[We invite all men in the University to submit communications on subjects of timely interest.]

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

The indifference with which most undergraduates view the organization of the Student Council must be disappointing to the originators of that body and to all friends of Harvard. Aside from the desirability of settling, or at least soothing, the athletic disputes which have agitated us so long, the opportunity of student government by the students ought eagerly to be seized.

Since the aim of collegiate training is to develop good citizens, there can be no doubt that student regulation of student activities is not only desirable but necessary. And if student government is practicable anywhere, it is practicable in Harvard. The variety of interests, the lack of petty jealousies, the cosmopolitanism, that very "indifference" and "lack of college spirit," which consists of having one's own opinions on collegiate as on other matters,--in short, all those qualities which make our University great as opposed to provincial insure the success of any well launched scheme of undergraduate self-government.

If they have the support of the student body, the members of the Council can exercise and develop their powers in such a way as to make student government a very real thing. If they have not that support, they can do nothing. It is by the will of the people that the machinery of all free, living governments has been developed; and no one, be he czar or privy councillor or member of the Student Council, can develop a genuinely good government without the co-operation of the governed. It is, therefore, incumbent upon the students to show an interest in the coming elections, to elect able men, who are interested in their work, and then actively to support them during their term of office. If we are to be good American citizens in the future, let us be good Harvard citizens in the present. A. S. OLMSTED '09.