SPLENDID ISOLATION?

The rejection by the Student Council of the invitation to participate in the Intercollegiate Conference at M. I. T. appears in an increasingly unfavorable light as the organization of the conference develops. At the time when the subject was first brought up the plans were so indefinite that the attitude of the Council might be laid to a too hasty examination of the methods, aims, and scope of the conference. A failure to reconsider the invitation, however, would more than justify the epithet of indifference generally and, we trust, erroneously applied to Harvard,--it would approach very near to rudeness.

The Executive Committee of the Conference realizes that its meetings may easily degenerate into periods of fruitless argumentation, and, by such means as requiring a "definite program," is taking every precaution to avoid this weakness. Even this danger, however, is no excuse for the attitude of the Student Council.

Harvard's undergraduate activities are distinctly not in a position to pass by any invitation from their contemporaries to a general discussion of the problems co existent with college organizations. Participation, not isolation, is the course which will win respect from those college men, whose respect we certainly do not care to lose. Without participation we can hope for no leadership, and non-representation can not but abstract from the well-earned glory of athletic victories.

Comment from the Alumni who see our affairs in better perspective than we can, should carry weight. This question has struck the Alumni Bulletin forcefully enough to call forth the following editorial:

We call attention to the plans for this conference not because Harvard is represented in their formation, but because there is no indication that the Harvard Student Council is having anything to do with them. It is not very long since the flasco of the senior elections demonstrated that student government at Harvard has not yet attained a pinnacle of excellence from which it can afford to look down upon any effort in the direction of better administration of student affairs. The experience of those concerned with alumni activities has shown beyond question that stimulus and suggestion of the highest value are to be gained from intercourse with representatives of other universities: the meetings of the Association of Alumni Secretaries affords a significant case in point. Indeed it requires but a brief separation from the atmosphere of Cambridge to learn that in all manner of activities cooperation in far more profitable than isolation. The Harvard men, who have accomplished most in the world at large, like the men of every other university, are precisely those who have not held themselves aloof, but have joined heartily and generously in every endeavor to serve a good cause.

The Conference on Undergraduate Government will not be held until April. We do not know what steps the Harvard Student Council may be taking towards participation in it. The absence of the name of Harvard from the list of colleges most actively concerned in the undertaking is ominous. However this may represent the attitude of the Student Council and the College, we are confident that it does not represent the attitude of the alumni towards opportunities of which the conference plan is a typical instance. The familiar words.

"Gentlemen of England now a-bed, Shall think themselves accursed they were not here," sometimes have an application to Harvard affairs which it is well to bear in mind.