Radcliffe and the News

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Surely the editors of the CRIMSON must realize that their selection of advertising will reflect in some degree upon their journalistic integrity. The publication of an advertisement of the New England Anti-Vivisection Society hardly does credit to the semi-official "voice" of Harvard University.

A great number of the advances in medical science are the direct outgrowth of animal experimentation. Without this experimentation, how could our "wonder drugs" and advanced surgical techniques be perfected for human use? It is no sadistic thrill that impels researchers to animal experimentation, but a necessary caution lest an unproved drug cause human illness or death. Psychologists have likewise found laboratory animals useful for investigations into pain, behavior, etc.

This university is one of the greatest research centers in the world, ant it seems incongruous to find its newspaper carrying the publicity of a fanatical group whose every purpose and intention is contrary to that research. Why should the CRIMSON choose to be a vehicle for such short-sighted, emotional propaganda as the New England Anti- Vivisection Society dishes up? I consider this advertisement an insult to the taste and intelligence of the CRIMSON's readers. Peter Durhin '53

Regardiess of whether the ad is "an insult to the taste and intelligence of the CRIMSON's readers" we feel that this decision should be made by our readers, not for them. The CRISMON is of course, not Harvard's "semi-official 'voice,'" but an independent newspaper; it does not screen its advertisements for "incongruity" or short-sightedness.