THE UNION ELECTIONS.

What the Union needs more than anything else is spirit,--in a large sense. We are told that it is not a purely public institution, philanthropic in its conduct of lectures, and entertainments, but a democratic club, much like the large institutions in a large city. Yet when the undergraduate enters the building the atmosphere is cold, the rooms not too homelike, and the service decidedly in different. What the Union needs is "enmasse" enthusiasm. It can well do without an elephantine "frattiness," but it does need friendliness. It does need to avoid that lingering air of decay, and to cultivate the well-ordered, smooth efficiency of the city club. It does need to be homelike. If the institution is ever to escape the spectre of an annual deficit, is ever to attain hearty undergraduate support, its general atmosphere must change.

The average Union member, imbued with that mystic something known as Harvard indifference, is doubtless largely responsible for this condition. But some blame may be laid elsewhere. Laxities in management, ever-absent bellboys, and somnolent waiters, all contribute. Most of all, the Union should be run by those whose interests lie there and not elsewhere, by men who use the building with some frequency. Its offices should not become rewards for all sorts of extra-curriculum activities. The CRIMSON calls to mind a recent election in which a man not even a member of the Union was nominated for one of the committees. If the institution is ever to be lastingly improved, it must be by those whose hearts are in the work, not by those who join because it is the thing to do.

This is not at all a criticism of the recent progress--for there has been progress--made by the Union. The lecture and entertainment schedule has this year been more attractive than ever before. The Forums have been more interesting. And above all the Union has replaced a vacillating stand on matters of general policy by a perfectly definite one. Yet progress cannot consistently continue except through the efforts of thoroughgoing members.

In the coming election, the voters should make sure that the interest of, those they elect is real, that they are not merely big men, but men who will work for the Union; who will work for it not spasmodically through a vague sense of obligation to those who put them in office, but earnestly through a genuine desire to make the Union live up to the ideals for which Mr. Higginson created it. They should be genuine servants. With the opportunity to make additional nominations by petition, the Union members have only themselves to blame if the final slate does not satisfy them. The right sort of spirit, if the Union is ever to attain it, must begin with the officers.