DISCUSSION FAVORABLE TO COMPULSORY MEMBERSHIP

The first open meeting regarding the plan of compulsory membership in the Union was held yesterday afternoon. Kent Bromley '16, vice-president of the Union and chairman of the committee, opened the meeting and said that compulsory membership was not so much a question of finance as of policy.

In the general discussion that followed, the majority favored the plan as necessary to put the Union on a more logical relation with undergraduate life at present.

The main point developed was regarding the additional burden of the yearly Union tax for men who were going through college at the lowest minimum. The arguments were advanced that the placing of another extra fee upon the term bill might keep men from coming to college and that the Union fee might open up a field for numerous other taxations of a similar sort. These arguments were refuted, however, by statistics which showed that the greater number of Union members were fellows who had the lowest expenditures per annum.

Looking at the social side and the academic side of the undergraduate's life, it was said that they filled about an equal part, and that if the academic side demanded $200 or more, the social division would not suffer under the necessary Union tax. An analogy was drawn between the Union and the Library; the fact that they were of equal importance to a man, and that to charge admission to the Library would be a grave hardship to men who worked and read there but yet they would willingly put up with it.

It was stated that if 80 per cent. of membership of each class had been used each year as a basis of allowing class smokers and banquets, none of them could have been held, owing to the deficiency in membership. The tremendous expenses connected with holding a banquet in town would make them almost prohibitory, but compulsory membership to the Union would do away with any discussion over banquets and smokers taking place at the Union.

Further discussion will be held this afternoon and on March 10 at 3.30 o'clock.