New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-05-18
HIRE And MANY FRIENDS.

Oyerseers of Harvard College. 1t Is UNI
| fortunately so mingled with other experiments
| now on trial i'm the same canvass-namely, the
government of college by its own alumni,
| and the nomination of candidates through the
| Post Office instead of in open caucus-that 1T
will be difficult, when the good or evil result
is declared, to know just what caused it. In
other words, the arrangements for this Com
mencement Dinner are such that 1T Will be
hard to tell how much of the merit or demerit
| lies in the Hare, and how much in the cooking.
| Harvard College is governed Like most OF
our colleges, by Corporation and a Board OF
Overseers. The Corporation is small and
self-perpetuating body; but there are thirty
| Overseers, five of whom annually retire. Their
successors were formerly appointed by the
| Legislature. This secured variety of minds
and good deal Of new blood every year ; on
the other hand, these State Oyerseers were apt
to have but little zeal for the College. -Four
years ago, therefore, a change was made, and
the new Overseers have since been elected by
the whole body of alumni on Commencement
| Day. How to nominate candidates for this
| station This was the problem which this
application of Mr.. Hares method was meant
to solve.
| At the first election the ordinary system of
caucuses was tried, and several public meet
| ings were held in Boston at which candidates
were nominated Perhaps this was too excit-
ing for the academic mind; at any rate, the
caucuses were abandoned after one trial, and
a system of secret nominations through the
Post-Ofiice was substituted. Each graduate
sent his list in writing to Committee; the
| ~ ~. IT,,
nounced as regular candidates the ten having
| the highest number Out of these ten, each
| graduate on Commencement Day might vote
| for five, and the five having the highest
number were declared elected 1t was of this
method that President Eliot said, in his
inaugural, that it was worthy of careful
study as device of possible application in
"potics."
But, so far from this method proving
instructive in politics in this form, it could
not even stand the test of the peaceful
academic constituency. Half dozen gentle
men in Safest. could make up ticket to
suit themselves, and send it to all the distant
alumni who would send it back as a ballot
for want of better. There was no antidOte
| for the Safest. circular except to get up
some other circular, and the agent who used
most postagc-stamps generally won. The
| Post Office Department doubtless gained, but
the College lost. The thing being new, good
men were generally put up; but it would
have been almost as easy to nominate bad
men. Then the secrecy of the thing was such,
| and the Committee who received the votes
were so entirely irresponsible, that
the whole system was fast developing
into confessed failure, when the Hare
method was fortunately brought in. During
the three years when the PoSt-Ofiice method
was applied, it had not visibly exerted de-
moralizing, but only narrowing influence.
At a time when it is peculiarly desirable to free
the College from local or denominational inhu-
ences, the whole delegation elected last year were
from one vicinity-BostOn,-and from one reG-
gious element-COnservative Untarianism
Again, two of the thirty Oyerseers Rev. Dr.
Clarke and Theodore Lyman) also appear in
the College catalogue as instructors, whichlis
as bad precedent as if James Fisk, jr,
were to appoint conductors and statiOn-agents
as directors of the Erie Railway. At the same
time it must be said that the general standing
and reputation of the Overseers chosen by the
alumni is cOnfessedly above that of their pre-
decessOrs.
TO correct these evils and keep these good
results, the Hare system, or, more properly.
the Hare and-Ware system, is to be tried 1t is
arranged in its present form by Mr.. w. r.
Ware, of Boston, the Secretary who is to col
lect the ballots. He announces that he will
receive nominations for ten candidates for the
Board of Overseers, to be sorted and counted
according to the following rules:
Every candidate who receives tenth Of the whole
number Of ballots cast Is entitled to a nomination
Each elector may send in the OF any number
Of candidates, all on ballot, and shall indicate his
preference among them by writing the figure against
of his first choice against that OF his second
choice, and so on.
Ill Each ballot will be counted for the first choice In.
dictated it, alone the other being considered
as substitutes TO be resored to- in the order of the
preference indicated only In the person named as
the first choice has enough votes TO nominate him with
out he has not enough votes 10 entte him to
a nomination.
~ The ballots will be counted in the order in which
they received
Precisely how this is to work does not yet
appear. One of the electors points out well
enough, in The Springfield Republican, that this
system opens possibility of the nomination of
minority candidate through the over-confi-
dence of the friends of a majority candidate. |
Suppose, for instance, that each friend of the |
Rev. DR.. Walker or Mr.. +. b. Sanborn, who
seem thus far to be the two candidates most |
zealously urged, should omit their names from |
his ballot taking it for granted that they are |
virtually elected, and wishing to help out |
more doubtful candidates Both might be |
defeated. Still there is no doubt that the Hare |
system suggests tactics of its own, which a |
little practice would make familiar. 1t is I'M |