Not a Democracy.

(We invite all men in the University to submit communications on subjects of timely interest, but assume no responsibility for sentiments expressed under this head.)

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

One is pleased to see how quickly the newcomer like Mr. Lloyd is assimilated to the Harvard environment, and especially pleased to see the eagerness with which he takes up the gauntlet for his new alma mater. As with most converts, unfortunately, his enthusiasm has lead him far afield.

Harvard is not democratic. It has not been for generations, and does not bid to change for generations yet to come. What is more, it makes no pretenses at democracy. The Freshman Dormitories, designed to combat the rampant spirit of caste, has done no small amount of good, but they have failed to establish any democracy--within even a single class. Harvard alumni winced at the publication of Mr. Flandrau's book, "Harvard Episodes," but they knew is substance to be true.

In the first place, there is no democracy between professor and student. Let Mr. Lloyd, or any other undergraduate ask for the time of any professor outside his office hours (which no one ever knows) and he will soon see why our Faculty are called the "Vanishing Wonders." As for personal contact with professors, either social or scholastic, it simply does not exist, except in a very few noteworthy cases. The University teas (stiff, unnatural functions that they are) are never largely attended. As for professors, only two or three, in the writer's knowledge, hold regular recep- tions where a student can come, listen to what is said, and answer for once like an original being according to his own thoughts. Some students, fortunate enough to get letters of introduction, may thus meet a professor or two on a little more intimate basis. But surely there is no approach at Harvard to the easy familiarity of the Oxonian with the Fellows of his college, and even with his President.

Among the undergraduate body, the thought of democracy is farcical, Men come to college at the most plastic stage of manhood, when it would seem they ought to be willing to accept a man at his own value--according to that man's ability, his intellectual vigor, his social capacity. Is this the case, or is there not rather a wide gulf between those who live in the little frame houses in out-of-the-way streets, and those who inhabit the gold coast; those who make the clubs, and those who don't? One could hardly object if the aristocracy of the College were one of intellect, but I am sure that Mr. Lloyd knows that it is not. At Yale or Dartmouth one is blind or dumb if he does not know personally the large majority of his class; at Harvard he is fortunate if he can say "hello" to even a small minority.

Democracy is not the unmixed good which this letter might seem to account it. If democracy at Harvard would bring about a modicum of tolerance, tolerance of ideas of creed, social standing, intellectual ability, then democracy ought to be our aim. If it would bring about a closer relation of professor and student, a crying need at Harvard, it is true that the experiment of the Freshman Dormitories should be carried further. At all odds, a college less democratic than Harvard is hardly conceivable.  JACOB DAVIS '19