Republican Address by R. Luce '83

Owing to the illness of Congressman McCall, Mr. Robert Luce '83, of the Massachusetts legislature, addressed the members of the Republican Club in the Union last evening.

Mr. Luce's address was in the form of advice to Harvard men in choosing which political party to join, illustrated by his personal experience. On leaving College Mr. Luce became a Democrat, like the majority of Harvard graduates of that time; but not long after, like many other of these same men, he became a Republican. There were two reasons for his becoming a Democrat: the political economy then taught in College favored free trade, and the Democratic platform was "mathematically correct." Later he realized that idealism enters politics as everything else, and that mere mathematical precision is not practical. Among other arguments for a protective tariff he argued that a country should be self-supporting.

The Republican party is progressive, while the Democratic party is not; it is better to do things and occasionally do them wrongly, than to do nothing.

He next touched upon the folly of joining neither party because of unwillingness to accept all the doctrines offered by either, saying that a man should join the party with which he sympathizes on the whole, and should not stand to one side.