To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Student self-government is a democratic process in miniature. At Harvard, moreover, this process involves a community from which many of tomorrow's political and intellectual leaders will develop. If our "higher education" is "education for democracy" the effectiveness of student government within the college must be carefully examined.

With the sole motive of making such an investigation several of my friends decided to enter me as a candidate for the "freshman Smoker Committee." I was not elected, nor would I have served if I had been-but, under the circumstances, the fact that I failed of election by only three votes out of a total ballot of over eight hundred is a more than sufficient exposure of the absurdity of the electoral process as it functions in the college. To complete my nomination petition my campaign managers approached only thirty-six students, none of whom were acquainted with me. Only one man refused to sign the petition on the ground that he didn't know me, while five refused to sign because they had already signed other candidates' petitions. One man, who was a candidate himself, was so kind as to sign my petition because another candidate had signed his. Behold the absurdity of the nomination procedure!

My campaign was unspectacular. No speeches; no chorus girls; no buttonholing of voters; no rallying of friends; in fact it consisted entirely of eleven posters displayed in the Union for one day.

My points of superiority? Merely posters more artistically designed than those of my competitors.

If the Student Council is not moved, by this demonstration of the absurdity of the college electoral process, to take strong measures to revitalize undergraduate political awareness, let them then take note of the further fact that I, late candidate Fred B. Applegate, did not even exist. Fred B. Applegate,   Per----------,