The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-12-06
Friday, December 6, 1907.
rA1B DEMOCRACY rSDASernED


 xALB DEMOCRACY ENDANGERED
 The statistics which have been com piled by the Yale Alumni Weekly with reference to the recent election of members of the sophomore class to the so-called junior societies may well give Che sons and friends of the old col lege much concern. They are not at all of character to encourage the hope that everything that could be done is being done to strengthen the democratic spirit of the place. On the contrary many practices are being continued which make steadily and in- creasingly for the weakening of that spirit and the substitution in its place of spirit of aristocracy IL is from this point of view that Yale men may expect to see these statistics carefully and critically studied.
 What these statistics show is that the outside dorrnitory life in freshman and sophomore years determines the dis tribution of social honors to an alarm ing extent, which is only another way of asserting that material opportunity plays disproportionate part in that distribution For example, of the eigh-
 
 ty sophomores who received first elec- lions to the fraternities sixty-nine of !. them lived in private dormitorles on York or Chapel streets during fresh man year and seventy, or exactly sey- en-eighths of the men receiving first elections, lived in either the Hutchin- son dormitory or in dormitory near by managed and owned by the same proprietor. Only eight of the men elected room in the dormitories pro- vided by the college authorities Tn other words, where the students live . plays g larger part in their social prominence than what they are. From the point of view of scholarship only eleven were elected who took honors freshman year; fourteen were elected who were rated down a class on ac- count of deficient class room work The Alumni Weekly says: The very large proportion of sophomores elect ed who have roomed In the fashion able and expensive dormitories in freshman and sophomore years is an other side light on the present tenden- cy (away from democratic infiuences) which might be commented upon" Even that much in the way of conn., ment from journal published literal ly meath the elms of Yalep is ex- tremely significant.
 With all the difficulties which beset Yale in her attempt to preserve her most sacred tradition, and they are many and varied, that is the greatest which proceeds from the number of students to be cared for With the passing of the small and snug Yale, which was the Yale of fifteen or twen- ty years ago, came the arrival of the < greater Yale with its necessarily more worldly resistance to personal advan- tage. In a sense it has become impos- .wef S1y vrIn 4o outside influences; human nature is powerful among the young as 1t is among the older, but of the two it is not too much to expect that ricf blooded youngsters should tackle 6 problem without regard to it's size. Int mere fact that college social honor. are for any reason whatever reserved for those who can afford the price O khe limelight is reason enough to in spire the student body with the spiri of extermination. It is quite likely tha practically every one of the young mei who have been thus honored is worth, but it Is also absolutely sure tha scores of young men who have beei unable to provide themselves with tn luxuries of undergraduate life are un justly deprived of recognition, whicl they have earned by scholarship, b, seIf-respecting conduct and by obedl ence to college precepts. The point i not that young men who have beel fortunate enough to possess hand some income have received recogni ton. It used to be the pride of Yal that honors were distributed withou regard to the possession of wealth The point is that the failure to posses advantages which forbid students t lodge in luxurious and expensive build ings controlled by private parties, with holds from good men the recognitio
 they deserve. Exactly the same crit cism would hold if the conduit be
 tween undergraduate life and the fra
 ternities was by way of cheap dormi
 tories Any system of lodging whic produces the result the statistics print