HYRC AD NAUSEAM

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

The Student Council deserves a vote of praise from its constituents for its decision to investigate the current electoral practices of the Harvard Young Republican Club. Whatever the Council decides, it remains true that the practice of packing the Club so that this or that faction may obtain the power and prestige which it so desperately wants is unworthy both of honest young Republicans and, more important, of Harvard men. At least, F.D.R., in his famed Court-packing scheme, could justify his plan on the grounds that he was attempting to preserve his economic program designed to benefit all Americans. In contrast, the little venture into institution fixing of the leaders of the HYRC is clearly motivated by considerations of individual self-interest, although they are sugar-coated with references to conservatism and liberalism.

These vote-getting practices, the products of two years of narrowly partisan, ungentlemanly, and short-sighted leadership, serve as one more indication that the HYRC has lost its right to boast of being both the biggest and the best undergraduate organization in the Yard. Members of the HYRC, past and present, can only be ashamed of their association with an organization which has now degenerated to the very cheapest level of political activity. Robert W. Haney '56, 1Dv.