To the Editors of the Crimson:

Tradition says there shall be no nominating speeches in the elections for Class Day officers, and it is high time that a precedent be established abolishing printed slates or any other machinery designed to prevent open contests and free choice. No men should be given the advantage of having their names appear on a printed ticket which announces, virtually, though not in so many words, that those names have the backing of the usual society combine. Each candidate whether he belongs to a society or not, should stand on his merits as an individual. The active managers representing the organized society voters have everything so cut and dried that many nominees from among the unorganized voters who always constitute a clear majority of the class, are intimidated into withdrawing their names. Men undeserving of honor and unpopular with the majority of their classmates are foisted upon them by having their names tucked in for committee places between those of athletes and other men of prominence. It is worthy of notice that the society managers invariably have their own names on the slate they prepare. Some argue that a manager is entitled to an office as a reward for the political work he does for his club, but the offices are properly supposed to be given only to men who have deserved well of the class as a whole.

The system of having a minority of Harvard seniors choose for the majority when no such power has been delegated by the majority is obviously wrong in principle, and the managers in doing the work of self-appointed slate makers are often guilty of conduct unbecoming students of Harvard or any honest men. For the past two years, to the writer's personal knowledge, officers have been chosen only nominally by the whole class, actually by a small but well disciplined minority. With a very slight reform not only the marshalships-which as a rule the managers wisely yield to the men who are sure to get them-but all the other offices would be looked upon as rewards to be gained by achievement for Harvard and the class. If everyone of those eighteen honors could be openly competed for, society and non-society men contending on equal terms, it is the belief of the writer that the enthusiasm of every candidate for and every player on the 'Varsity and class teams would be quickened.

But aside from the consideration of the gain we might reasonably expect from this reform, Harvard love of truth ought to impel '97 men, as soon as the evil of slate election is brought to their notice, to take prompt action to insure that the honors they are about to bestow be fairly and honestly won. There will be close contests for some places; friends will solicit votes for their favorites; that is inevitable. There should be, however, no more iron-clad pledging of men, in clubs or out, to support a man for a particular office merely because his name is on the slate. Clique and society lines should be obliterated in Harvard class elections. It is impossible to see how the true Harvard spirit can be fully awakened so long as one-third the members of each Senior class deliberately sacrifice university ideals and interests by blind acts of club partisanship. And the non-society men are no less to blame; with their two-thirds voting power they have been too long indifferent to the evils. As a matter of fact, few men see the evil at the time, and, like the writer, only regret what they have done or failed to do after a year or two of reflection. The writer, a society man himself, appeals first to the societies not to distribute a printed slate, and he appeals to the non-society men to attend the election every one of them promptly on the hour and be ready to frustrate any scheme unbefitting the dignity of Harvard and '97.

A GRADUATE.