IT is a genuine pleasure to see a systematic movement made to abolish the general table system at Memorial by erecting another dining hall. The experiment of crowding eleven hundred men into a hall which will accommodate comfortably about eight hundred, has had an ample opportunity to prove its merits. It seems however to have given rise to general dissatisfaction. It has certainly been a failure in accomplishing any permanent good. A year ago last fall the plan was put into operation. There were then several hundred more men on the waiting list than could be taken into the hall. By turning about one third of the club tables into general tables, this number was accommodated, and, for a time, the plan seemed to be fairly successful. Then came more applications, more crowding, and soon things were as unsatisfactory as before. Not only has the general table system been a subject of considerable unfavorable criticism, but the corporation has not succeeded through it in averting the need of a second dining hall. At present there are two hundred men on the waiting list, a state of affairs entirely without precedence for this time of the year; this, too, with the general tables crowded to their utmost. If, then, the college is to furnish boarding accommodations to the students, it cannot fail to see that another dining hall is an imperative necessity.

Such a hall should be modelled in its management, as nearly as possible after Memorial, and should be ready by next fall to receive the overflow from Memorial and the large number of students who will enter next year. We are glad to see the energetic way in which the matter has been taken up. The petition has been heartily approved by several members of the faculty; it needs only the signatures of the men at the general tables to have it receive a formal approval and endorsement. With so clear an expression of student feeling, accompanied by a faculty recommendation, the Corporation can hardly disregard our request. It is safe to say that the success of the new scheme depends to a very large extent on the quickness and thoroughness with which it is pushed through. Nothing could be more detrimental to it than any show of indifference from the men at the general tables, and we hope that each one will see to it that he does his part by signing the petitions without delay.