Franklin D. Roosevelt is Harvard's most distinguished alumnus. The student publication, The Harvard Crimson, attaches no sentiment to this fact however as it strikes out boldly and bitterly at John Harvard's No. 1 Graduate now and then.
To Mr. Roosevelt and his friend, Senator Bulkley of Ohio, who edited The Crimson when the two were schoolmates together at Harvard, the paper's editorial of Monday, criticizing the President's now famous address to Congress last Friday, must not have been very encouraging news from the old alma mater.
After calling him "the unprintable" and charging that the President has usurped the very autocratic power that he condemned in the speech, the editorial went on to suggest that the country repeal the Roosevelt presidency next fall.
We are a little disappointed at The Crimson because it usually presents a rather fair and intelligent appraisal of the subject it writes about. But this editorial impresses us as such a biased bit of observation and evaluation that it seems to lose all of its effect as an intelligent criticism of the President's speech.
Frankly, we liked the speech primarily because it was chucked full of fight and vigor. Mr. Roosevelt socked it to 'cm in the language we like to hear. We hasten to add that we have never been in sympathy with all of the President's program. We have come to think, however, that Mr. Roosevelt is making a sincere try to do something for the common people of the land.
The Crimson's criticism seems to be the reflection of the rich man's point of view. Of course Harvard is a rich man's college. The editorial, for instance, gave the President no credit for establishing the Home Owner's Loan Corporation to save impoverished home owners; the CCC for taking thousands of the land's youth off city streets and out of the alums to healthy country air to lead a normal, healthy life and at the same time earn a little money; for the NYA which is aiding 1650 students on our own campus in their quest for an education.
The whole piece seemed to be a reaction of one who was sore because one of the boys wasn't playing the game according to instructions. And of course the game we refer to is the rich man's game. --Ohio State Lantern
