THE SENIOR CLASS.

That the value of a class to its own members and to the University is impaired in just the proportion that the class lacks unity may be taken for granted. There have been examples, fortunately few in number, of classes disorganized for years by the entrance of politics into the affairs of undergraduate days. Their reunions have been embittered, their harmony has been lost, and the services which they might have rendered to Harvard have failed for want of united action.

The condition in which the class of 1910 has been placed by the spirit in which the result of the first election has been accepted is serious enough to constitute, if not an actual split, at least the imminent possibility of one. Both parties to the strife have used methods which ought never to find a place in College elections. Partisan zeal and prejudice have been turned to account in ways which are particularly objectionable in Senior year, when nominees should be considered on their merits alone.

To hold the second election now, when this party controversy is at its height, would be manifestly unwise. Whether a postponement will make matters any better is not certain; the experiment is at least worth trying. A calmer spirit on both sides may do much toward patching up in the second election the differences which are now so threatening.

We have spoken frankly on this subject because the matter is a serious one for 1910 and for the College. Class unity is the one binding force which no class can lose and be more than a mere group of individuals taking their degrees in the same year. This is the time to restore the harmony of the class; it cannot be done after graduation.