DEMOGRACY AND THE HOUSE PLAN

Charles Warren, former Solicitor-General of the United States and at present a member of the Board of Overseers, stated at a recent meeting of the Harvard Club of Washington that in the last analysis democracy simply amounts to "a willingness to be interested in the other fellow's point of view." He was referring to recent attacks made upon the House Plan by certain students to the effect that it breeds snobbishness and petty cliques. Mr. Warren went on to say that democracy can't be imposed upon anyone; that the most the University can do is to provide the instruments for its practice.

Mr. Warren's point cannot be too strongly emphasized. Of course, Houses develop within themselves certain groups, each more or less homogeneous, with very little in common between the groups. But certainly more than the old dormitory system does the House Plan provide the opportunity for that exchange of views and the realization that there may be something in the other fellow's point of view, which is the essence of liberal democracy.

We are inclined to feel that the ultimate success of the House Plan will depend upon the loyalties which each House can develop among its members. By these loyalties we are not referring to petty rivalries between Houses, but rather to an appreciation that the House means just a little bit more than the collective accomplishments of its individual members; that extra, intangible quantity without which no institution can long exist.

Obviously, it will take some time to develop this esprit de corps, as it were, but perhaps--in time--to live in a House will mean a bit more than a place to study, to eat, and to sleep. Perhaps it already does.