PRESIDENT ELIOT'S SPEECH

President Eliot, in a speech on "College Spirit, Class Feeling, and the Social Aspects of the Dormitory Question," delivered in the Union last night, before a large audience, gave a clear statement of his grounds for opposing the system of class segregation in dormitories. He showed that class spirit at Harvard is broader than at any other college, and furthermore that there exists here something greater than class spirit, the general contemporaneous acquaintance, fostered by the present dormitory system.

College spirit, said President Eliot, is the sentiment of gratitude, love, and respect for the institutions and acquaintances of the place where we, undergo very extraordinary mental changes; where we acquire a new set of powers, new faculties; these great changes being associated in our minds with the physical scenes, the natural or artificial beauties of our college. The college town is an inspiring remembrance, to be revisited with keen delight. College spirit is an inspiring motive which lasts through life, and is associated with two very common sentiments; the desire to be serviceable to one's country and kind, and the true love of country, which means not only love of territory, but of the people who inhabit it.

It is said that class spirit in Harvard College is declining; that it is a thing of the past, a victim of the elective system. It is said that mere numbers have driven it out, and that, therefore, small colleges are preferable, since in them true class feeling exists. What are the evidences of class spirit? Class organization, which today is a thousand times more effective than ever before, activity of class secretaries, more vigorous celebrations, all go to show that class spirit at Harvard today is stronger than when Harvard was itself a small college. Is not this sure evidence that there is something at work in the successive classes that binds men together for life? What is the root of it all? It certainly is not universal acquaintance. The man with the broadest acquaintance is not always the deepest man. Class feeling is built on propinquity and contemporaneousness, which is common to every college worthy of the name. At Harvard this spirit is broader than elsewhere, because the system of studies and living fosters acquaintances, which, though contemporaneous, are not restricted to one class. This is my opinion is an enormous advantage, and this is my ground of objection to one class being given preference in one dormitory. Men of contemporaneous interests should be permitted to live together; always to my thinking there should be the possibility of the association of men of all ages, which is one of the charms of English college life. Hollis, Stoughton, and Holworthy cannot accommodate more than one-third of the Senior class. If rooming there is a desirable privilege, why reserve it for so small a number?

I believe that the broad associations of Harvard are of great value in the business world. Segregation of classes limits a man's acquaintance and proves to be a disadvantage to him later in life.