Warm Weather Revives Excitement Over College's Coat-and-Tie Ruling

With the arrival of spring, and high temperatures, the annual cost-and-tie rule controversy breaks out afresh. The University divides itself into two opposing camps.

There are those who--like David M. Little '18, master of Adams House--Feel that the wearing of coats and ties to meals gives Harvard a "dignified" air, and those who prefer comfort to appearances.

Coats have imprisoned the backs, and ties have warmed the necks of students longer than anyone can remember. Clifford K. Shipton '26, custodian of the University Archives says the custom has always been present.

Before the turn of the century, every respectable student wore, in addition to the coat and tie, a high starched collar, a straw hat and often a large moustache.

Most of the lipwear is gone, but the tie and jacket remain. Informal efforts to evade the rule have long gone on.

The simplest of these was tried two years ago, when a freshmen entered the Union wearing the prescribed coat and tie, together with a shirt and a pair of drawers, but nothing else. Such a solution is not to be recommended. The student was placed on probation.

At various times in the history of the University, students have been forced to accept more controlled clothing rules. In 1789, the "Committee for Uniformity of Studente's Habit" required of all freshmen the wearing of blue-grey woolen coats and "waistcoats and breeches of the same colour."

On August 11, 1816, a group of students petitioned for permission to wear uniform dress. The faculty promptly complied, and prescribed the wearing on black woolen coats, pantaloons, longcoats and capes.

Out of all this, the present rule developed. In the Union and House dining halls, it is stringently enforced. Although Shipton found "a relapse of bad manners" during the last war, the wearing of the coat and tie has since become more firmly entrenched than ever.

There is but one escape for those College men who disagree with the present policy. In Summer School, practically any type of dress is permitted.