Communication
A Letter from Cambridge
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sin,—The great event of the term has been, of course, the visit of the King to open the new Library. But it was so fully reported in the Press that you will forgive me, I hope, if I say nothing more about it here.
Encouraged by His Majesty's speech at the opening ceremony, we have resumed our labours in the " storehouse of knowledge," and have had time to form some impression of the merits of its internal arrangements. Of the outside, enough has been said, and in any case nothing short of a geological catastrophe will rid us of it ; the inside, we are glad to say, has created a very much better impression. It is comfortable, capacious, well-heated, not draughty, and it contains many amenities absent from the old building. Whatever inconveniences there have been in its working so far have been due less to any intrinsic faults in the organization of the place than to the abnormal stupidity of those who use it. For it must be admitted that the use of the new building has provided much evidence in tin-our of those who maintain that on the whole the University is composed of exceptionally foolish people. The cata- loguing system, for example, was brought over from the old Library, and the old classes were distributed through the new rooms. It would obviously have been quite im- possible to undertake the enormous task of recataloguing simultaneously with the business of moving the books (which was done most successfully, much more quickly than was expected). Any adult of normal intelligence could master the principles of the new distribution in five minutes, but the University complained for quite a month that the new system was unfathomable. Again, the lifts provided to carry us from one floor to another of this scholastic skyscraper answer the summoning button at floor 1 only if the person who left the life-cage at floor 4 took the trouble to close both doors behind him. This is perfectly well known, and apparently necessary ; and on this principle numerous lifts, I believe, work perfectly well in London offices. Both managing directors and office boys are capable of performing the simple actions necessary to their successful working ; but the task has proved to he far beyond the abilities of most members of the University. Indeed one lift, the central and most useful one, was so frequently put out of action that it is not now open to general use—a great but merited inconvenience.
Another unfortunate effect of the building is that many members of the University allow themselves to be emotionally impressed by its rather tawdry grandiosity, and fail to employ when within it that curious scurrying shamble whieg seemed the normal means of getting about in the old Library—a shamble which becomingly expressed the unworldliness, the unpretentiousness, the meekness of the scholar who knows his place to be but a small one in modern life. In his new quarters, the pride of the scholar swells. All this is for him ! All this gold and green and expensive blue leather upholstery, all these rubber floors, are meant to enable him to read his humble books ! So the shamble is replaced by a rather shamefaced strut. But when the first effects of the new building have worn off, we hope that the strut will go, and the shamble return ; also that we shall gradually acquire the ability to control our lifts, and to master the cataloguing system. It is worth while adding, for the notice of possible visitors to Cambridge, that the Library contains a café where simple but excellent food is served. I know of nowhere in Cambridge where they poach a better egg.
If we fail to control so simple a thing as the new lifts, it is not to be wondered at that we fail to control the under- graduates. The undergraduate presents a much more difficult problem • he is so completely unpredictable. Last year he chose to make a riot on Armistice Day over an Anti- War procession, and we were afraid he would do the same this year, and so compel the authorities to take unwilling action. However, nothing of the soft occurred. The pro--
cession was left to pursue its way in pouring rain but in peace. On the other hand, Guy Fawkes' night produced the worst riot for many seasons past, with much damage to property, and a large number of police-court eases. Certainly that sort of thing cannot be allowed to happen again; but, if. measures are proposed to deal with it, the undergraduate may feel that his liberties are endangered, and may make an even bigger riot on that account, whereas, if nothing is done, he may very well find some quite different method of amusing himself at the expense of others.
Our attention has been called to certain problems connected with lodging houses by a report recommending that various unauthorized charges made by lodging-house keepers shall be discontinued. Evidently the lodging-house keepers feel themselves hardly treated, and have engaged in much cone- spondenee in the local Press. No doubt this matter will be adjusted, but it seems likely that the whole question of lodging houses will give sonic difficulty in the future. The number available is already greater than is needed, and the various new building schemes will make further difficulties. During the next ten years or so at least two hundred more undergraduates will be accommodated in the Colleges, and a great part of the Colleges' gain will be a loss to the lodging houses, for the number of undergraduates cannot expand much more—indeed many Colleges arc already adopting a policy of diminishing their admissions. There will be diffi- culties here, for ninny lodging-house keepers are also College servants; man• arc College tenants. It is to be hoped that the proposed organization of lodging-house keepers will not make matters yet more difficult.
There is, Sir, no other news. But in matters concerning our older Universities, especially in these days, no news is very good news indeed.
YOUR CAMBRIDGE CORRESPONDRNT.,
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