THE MISSING LINK

The one serious gap in the House Plan is its utter disregard for the extra-curricular but still intellectual side of undergraduate life; intramural athletics are strenuously cultivated and social events benignly encouraged, but the task of stimulating thought and discussion in the Houses has been left to very occasional common room orators. As a partial remedy to this oversight, the Debating Council's plan to organize House Debating teams is worth serious consideration.

More important than providing expression for a few House members, such debating teams would render a real service in making present-day problems of personal interest to the men along the River. In time such teams would inevitably make themselves a part of the House tradition, and lend to each of the seven a name as much to be desired as a reputation for good football teams or gay dances.

The turnout would not be overwhelming at first. Indeed, when 15 out of 123 Winthrop House men signified their interest in the project, they represented a larger percentage than can be hoped for in all the Houses. Yet the plan offers intelligent audiences of Cambridge and Boston social clubs, and the possibility of rapid promotion to the Varsity debating team; under such a stimulus this lost art should undergo a renaissance.

In view of the low state of debating throughout the country and especially at Harvard, perhaps it was folly for the Council to suggest this plan. Yet it was a folly one cannot help admiring, and a concrete way for the University to show its admiration would be to assign a public speaking instructor as debating coach. This would not only be giving Harvard debating an advantage long enjoyed by every other Ivy League college, but it would be going far toward providing the missing link in the House Plan.