The Q-World Machine

To the Editors of The Crimson:

I was delighted by your coverage of the Republican Club elections in your article "Republican Club Elects Officers Amidst Claims of Impropriety" (February 13). This is how the elections were run: The majority of the votes came from students, recruited by the Quincy House "machine", who "joined" the club for the occasion and who will very shortly be expelled for being delinquent in their dues. I myself was approached several times by members of the "machine" who were also candidates. When I objected on principle to this method of campaigning. I was told that it was really okay because "the Democratic Club does it too."

This is a total travesty of the electoral process. However, what is frightening is not that it takes place right here, within the sheltered walls of Harvard, but the fact that the students involved are probably the "future leaders of America." If they do not hesitate to resort to such methods for something as unimportant as the elections for a college club (unimportant, that is, for everything except resumes), what will they hesitate to do in the future?

I was told by one of the candidates while he was trying to recruit me that I was naive and unrealistic for holding this view. However, when I asked why I should go along with him, the only reason he could offer me was that be thought he was the best candidate and wanted to win--and that it was absolutely essential to keep control of the club out of the hands of the Eliot House faction. For the droves of Q-World people and the many Democrats (It's an even but that there were as many Democrats as Republicans at Boylston Auditorium that night) who participated in the election, this was reason enough. Carina Campobasse '81