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. Only letters under 400 words can be printed because of space limitations.)

To the Editors of the Crimson:

Since the news of the Dramatic Club's not-so-recent mis-judgment has at last been published, it is pertinent to bring to the public's attention some facts concerning the drama situation at Harvard. By no means is this a letter commending the Dramatic Club for breaking a University rule, of which they were cognizant; on the contrary, but they have suffered their punishment and the immediate case is closed. The question does arise, however, why should the Dramatic Club deliberately break a University rule? What conditions lie behind such an act?

Every year Harvard graduates several men whose intended career is the theatre and its allied arts, and she may point with pride at many illustrious examples, such as Osgood Perkins, Walter Hampden, Kenneth Macgowan, John Mason Brown, and Donald Oenslager. Back in the days of Professor Baker's English 47 and the Workshop, the stream of Harvard men into the theatre's ranks was steady and large, but with Professor Baker's and the Drama department's migration to New Haven, the torrent dwindled to a mere trickle, fed only by the untiring efforts of the Dramatic Club. The students do not look upon their Dramatic Club activities as extra-curricula, but an entegral part of their college education.

But Harvard should include a Drama, Department WITHIN its official curriculum, benefiting not only those professionally inclined, but also serving the many students for whom drama is an avocation, and broadcasting the cultural and educational opportunities offered here. There is no prominent college in the country that does not include such a program and yet the grand-sire of them all lags behind where once she led.

It is such a project that Harvard should undertake now, repairing in this way the financial and moral rebuke suffered by those alumni who sincerely desired to see a broader educational program offered to the students of their University. A Drama Department, offering training in all branches of the theatre, should be under the direction of an experienced and practical man of the theatre. Such a man is John Mason Brown. Under his direction, Harvard would once more rise to the place at the head she enjoyed under Professor Baker, and no longer would any such unfortunate and not-to-be-repeated situation of the Dramatic Club arise. Marston S. Leonard '35