The Political Scene

This year's freshman class has staged perhaps the most interesting Jubilee Committee campaigns in recent years. Climaxing their activities with two rallies and one near-riot Tuesday, three bogus candidates and their rabid supporters have spent an estimated $100 and countless hours in outdoing twenty-odd legitimate campaigners.

Lamont Dupont, the original and most lavish hoax, combines heady extravagance with a condescending democracy toward classmates. He "enjoys the sport of kings--falconry"; he has been seen, according to posters, at the Abyssinian royal ball, the Jamaican government congress, and other aristocratic functions. Voting against him is futile since "he owns us all anyway," but freshmen should give him their ballots since "he has condescended to run."

As a spectacular finish to their campaign, Dupont supporters borrowed a Cadillac limousine from the grandmother of one of their number, prevailed upon a Yale freshman to impersonate their candidate, and appropriated Widener's steps for a formal ribon cutting ceremony and rally Tuesday.

The Oliver A. Yabook campaign is founded on a faked picture in the Freshman Register. Living on "Main Street" in "Babbitville, Mo.," the mustached Yabook achieves a lordly, detached air. He is "proud of Harvard" and "even likes Communists--as long as they know their place." "Yes, Virginia, there is an Oliver A. Yabook," proclaimed one sign. A picture of a small girl watching a sparrow was captioned, "Hi, little birdie! Your entrails predict victory for Oliver A. Yabook."

Because the "real" Oliver A. Yabook of the Register picture had since shaved off his mustache, the hoax leaders hired a tonsorially complete Harvard senior to impersonate their man. After receiving a standing ovation in the Union during Tuesday's supper, "Oliver" was frisked away to await the Yabook rally. At 7:15, a rented moving van stopped on Quincy Street and, flanked by two kilted swordsmen and a seven-piece band, "Yabook" strode to the steps of the Varsity Club. There, as the rally proceeded in darkness, Dupont agitators in the crowd led rival cheers and threw the evening's dessert--apples and oranges--at Yabook to curb the "crude activities" of their opponent.

A third candidate, Arthur Pike, substantially adds to the confusion. Supporting a freshman who left the college in January, Hurlbut Hall has promoted their vanished dormmate with such signs as "Pike drinks like a--" and one of a mutilated body with the caption, "He didn't vote for Pike." Tuesday night, capitalizing on the wrecked Yabook rally, Pike supporters distributed notices imploring freshmen to "consider first NOBLESSE OBLIGE."

Unless influential hoax-candidate leaders persuade the Union Committee to publish the results of this unofficial race, no write-in ballots will be counted. We believe that the votes should be accredited, however, since we think Oliver A. Yabook would prove an exemplary Jubilee Chairman. And, in the event that Lamont Dupont should lose, we are hoping that he will condescend to run for the HYRC presidency.