'59 Postpones Smoker Vote Until Autumn

The Freshman Union Committee has passed the problem of what to do about the Smoker on to next year's Committee. At its final meeting of the year last night, the Yard group failed to muster the votes necessary to abolish the annual Memorial Hall affair.

A majority of the Union Committee voted in favor of an amendment that would eliminate the election of a Smoker Committee, and thus of the Smoker itself. But the necessary two-thirds majority of all Union Committee members did not approve the amendment.

Following defeat of the motion, William Dean '59 moved that the officers of this year's Committee "reaffirm our previous position as stated in our subcommittee report that the Smoker be abolished by the Class of 1960's Union Committee." This motion was overwhelmingly passed, by a vote of 21 to one.

Defeat Assured

Only twenty-three of the Committee's 30 members appeared and took part in the voting, thereby virtually assuring defeat of the amendment before discussion began. Under the Union Committee constitution, a total of twenty votes in favor of the amendment was needed to have it adopted. The actual vote was 14 to eight in favor of the motion.

Results of a poll held last week among members of the Freshman class showed an almost even split among those in favor of retaining the annual gathering and those in favor of abolishing it. Among 450, who answered the poll, 208 favored the amendment, 206 opposed it, and 36 voiced no opinion.

Among the 363 freshmen who attended the Smoker 162 favored the amendment, while 180 opposed it. Among the 81 who did not attend, only 23 opposed the motion.