POLITICS HERE

The members of the Peace Society, the Liberal Club, the N.S.L., and the S.L.I.D., meet this evening in Emerson D to form an omnibus Student Union. The idea is to spread the membership from the present measly 100 all told to the whole body of students, presumably at least a large minority, who take definite interest in politics and political questions. Those who have scorned and scoffed, with some justification, at past manifestations of political activity in Harvard, have now a unique opportunity to enter a political group at its beginning, and mold it along more intelligent lines.

In order to include all undergraduate possibilities, the new Union must be absolutely non-denominational, neither Communistic, nor Socialistic, nor New Republican, nor Industrially Democratic, nor Democratic, nor Republican, nor Conservative, nor Liberal, nor Tory, nor Mugwump, nor Right, nor Wrong. Probably this "must" could best be carried through by parliamentary organization, such as has been attempted before by the Liberal Club, but with definite rules to allow at all times, a motion from the floor, carried by a two-thirds vote, that the speaker be stopped, or that the question in discussion be changed, subject always to previous motions that a given speaker, or a given subject, be allowed so and so many minutes. This would prevent what ruined so many Liberal Club meetings in the past, the combination of a bore and a communist, or several, monopolizing the discussion, and leading it along channels in which most of those present weren't interested.

The main point must be to make the organization like a Parliament, where a difference of opinion does not mean resignation by a minority, where filibustering is not permitted, and where every man with a political interest may find a place to air his views, exchange ideas, learn parliamentary procedure, and get some practice in public speaking. The practical details, such as committees of investigation with reports; the different forms of meeting, whether with some outside distinguished speaker, or merely in debate form between members; the passing of majority and minority motions; the consideration of college and educational problems as well as national, political ones;--these details, though important, can be developed as the Union grows.

A final necessity for the success of the new Union, in Harvard at least, is that the leadership be entrusted permanently in reliable hands. One college generation of stupid leadership, one turnover of the "electorate", and the Union would fall into the sort of bad reputation which causes not healthy battle, but contemptuous neglect. An executive council largely made up of recognized student leaders, such as the Presidents of the Student Council and of Phillips Brooks House, would seem the best assurance that the organization would remain a parliament in which each individual and each group could fight without breaking up the whole.