Open Up Those Early Gates

Above one of the most traversed pathways into the Yard, there is engraved on the gate archway "Enter to Grow in Wisdom." After aweing busloads of professional sightseers with this sentiment for decades, the University has now turned its back on growth, or at least, nocturnal growth. The gate and its fellows, as you know if you intend to pass the coming mid-term examinations, are locked promptly at 8 p.m. And so, with misgivings we continue what bids to become an editorial crusade: we request once more that the gates be unlocked until midnight.

Those familiar with the language of University rulings will not look for rhyme in the gate decree; fortunately for the sake of this crusade, neither is the ruling blessed with reason. Arguments for the locking seem to concern a hard core of young gentlemen from the Cambridge precincts who find sanctuary within the Harvard Yard. Because their department is not always in tone with the restraint of Mower freshmen, these citizens of the area have been termed undesirable by the University's finest. Attempts were made to curb access to this haven and locking the gates at 8 was the simplest solution.

This answer, however, is insulting in the extreme to the intelligence of the local youths. If the Yard does indeed accentuate an uncontrollable bent for revelry on the green, these young men will find their way to the open pleasure portals on Quincy and Dunster Streets. Since, too, consumption of various tonics often stimulates these merrymakers in their excesses, it is doubtful that the Cambridge bucks are motivated before midnight in any event.

The above argument is not new, nor is it fearsome in its complexity. We have applied this argument to the situation in the past. But though a newspaper need rarely to feel apologetic about repeating plaints in behalf of academic freedom, increased defense measures, and the like, it hesitates before repeating suggestions about College gates. We have hesitated, waiting for our irrefutable logic to be answered. Patience can have its monuments, but as for us, we prefer more immediate rewards.