STUDENT CONSIDERATIONS

In yesterday's CRIMSON Mr. Donham, of the class of 1930, set forth several objections to the practice followed by the Harvard Union of regarding all its members as permanent until their definitive resignations have been received. In place of the present arrangement he favored a plan of annual membership; each membership to lapse completely if not specifically renewed.

Whatever may have been the errors in the facts stated by Mr. Donham, his main point is valid. The Union is not essentially a club, and is not so regarded by most of the men who join it. In view of this fact it can find little justification in regulating its membership according to ordinary club rules. Mr. Stone, graduate secretary of the Union, whose communication regarding this question is printed elsewhere in these columns, reveals the strongest reason in support of the Union's present practice, when he says that under other conditions, the membership rolls would show a large in the minds of the Union management; they can make but little impression on the mind of the student who thinking, however erroneously, his relations with the Union automatically severed at the end of his Freshman year, finds a ten dollar Union charge on his Sophomore term bill.

Membership blanks placed in upperclass as well as Freshmen envelopes would give all men ample opportunity to join the Union. All others cannot but be annoyed at the necessity of filling a formal resignation or, in default of that, of accepting a membership they do not desire.