Scandals in Washington, prohibition, and the Ku Klux Klan filled the news pages that warm September day in 1922 when 837 freshmen invaded Cambridge. But while America was caught up in the whirl of the roaring twenties, the University was calmly carrying on the traditions of its past. President Lowell's Harvard was a world of its own, as the men of '26 soon found out.

These were the days when Copey's magnificent voice was holding students spellbound at evening reading sessions. Kittredge with his knobby cane and long white beard was prancing up and down classrooms making men memorize roams of Shakespeare. And unwanted Radcliffe was just beginning to infiltrate to the Yard. In 1922 no one worried about Harvard football. Everyone knew it was the best in the Ivy League.

If the new freshman was worried about being swallowed up by the brick bastions of the Yard, Dean Briggs soon reassured him.

"No individual who does anything worth doing, and does it with all his might, need be lost in the crowd at Harvard; and, taken for all in all, Harvard is the best place I know for the individual youth. Accomplish something, then, remembering that what you get will be measured in terms of what you give."

The first issue of the CRIMSON told the freshman that this registration was the largest in the history of the University. There was also a story on William J. Bingham '16, who had recently resigned as track coach. The name might not have seemed too important to the men of '26 at the time, but they were to hear more of Mr. Bingham in the years to come.

'26 was a sports-minded class, as the University soon found out. A record-breaking high of 133 men turned out for freshman football. But numbers didn't help them to win many games, for the freshmen had a dismal season. Over 800 went to the pre-Yale game rally, but they weren't much help to the team, which suffered a 21-11 loss. The one bright spot in the sports picture was the fine record of Coach Jeff Fisher's varsity, which wound up a near-perfect season by beating Yale 10-3. Harvard's only loss, to Princeton, was the scene of some nasty rioting which strained the relations between the two schools. The Class of '26 was getting its first taste of football spirit.

The Right Thing to Do

In these first few months the CRIMSON's weekly fashion column was solving the freshman's sartorial problems. "If you are interested in any question of dress or etiquette," the column stated, "write the 'Well Dressed Man,' care of the Harvard CRIMSON and you letter will receive prompt and careful attention."

Some freshmen did their best to get all their classes scheduled for 11 a.m. or later and not above the first floor of Sever. Others jammed lecture courses like Bliss Perry's Comp. Lit. 12 and were turned away because of shortage of books and space.

1922 was a year of turmoil in world politics, and Harvard was having its share of speakers on contemporary problems.

"The great need of America today" said Eugene Foss, former governor of Massachusetts, "Is to have college-bred men with a true sense of public service actively interested in politics." The next day, October 11, Senator Wadsworth of New York told the University that President Harding's regime was doing great things for the country. And a few weeks later, Jean Longuet, grandson of Karl Marx, attached the French government and the Versailles Treaty.

Very Big Controversy!

During the winter the Class of '26 saw its first big Harvard controversy. The University's policy of keeping Negroes out of the compulsory freshman dorms was under attack. President Lowell finally silenced his critics by saying" ... in the freshman halls, where residence is compulsory, we have felt from the beginning the necessity of not including colored men. To the other dormitories and dining halls they are freely admitted, but in the freshman halls, I am sure you will understand why, from the beginning we have not thought it possible to compel men of different races to reside together ... (which) far from doing him (the Negro student) good would increase a prejudice that ... is most unfortunate and probably growing."

Exam period was drawing closer and the freshman had no time to waste. This was his first big test, and some men of '26 decided that one of the Square's many tutoring schools might be just the thing to help him brush up on his courses. Prepared or not, the freshman was looking forward to these two weeks with a mixture of fear and anticipation. The ordeal came and went, and those who had pulled through breathed a sigh of relief. Their first term at Harvard was over.

No longer a novice, the Class of '26 started off its second term by finding out that the Student Council had set up a special advisory committee for freshmen. The freshman doubted whether this program would be any better than his advisor, whom he hadn't seen in four months.