THE SIXTH CLAUSE

With the action of the Student Council in expurging from its constitution Clause VI included under the Powers of the Council, the long-debated instrument is finally ready for ratification. In itself a matter of little moment, the clause which would theoretically have empowered the Council to "prevent any-man who shows an indisposition to respect its recommendations from becoming or remaining a member of any organization open to free competition," has served to show the attitude of the Administrative Board toward undergraduate affairs.

In a letter to the committee appointed by the Council to present the matter to him, Dean Hanford wrote that he had referred the question to the Administrative Board and that it was of the opinion that such a power would be unenforceable and unwise. "The tradition at Harvard," said Dean Hanford, "has been largely that of laissez-faire in regard to the policies and actions of organizations so far as those policies and actions have not affected scholarship and academic standing." He felt that if censorship were to be exercised, it should come from the students themselves through the Council, but that he doubted whether at the present time there were any need for such control.

This policy of liberalism on the part of the Administration toward undergraduate affairs, has for long been, and, it is hoped, long will be one of the crowning glories of Harvard University. It is only under a regime which gives the individual entire freedom, that full development can take place, even though it be at the expense of a few missteps. And in view of this the liberally minded cannot but applaud the action of the Student Council and the expression of the Administrative Board.