The Boston papers had been letting up on Harvard, because you can't make snide remarks about a military training center. That's unpatriotic.

But an opportunity to pan Harvard while praising the training center, now that is something. And so the beginning of the V-12 program saw the Herald cut loose with a three column gem about how war has revolutionized the University and how students here are not all "wealthy off-shoots of society's upper crust."

Now nobody would try to say that the war hasn't revolutionized Harvard. Anyone can see the difference between khaki and striped seersucker. Also, few would deny that the College had a good-sized quota of "scions of wealthy aristocrats."

However, these two facts, while true in themselves, do not justify any back-handed diatribes about the Harvard that was. Between the tremendous scholarship funds, the House system, and the will to be at Harvard that made many students earn enough money to pay for their own education, this was one of the most democratic colleges in the country, if not the most democratic.

This Navy College Training Program is a wonderful thing, especially in that it does make college possible for many who might otherwise have had to cut short their education for economic reasons. A similar program after the war would be one of the best things that could happen to American education. And incidentally, it was James B. Conant, president of this University who first started plugging for such a plan.

Such articles as the Herald's latest are unfortunate now, as the V-12 program is getting rolling, because they undermine what is one of the basic aims of that plan--to integrate the new G.I. students with the old College. That's not too simple a task, anyway, and this simply had the effect of putting an unnecessary chip on the shoulders of the V-12ers.

Those men, particularly those from the fleet who had their education cut off and wanted to start up again, came here conscious of their opportunity and determined to get all they could of a Harvard education. They seemed slightly leery, however, about the problem of fitting into a society which they had always heard consisted almost exclusively of blue bloods. Then, almost as soon as they arrived, they see the College referred to as just that. It's enough to drive any bluejacket into his shell.

The trouble is that it simply isn't true. If anyone had the time and the data, a comparison of the economic grouping of the men in V-12 here with the civilians remaining would show a remarkable similarity. The pre-Pearl Harbor student body was also pretty much the same.

In fact, the whole article shows a tendency to say irresponsible things without bothering to find out the truth. It wouldn't have been much trouble to find out about the Army Specialized Training Unit, the Army supply Officers Training School, and the School for Overseas Administration while listing uniformed groups stationed at the University, but these are all relatively new and might have required some research. How the figures on Armed Forces were arrived at is anybody's guess. But these are merely incidental objections to the story.

In addition to libelling the College itself, the article takes it out on the patriotism of Harvard graduates, saying, that "the physical transformation would surprise, and perhaps shock, alumnl." NO doubt a man who hasn't been to Cambridge in a long time would be surprised to see all the men standing guard in the Yard and uniforms all over the pace, but they wouldn't be shocked. Most Harvard men are proud of what their Alma Mater is doing for the war effort. It would probably please them to see all the complimentary things that are said about just that, but letters to the editor should be rolling in by now concerning the remainder of the article.

Just about the funniest thing in the whole story was the beginning, which quoted in double column italics the jingle about the place where the "Lowells spoke only to Cabots, and Cabots spoke only to God," Except in the Boston Herald, that ditty is always used about the city of Boston.