THE JUNIOR DANCE

The announcement by the officers of the Class of 1930 that the current pertinent problem as to whether 1930 shall or shall not hold a Junior Dance this year in Memorial Hall is to be decided by the class members themselves in a referendum is the strongest indication that the advisability of going through automatically with the decadent function year by year is questioned at last.

The Junior Dance, like the old gray mare, is decidedly not what it used to be. Those who remember its halcyon days will verify this statement, and can add that since the war the spontaneous cooperation on the part of a class so necessary to the dance's success as a social affair has waned considerably. It is of course difficult for each successive class to believe that it cannot improve on the efforts of its predecessor. The paramount conviction is that Memorial Hall has, in this ultramodern age, proved the nemesis of the dance and that its success would be assured by transference of the festivity to an up-to-date Boston ballroom. The class officers could petition for such a radical change of the character of the dance, but in the opinion of the CRIMSON it would be an ill-advised petition having one chance out of a hundred of being approved by the college authorities. To state the case coldly, if impropriety can be charged against a dance held in Memorial Hall, it is doubtful if a Boston hotel or nightclub locale would enhance its prestige. This is only one reason for abolishing a dance which to say the least, has lost its cohesion and the respect even of its devotees.

Accepting Memorial Hall as the inevitable floor for the dance, it is interesting to note statistics of past dance committees on the cost and attendance of a Junior Dance. Three thousand dollars is practically the minimum figure. This means that to meet the expense three hundred couples at $8 a couple and 150 stags at $5 a stag must attend. Last year's dance, with probably more publicity than any previous affair, drew only two hundred and fifty couples and a hundred stags. Consequently the Committee lost money, even after a last minute attempt to reduce the expense to meet the occasion. First socially and second financially, the dance has suffered a decline.

Last year a mild effort was made to abandon the boring anachronism, which confronts every class. This year the protest has gained sufficient momentum not only to undermine what prestige the dance might have left in the eyes of Juniors but also to damage beyond calculation the remote possibility of its making the grade. The Class of 1930 is in a position to shake off an onus of traditionalism, escape an unprofitable evening, and earn the gratitude of succeeding classes.