BENEFITS OF DORMITORY LIFE

At the Junior smoker held in the Union last evening President Lowell and L. Withington, Jr., 3L., spoke on the institution of Senior dormitories in the College Yard. From the standpoint of men who realize the great benefits accruing from class unity, especially in the last year, the speakers urged consistent support of the project, emphasizing its value both to the college and the men themselves.

L. Withington, whose class was the first to adopt the plan of Senior dormitories, spoke from close personal experience of the contribution that the Seniors make to the real Harvard democracy, by rooming in the Yard together. The average Harvard man is one who pursues, more or less, the course of developing individually in his years here. That individually is not by any means lost in the Senior dormitories, and it is really the average man's individuality which makes for the true democracy here, which is the judging of a man by what he accomplishes in College.

Fellowship is Essential

President Lowell recounted the unfortunate circumstance of dissention in his graduating class,--dissention caused, not because of personal animosity but because the men did not really know one another well enough to sympathize with each other's customs, habits, and opinions. The note here may be one of individuality and the individual may go his own way, but it is a broad way and one full of the fellowship of others. In the world today, a man's achievement depends upon his power in swaying the minds of men, and this power is impossible without understanding and sympathy. In one's Senior year is the time to attain to this power of sympathizing and understanding, and the consequent broadening and greater efficiency for the things to come.

Back about twenty-five years ago, the University was winning pretty consistently in the individual athletic events, but Yale was victorious in the sports where team-play was required. Men attributed this to the evils lf Harvard individuality, but whether or not this is true, a decided reversal has taken place in the matter of the large athletic honors since the Seniors went into the Yard as a body four years ago. Team-play is the greatest thing and this the Senior dormitories furnish in fulfilling Harvard's mission of turning out men of affairs who are the most forceful and moving leaders of their time.