THE BUDDING BUDGET

The steps taken by the Student Council last night to institute a budget bids fair to abolish yet another feudal survival in the University. The proposal to raise in a single drive funds to meet the annual expenses of organization and charity can be regarded from no point of view with anything but approval. Harvard is the last large university in the East to adopt this method and it is to be hoped that the experience of other institutions will, in contributing the success of the plan here, more than offset the delay in its adoption.

To the individual student, a budget will bring welcome respite from the periodic appeals of harassed collectors. The economic advantages arising from a single payment instead of repeated donations may be slight, but the added convenience and simplification should be more than desirable. Even more important is the security and legitimacy which will be gained by the various charities which it has been customary for the University to support. The elimination of separate organizations for each drive and the centralization of the collection and expenditure of the funds in the hands of the Student Council suffice alone to warrant the step.

Perhaps the most important probable consequence of the plan will have to do with the Student Council itself. Not in vain did our English forefathers learn the lesson that in the purse strings lies power, and the Student Council may well profit by it. Decrees and recommendations are the symbols of authority, but in the purse itself is its reality. Backed by the student exchequer the authority of the Student Council ought more nearly to attain the weight which it deserves.