The Senior Transparency.

EDITORS DAILY CRIMSON :-In the Senior Class meeting two weeks ago, I voted, in common with the great number of the Cleveland men present to have the presidential vote of the class inscribed on a transparency and carried in the political procession. At that time I expected that the college would decide to march in the Republican procession, and the idea that the Cleveland sentiment of the Senior class should be thus conspicuously proclaimed in the very midst of the enemy was by no means displeasing to me. Since that night, however, various considerations have suggested themselves to me which made me regret my vote. I should be sorry to have to carry such a transparency myself in the procession, and sorry to have it carried in the class. Will you allow me the use of your columns to speak my mind in the matter ?

It seems to me that when we enter the ranks of a Republican procession, we are, in a sense, the guests of the Republicans, we owe it to their hospitality that we are enabled to have the fun which is our object in parading. I will grant that the Republicans may be more desirous of having our company than we are of going with them; but so may an individual be the unwilling guest of a pressing host, and the laws of hospitality be still in force between them. The main point is this: The college, as a whole, have expressed a desire for having its contemplated good time in the Republican procession. The Republicans-whether willingly or grudgingly is not the question,-have responded to the college's wish, and have offered us a place in their line. I think, therefore, that I am strictly correct when I say that we shall owe our fun to their hospitality. Now, this procession of theirs is a demonstration to help their candidate. It is intended to show the enthusiasm which Republicans feel for Mr. Blaine, and to win over doubtful voters, so far as they can be won by the effect of enthusiasm. The Seniors of Harvard have no right in such a procession, if they bear their intended transparency. No gentleman has the right to say or do anything to the detriment of the man whose salt he is eating. The Senior Class is equally bound in honor not to attempt to defeat the object of the Republican procession; a thing which they will attempt if they thus proclaim their hostility to Mr. Blaine.

Setting aside the question of propriety, moreover, I am not sure but that the carrying of this transparency is one of the things the seniors have already pledged themselves to abstain from doing. It was expressly stated and understood in the class meeting that our parade had no political significance. The college turnout meant, indeed, that a majority of Harvard men preferred to walk the streets in Republican company; but it in nowise indicated how their political preferences lay. This was the understanding, and the Union canvassers kept record of the choice of processions. But, by carrying transparencies bearing the presidential choice of the classes, the procession is made to have a decided political significance. Especially is this so in the case of the Senior Class. The senior vote per see is more important from a political point of view, than those of the younger classes. This particular vote shows a greater revolt than do the votes of the other classes against the hitherto predominant political party. To carry such a vote, then, in the procession would be to violate the previously agreed understanding of the class. It would be, besides, a disregarding of the previous college custom not to turn the parade to political ends, and would serve as an unfortunate precedent for subsequent occasions. These last objections apply, indeed to the transparencies of the other classes; but the duty of the seniors is concerned with their own vote only.