COLLEGE DEMOCRACY.

"It takes the breaking of eggs for the making of 'Hamlets'," remarks Mr. Corbin '92 in the current Century. We could mention some other things that broken eggs make. Which is quite beside the point.

After reading Mr. Corbin's article on "The Struggle for College Democracy," you may have a definite and coherent impression of something won from an indefinite and incoherent source. All that we are sure of, however, is that your eyes will be opened to some things about Harvard that you never knew before and that you will have read a very interesting outline of the Freshman Dormitories. Did you know that we have a system of social-climbing, called swiping? Our fathers and elder brothers had it; but along with so many other traditions, it is out-dated and, so far as we know, has somewhat lost its importance, under any name, as a clearly defined College sport. And did you know that "regarded as an instrument of democracy and efficiency, it (the Harvard Union) has been a dreary waste of time, of money, and of enthusiasm?" True, it has not developed into a working model of an ideal democracy, but we hate to call it a "dreary waste," unless the time, money, and enthusiasm burnt at class meetings, mass meetings, and excellent lectures are considered to be thereby squandered.

But we are disappointed most in Mr. Corbin's failure to include in his article a large enough portion of optimism over what we now have in the line of democracy. To our way of thinking, there is something encouraging, indeed, inspiring, in the sight of the dozens of men who each year rise from the College ranks; and, while we grant that much more can be done to raise College Democracy even farther above world democracy than it now is, we insist that it should not be judged, with slighting attention to the existing hopeful situation, by the standards of twenty-odd years ago.