To the Editor of the Crimson:

OUtbursts of collegiate enthusiasm are common and healthy signs of student activity, and Harvard has always had a full share. Peace rallies, military science parades, communist conclaves have elbowed each other for a position at the University news front. But seldom have students been given a more dramatic opportunity to combine political and humanitarian virtue and to spend money than by the most recent flash in the news pan. A Harvard Ambulance, resplendent in white paint and red lettering, bouncing dangerously across the Spanish terra to rescue democracy, is indeed a pretty picture.

But if this plan is examined with a little more care than in usually employed by collegians in the heat of a new idea, its practical merit quickly falls away leaving only a this shell of theatrics. For those who want to utilize their money in saving life and salving pain, there are many ways in which $1500 could be used much more economically. In the fist place, it could be turned over to the Red Cross and other veteran organizations now at work for both sides in Spain and who could put the money to its most efficient use. Or better still, it could be given to the multitude due of American charities engaged in relieving suffering just as real if not as dramatic.

For those who want to spend money in saving democracy. Spain is a poor place to do it. Many long and fruitless arguments have been waged as to whether the left-loyalists or right-rebels are less democratic, and the only tenable answer is that both are just about as distant from democracy as possible.

The relief of suffering, anywhere at anytime, is a worthy goal; but to dress it up in a costume and use it for skirt behind which to hide political convictions is to use name of charity in vain. Edward F. Whitney '38