The most prominent feature of the report adopted by the conference committee yesterday is its conservatism. It does not recommend that the students be given any executive power; the committee proposed is to be simply a body for discussion and for passing resolutions. A motion recommending the grant of executive power was defeated by a practically unanimous vote.

The attitude of the committee upon this matter is not difficult to understand. They felt that the experiment of a students' executive committee would be a very doubtful one. It had also to be considered that asking the faculty for too much might lead to the rejection of the whole plan of having conferences. Under these circumstances the decision of the meeting was probably a wise one. It leaves the question of executive power still open; and the probability is that, if the committee is established, and shows itself worthy of confidence, it will have executive power conferred upon it.

Another point about the scheme is that it establishes a deliberative, not a representative body. The conference will, therefore, be something like a parliamentary committee.

This difference between a representative and deliberative organization is a vital one, and the committee would be of an entirely different nature, according as it were created with one or the other characteristic. The conference yesterday deliberated carefully, we know, before it decided in this matter. Its decision, therefore, is probably the right one.