To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Along with some 500 other people, I was not admitted to a string quartet concert in Sanders Theater . . . owing to the fact that the hall was full by five minutes of eight. I do not object so much to the fact that I could not get in, but rather to the way the milling crowd outside was treated. The yard cop at the door simply said that no more people would be admitted, locked the door and let it go at that. The door was, however, opened two or three times in the next twenty minutes. The first time someone suggested that the concert be relayed by amplifier to the large hall on the opposite side of the building. No attention was paid him. The second time he repeated his suggestion the yard cop said he would ask about it, came back in a minute and reported that it was impossible since no previous arrangements had been made.

Well of course no previous arrangements had been made! But when it was clear that hundreds more people were coming than could be admitted, I think that arrangements might have been made--if not immediately, at least when the suggestion had been proffered. Such relays by amplifier have been made before, and the equipment could have been set up in fifteen minutes. Indeed, several people informed me that the necessary equipment was sitting no farther away than the floor below, in the psycho-acoustic laboratory. In this way 500 more people could have been satisfied, capacity the 50 students who had been assigned a paper to be written on the concert. So much for that.

Finally it was announced twice to the crowd still surrounding the door that absolutely no-one else could be admitted because of the rigid fire laws; whereupon, before the door had closed each time, a few particular people were allowed to go in. This of course infuriated the rest of the crowd. It is unfortunate that such undemocratic favoritism should flourish in Harvard at a concert supposedly equally free to all Either everyone waiting should have been admitted or no-one at all.

This whole incident is, furthermore, just one more supporting argument for a Student Activities Center with an auditioning of adequate seating capacity for this University community. Caldwell Titcomb, 2G.