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"...Or Are We Mice?"

THE MAIL

(Ed. Note--The Crimson does not necessarily endorse opinions expressed in printed communications. No attention will be paid to anonymous letters and only under special conditions, at the request of the writer, will names be withheld.)

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

No one objects to censorship by the Boston Police Department, where at least it is diverting; but in a university--a forum for minds--it is unthinkable. Yet censorship of a contemptibly petty stamp exists in this University. I refer to the use in certain language courses of texts in which the editors have seen fit to make deletions from the originals. Any one who has compared the authorized edition of Keller's "Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe" with the high school text now used in German 1a can appreciate how the editor of the latter has so subtly and judiciously blue-penciled as to change completely the essential point of the story.

This sort of thing is unfair to the unsuspecting reader and viciously unfair to the author, who, I suspect, would prefer that his works were never read if they must first be emended by some virtuous Headmaster Bluenose bent on removing all traces of those ugly old Facts of Life. Is this a university or a boarding-school for neurotic girls? You men--especially you new men--who object to being treated like children will boycott courses where this disgusting practice obtains until it is removed. Sedgwick Mead '34.

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