Nobly conceived by one of Harvard's greatest benefactors, the Harvard Union was founded in 1899 that all Harvard men might have a common meeting place in Cambridge. The Union was to be a club which any member of the University might join if he so desired. It was hoped too that it might become the centre of that type of discussion which has made the Oxford and Cambridge Unions so valuable. Since its founding the Union has steadily increased its facilities until today it compares most favorably with the Harvard Clubs of Boston and New York.

It has been the policy of the Governing Board to foster the club atmosphere, and this policy has been increasingly successful. Much remains to be done, however. The Union will never give the fullest measure of service to the University community until its members have a far greater group consciousness and purpose. At present the management attempts to give the members what they want, but for the most part the membership is so little organized that no initiative is possible. The management can do a certain amount, but in the last analysis it is up to the undergraduate body--whether it will get all that it can out of the Union. There is an opportunity which only waits for leadership. The Union can be the means for giving to a Harvard education something which it has too often heretofore lacked--a sense of citizenship. It is the logical place for holding discussion groups, for having speakers on questions which every educated man should know about.

All of which is not to be interpreted as an attack on past administration of the Union. Much has already been done to bring it into the suggested position. At every turn however, it has been met by the inertia of the undergraduate body, by a lack of interest which might well warrant one in saying the average undergraduate is a callow person after all. Real interest on the part of the undergraduate body, which would result in a full and interested membership, taking some initiative from time to time, would undoubtedly do much to extend the influence and usefulness of the Union.