FRONTS OF UNIVERSITY WARFARE: WOODEN HORSE

More than a few mornings in the last several years, University Hall officials have stared out of their windows and seen a large wooden horse which seems remarkably similar to the one the people of Troy encountered centuries ago. Sometimes it is boldly rolled up in front of the statue of John Harvard; sometimes it innocently squats at a rear doorway. Anyhow, during this first scholastic month, it has been hanging around quite too regularly, thereby shattering the usual official complacency at Harvard's never center. How the horse gets in is a problem which has not been solved, even by the vigilance of Mr. Apted's stalwarts. Some days it just appears, that's all. And nobody knows when it will come again--or why. But officers of the University inside know their Trojan history, and they do not like the beast at all. It seems docile enough, never blocking Yard traffic, and invariably vanishes when closely approached or frightened. Nevertheless, all who have seen it agree that it has an ominous air and wish it would go away forever.

This wooden horse is symbolic of the forces which from time to time--and with increasing frequency of late--are attacking Harvard University. Within its hollow bowels have lurked a variety of "hostile" uniforms--hues of the American Legion, the Cambridge police, the anti-Red sharpshooters, the purple gown of state legislators. Nor are civilian denizens unknown. Teachers antiquated in theory and doctrine, full of fine words, but lacking research, have been glimpsed. Sometimes the Gatling-gun tattoo of a tabloid printing press has been audible, and this sound has been diagnosed by some as the basic machinery which motivates the horse so powerfully.

Against these predatory invaders, Harvard's defense must be perfected. Even as Coach Harlow labors on his defense against the Saturday invasions of gridiron teams, so the University must try to out-manoeuvre its opponents, to re-enforce the vulnerable spots, in order that its own progress may be smooth. How this menacing wooden horse is to be out-witted is today the major problem of this institution because the horse represents a composite of all its controversies--both academic and political. It is the purpose of the following editorials to analyze this situation by reviewing its component parts.