ELECTORS OF THE OVERSEERS.

A bill in regard to the eligibility of holders of Harvard degrees for voting for Overseers is being considered by the Massachusetts Legislature. The success or failure of this bill will decide an important question, which has been agitated several times in the past five years.

In 1865 the Legislature passed an act "In relation to the Board of Overseers of Harvard College," of which Section I provides that "The places of the successive classes in the Board of Overseers of Harvard College, and the vacancies of such classes, shall hereafter, be annually supplied by ballot of such persons as have received from the College a degree of Bachelor of Arts, or Master of Arts, or any honorary degree, . . . provided, however, that no member of the Corporation, and no officer of government or instruction in said College, shall be eligible as an Overseer, or entitled to vote in the election of Overseers; and provided further, that no person who has received from said College the degree of Bachelor of Arts shall be entitled to vote for Overseers before the fifth annual election after the graduation of his class."

Since this Act of 1865 precludes graduates of the Lawrence Scientific School and of the Law School, there has been a demand to have the franchise extended, as these two schools have greatly increased in importance since the Act was passed. The present bill, which has passed the House of Representatives and goes to the Senate today, will, if it becomes a law, enable those now eligible to vote for overseers to decide at the election in June whether or not the Act of 1865 is to remain in force. The electors have thus a veto power over the action of the Legislature.

The bill under discussion reads:

"Section 1. The president and fellows of Harvard college and the board of overseers of said college, acting separately at meetings called for that purpose, may determine from time to time by concurrent vote whether any, and, if any, what degrees issued by said college other than those mentioned in the first section of chapter one hundred and seventy-three of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and sixty-five, shall entitle the recipients thereof to vote for overseers to the same extent and under the same restrictions to and under which recipients of the degree of bachelor of arts from said college may now so vote."

"Section 2. This act shall be in force when the board of overseers and the president and fellows of Harvard college respectively, at meetings held for that purpose, shall by vote have assented to the same; provided, it shall have been approved by a vote of the holders of degrees now entitled to vote for overseers, said vote to be taken at the time of the next annual election of overseers and to be announced by advertisement in two Boston newspapers at least once a week for three successive weeks preceding such election."