HORTATIVES

"Let us" has been used by grammarians, ministers, and editorial writers ever since those nuisances came into existence, several thousand years ago. It furnished the slogan of the war-garden in the amended form of "Lettuce Beet the Kaiser", and it has served the purpose of statesmen and politicians. It is on the subject of politics--class politics--that the familiar construction comes in again. This time it is: "Let us vote".

Last year there was much comment on the failure of class elections, due to the lack of interest by the necessary sixty percent of the class to cast their votes. The whole affair was exploited by the press as an instance of the traditional "Harvard Indifference". Various communications were written explaining that many students preferred not to vote, than to vote for men about whom they knew nothing. Campaign speeches were suggested each candidate to take the stump or soap-box and describe to an interested group of student listeners the principles on which he based his claim to popular support. This motion, however, was not seconded.

The explanation of this spirit in regard to class officers goes back to Freshman year. It is at that time, when the class is together as a unit, that a beginning can be made in the forming of that intangible "class spirit", which is often lacking and more often demanded.

This year something has been done. At Gore Hall, night before last was held the first of a series of dormitory meetings in informal "get-together" fashion. There was nothing perfunctory about this first one. Except for a few men at rehearsals every Freshman in the hall was at the meeting.

It is the absence of feeling like this of any feeling at all, as a matter of fact, that results in a thirty or forty percent vote at the class elections. The upper classes, Senior, Junior, and Sophomore, may be too old to be infected, no matter how much they are exposed, but it is not likely. The spirit is contagious and once it catches hold, it spreads like wildfire.