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In the midst of so many opinions upon the question of a change in the present club system, it is of pre-eminent and vital importance that the one paramount defect in that system be kept in mind, namely, the elective feature which makes possible and necessary the maintenance of 17 clubs with separate identities. It is this method of election which must bear the brunt of the attack.
With the abolition of the elective system now in vogue there will also be removed the necessity for that repelling practice of "bootlicking"; there will be removed that unjust and unfair splitting up of the two upper classes into groups which form the "big clubs" and the "little clubs"; there will be obliterated the unwarrantable award which comes to a man when elected to a so-called "big club"; there will be eliminated the stigma which attaches to membership in no club; there will be destroyed that feeling of almost insignificance which members of small clubs have, so far as affects their association with members of the big clubs.
Why shouldn't membership in a big club constitute a lawful reward and acknowledgment of achievement, it may be asked. If to belong to any club on Prospect was in itself an indication that a member had done something to merit honor and distinction, that question might be a fit one for argument. But merit is not the criterion of election. It is rather type. In every one of the big clubs, it is the effort of those in charge of the election to secure men of the same stamp as themselves and their club-mates. This makes a rigid system, changing little from year to year--the personnel must conform to a certain type or be rejected. The smaller clubs strive to secure men of a specific character providing there is any chance for choice after the big clubs have completed their weeding process.
In the last two years of college, instead of having class unity, each class has 17 different units with different identities; there is but little attempt on the part of one unit to understand another. The energy that ought to be expended in making a greater Princeton is spent in promoting a better club section for the next year.
The disintegration of the present elective system has commenced in earnest, and when that disintegration is complete then and only then can Princeton hope to take her place as the national university where every man has an equal chance. --Daily Princetonian.
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