A BINGHAM IN A TEAPOT

The CRIMSON nearly precipitated an international crisis yesterday when our efforts substituted Bill Bingham for Ben Mussolini as the big news story. We are so disillusioned at the case of our success that we are disclosing the whole story which ought to show up Europe's big shots.

As sometimes happens, we had no lead story at 11 o'clock Wednesday evening when we recalled a letter which demanded that Mr. Bingham express his views on racial discrimination in the Olympic games. The writer wanted this explanation because the ticket applications this fall are accompanied by a request for a contribution towards Harvard's share in the Olympics fund.

Since Mr. Bingham's attitude is well known, we doubted its news value but beggars can't be choosers. Over the phone he told us that no team would leave these shores if Jews were not given an equal chance. Since we tend to think of Mr. Bingham only as Harvard's athletic director, we construed this to mean a Harvard team. We failed to take account of his post as a member of the Olympics Committee, an error for which we apologize.

Yesterday morning streamer headlines in the Traveller told us that our last minute story was our biggest scoop in several years and successive editions threw us into a stunned silence.

Reflection, however, serves but to make the ridiculous aspect of yesterday's occurrence stand out with ironic clarity. Two days ago the following facts were apparent. Should there be racial discrimination, America will not send a team; ergo, Harvard will not send representatives. Mr. Bingham's statement, rightly or wrongly interpreted, throws no new light on the situation. The only reason for exaggerated news stories lay in the magic of Harvard's name.