the "Graduates Magazine" has merely fallen into that error which so frequently ensnares such "laudatores temporis acti"; having compared the best of his own generation with the worst of ours, he fancies that he has accurately estimated our worth! It is only fifteen years since Harry Elkins Widener '07, began to accumulate the books now housed in the Widener Room--a truly superb collection! It would be very difficult for us to believe that the tastes of students have altered appreciably within that time. In fact I know myself of one undergraduate who is now laying the foundation for a collection which gives rich promise for the future. His books range from first editions of Thomas Hardy through early Aldines and Elzevirs to Incunabula printed within fifteen years after the invention of the art. Many of the undergraduates whom I know, not content with what our American firms can offer, avail themselves of the richer field of English and continental book catalogues.

Persons anxious to condemn the younger generation should remember that the worst of a thing, like an excrescence, is always the most evident while what is truly of worth is silent and unseen. When people who engage in such criticism realize this truth there will be less indiscriminate condemnation. ADRIEN GAMBET '25 October 26, 1922