It is announced in our news columns this morning, that President Eliot has decided that he will be unable to accept the invitation extended to him by the Union. We think that we but echo the general opinion of the students, when we say that this decision is a cause for sincere regret.

It was very fitting that a society of college students, working for ability to express themselves before an audience, should invite their college president, who has won an extended reputation as a public speaker, to address them. But, if such an invitation was appropriate, it was still more appropriate, we think, for President Eliot, interested as he is in the growth of college institutions that are practical, to comply with this invitation, and thus encourage a society that is doing more toward fitting the students of Harvard to take positions of influence after graduation, than many of the courses in the elective pamphlet.

The reason, we understand, for this refusal, is that the official duties of the President have so increased during his absence, that he will have no time to prepare an address. We acknowledge that there must be many calls for the President's time and attention, but the same excuse given by a student when he has had several weeks' notice that a forensic will be due March 31st, has been declared null and void.

There are many topics connected with the debates of the Union on which the President has shown himself fully prepared when asked to speak on them in other places. The Union recently debated the change of requirements for admission, and the votes taken at that time show that the students at large need to be enlightened on that subject before they unanimously support the stand taken by our faculty.

There is an old proverb that "charity begins at home." It the President would only look around at the poor Harvard students who have been here year after year, and yet know him only through the newspaper reports of what he is doing elsewhere, we feel sure that he would condescend to enlighten the heretics, at home instead of laboring abroad. With this suggestion and faint remonstrance, we would express the hope that the President will deem the invitation a standing one, and accept it when the labors of his position are less exacting.