The cancelling of the 1918 smoker because of the small percentage of Union members serves only to emphasize the unusual scarcity of class functions this year. Up to the present the Seniors and Sophomores have not held a single smoker, the Juniors have had but one, and the Freshmen have done nothing since the early fall receptions. This is a total of one smoker against five which were held by this time last year. The value of these gatherings is not to be denied. They may not be as intimate as the meetings of a closed club; they may not be over-hilarious and universal in their fraternization. But at class smokers one invariably meets dozens of men whom he would probably not meet during weeks in his ordinary rounds; and they do approach the democratic. They should not be so lightly passed over by the class officers whose duty it is to call the meetings.

The Sophomores were obliged to postpone their smoker owing to lack of the required membership in the Union. This would seem to show that their year's isolation in the Freshman dormitories had militated against their appreciation of the Union's value. As a makeshift, until sufficient membership can be secured, they might well follow the system instituted by 1917 last year, of having a series of small smokers in the Randolph breakfast room, a system which did a great deal to bring the members of 1917 in close touch with each other.

The Seniors are presumably waiting for their inter-dormitory smokers, while the Freshmen feel they must wait until they are finally organized. It behooves those in authority to call some meetings and give men a chance to fraternize over Union movies and refreshments.