WHY IS THE UNION A FAILURE?

Today the Union is in the University lime-light with its annual election of officers and with reports by its treasurer, and by the secretary of its library committee. It must be admitted that the Union does not bear the strong light of "pitiless, publicity" very well. Although the report is encouraging in some respects and shows that a deal of faithful and intelligent work has been done by the few men intimately interested in it, the Union has not been the success that it was hoped it would be, and that the University as a whole would like to see it.

The deficit this year is nearly $4,000. This is not as large as some past deficits, but it is altogether too large if the Union is to continue to operate on a business basis. Its endowment is sure to become exhausted before many such lean years elapse, and then it will have to shut up shop, or undertake the difficult and unpleasant task of raising a new endowment.

It is hard to lay the blame for the Unfon's shortcomings, financial or otherwise, at any man's door. The officers have done their best to keep interest up, and expenses down, and the Union has been by no means a failure as a meeting place for large numbers of students. If it has lacked patronage and morale, the officers are not to be blamed. But it is obvious that there is something extremely peccant in the state of the Union.

The treasurer in his report has asked for suggestions that would help the Union. The CRIMSON ventures to offer a few. Why must the Union pay more than a thousand dollars each year in taxes? As part of the University could it not be exempted and this sum saved? Why is it possible for many men who have never joined the Union to avail themselves of its privileges? Why are the little boys, (employed ostensibly as pages) and the other uniformed persons so imposingly exanimate? Is their "service" worth $3,186.40 a year? Why can't the Union have Home Rule? By this suggestion the CRIMSON means that those most active and interested in the Union should control it, and not those who hold office largely to swell the size of their "life" in the Senior Album. This consideration should be borne in mind at the Union polls today. What sort of sundries bring the total for "Miscellaneous" expenditures up to $1,009.23?

These are a few suggestions. Undergraduates should feel free to offer more. It is only by meeting the problem of the Union's failure squarely that the Union can be made the success it is capable of being.