THE HESPERIAN
then thoy came out and preached compromise!
They wore solicitous for purity in politics!
They wanted to see the best men get the
offices! Passing strange, isn't it, that they
never even dreamed of "compromise" until
thoy found their dirty work coming home,
and saw the offices passing to the enemy!
They never pleaded for compromise when
they had the upper hand ; not they. Purity
and merit were iridescent dreams, then.
"But oh! what a difference in the morning."
The attempted combine-compromise with
the Y. M. C. A. what a mixing of
Puritan and black-leg fell through as soon
as the Y. M. C. A. people saw that they
were merely being made a tool of, and so
the hitherto stiff-necked a.id unapproachable
blue stockings came into the oratorical elec
tion disorganized and defeated. In the
hour of adversity they so far humbled them
selves as to do what thoy have never done
before, they asked to be allowed to play in
the barbarian's yard! Mr. McMullen, in a
pathetic little speech, salaaming humbly to
his many barb friends and admirers, pleaded
for recognition on the ticket. The frats, he
said, had had to fight, heretofore, for every
thing they got, now ho thought the time
had come when they should get things with
out fighting for them. As the house of
lords belonged to tho British nobility by
right of birth, so elective offices should be
long to the Delta Tau Deltas and their
friends by right of their Dcltaism.
Strange to say, the rude barbarians failed
to see things in this light, and the straight
barbarian ticket was elected. And apropos
of this ticket, Mr. E. G. O. Smith comes
out in the last Nebraskan and complains that
he was not consulted in the naming of the
ticket; and so his of lately much injured
vanity dubs it the ticket of a "faction," the
ticket of one society. We all feel sorry for
Mr. Smith and hie tribulations. We all
honor him for his excellencies. But then,
like all of us, lie has hie discrepancies, and
a sneering contempt for everything not the
product of his own mental powers is one of
thorn.
As a matter of fact, the ticket elected was
represented by two candidates from each
society, and one from the barbarians at
large. Does that look liko a one society
faction ticket? The ticket was uominatcd in
a caucus in which all societies and the non
society barbarians wero represented. But
Mr. Smith did not happen to participate in
the caucus hence his kick.
To show what it amounts to, it may be
mentioned that Mr. Smith called a caucus of
Palladian boys to bolt the ticket; and the re
sult was a unanimous vote to support tho
ticket as named. So much for Mr. Smith
and his little piece.
Now, in concluding this somewhat lengthy
discussion, TnE Hesperian will say that it
hopes for purity and honesty in University
politics. It would like to see tho merit sys
tem adopted. It would like to see the best
men get the offices. It believes that offices
that are hawked about from fraternity to
fraternity and from faction to faction carry
with them neither honor nor satisfaction.
If any plan can be devised whereby the
merit system can be adopted The Hebi-ebian
will favor that plan.
But a system devised by a practiced
political faction as a remedy for its own de
feat and sprung at the eleventh hour smacks
of hypocricy and insincerity, and deserves the
fate that the late "compromise" met; to-wit:
derision and scorn and contumely.
Try again, gentlemen, try again. If you
were honest you have a good chance to prove
it, now, when the heat and passion of tho
campaign is lulled and stilled, and the white
winged dove of peace hovers like a benedic
tion o'er our heads.
IX
The orators who expect to enter tho local
contest met last Friday and chose judges on
manuscript. Judge E. P. Holmes, Judge
Tibbets and W. Morton Smith were selected.
The following it is understood contemplate
entering the contest, Snowdon Summers,
H. B. Alexander, S. W. Pinkerton, Mr.
Quaintance and J. L. Abbott. .