ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE

The attitude of Library officials towards returning alumni has in the past been one of patronizing indifference; the alumnus, revisiting the store of knowledge which he regrets, only too late, not to have exploited as an undergraduate, has been made to feel that his own world has vanished, that he is an outsider; that he is no longer wanted. And whatever pleasure he may try to derive that the wasteful frivolity of his youth can yet be assuaged through quiet, reflective reading in Widener's pastures, is slowly smothered in a red tape vaster than any he encountered in student days. But it is rather the privilege of participating again in the life of the university than participation itself which the alumnus would find valuable.

Surely those few alumni who haunt the Yard periodically could be allowed free use of the reading rooms without benefit of examinations or undersecretaries, who think in terms of theses merely, and cannot catch the higher tones of courtesy. If courtesy will not avail with the officials, perhaps expediency would carry a firmer point. For at a time when the alleged necessities of economy are estranging the after dinner element in Widener's clientele, an enterprising bureaucracy with the instinct to survive would do well to make some new, influential, and yet inexpensive friends.