TO BE OR NOT TO BE

That really is the question which confronts the University Debating Union. Either the Union exists or it does not exist. And when such questions as the might of Mencken are its sole breath of life, it cannot be called particularly vital.

Most organizations at Harvard eventually become clubs of some sort or other. The gregarious instinct does not bow completely to indifference. And a collection of people interested in a critical appreciation of the theatre becomes a Theatre Goers' Club and loses itself in refreshments and parliamentary law. So the Debating Union is not singular in becoming extinct as a factor in University affairs while it strives to furnish the college litterateurs with a raison de parler.

There are many and vital movements which the undergraduate should either take part in or take pot shots at. The Student Federation to some is important, to others as worthwhile as, a motorman on a dinosaur. The Debating Union could well indulge in debate on the Federation's merits. They could have pondered forensically the worth of the Student Friendship Drive--and, at least, someone would have understood why he was contributing. But the Debating Union is content to mangle Mencken or adjudge the capacity for boiled eggs of the average publicity seeker. Perhaps that is their ultimate. One could wish differently for Harvard needs an open forum much more than she needs an Association of Readers of Clinical Notes. To be or not to be--really, the Debating Union should determine the answer.