CHECK OR SCRAP

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I am writing this letter as a completely disinterested individual and am concerned with principles rather than personalities. The Freshman Smoker committee is supposed to be composed of members who were elected on their qualifications, not because they spent more money than the other candidates. It is with this in view that the Student Council, in setting up the election rules for the Committee, put a limit of $10 on campaign expenditures for this office. When any member spends more than this amount, he not only violates the principles and spirit of student elections and his own integrity, but he is also committing a flagrant violation of those definite rules which were set up by the Council. These rules were published in the Union, and made clear to all candidates. If such disregard of rules is to be allowed, it will not only affect the present election but also set a precedent for future ones and thereby weaken the authority and prestige of the Council.

The engraving and printing costs of at least one and possibly more of the candidates has quite obviously exceeded the amount specified. One does not have to be a printing expert to realize that the photo-engraving of a candidate's picture on a large number of cards, for example, is an expensive process, certainly exceeding the limits which were set. Also, all campaigning is by these same regulations restricted to the Union, yet the campaigning has been carried into the Freshman dorms, another direct violation of the rules.

The council election committee should either investigate these conditions at once and keep closer check on this in future elections, or else scrap all election rules if they do not feel they are able to enforce them. (name withheld by request)