Editorial

"The silence that is the starry sky,
The sleep that is among the lonely hills."

The voice of the Student Body Politic has spoken, and the new Executive Committee is in office. To the old Executive we bid God speed, and to the new, Welcome. And now for the Voice of the Student Body Politic; it was raised, not in any semblance of a universal shout, but in a few thin, spasmodic, reed-like pipings, with large blotches of silence and torpor thickly interspersed; and so the daily round of our College life lurches stolidly along, bowed down under a dead weight of indifference.

The new Executive Committee represents 100 women and 220 men who thought it worth their while to vote, and also (apart from freshers), 430 others who were either unable or else too apathetic to record their votes. It is true that a number of those on the Students' Association roll are not with us this session, but as for the many "neutrals" who remain, we are forced to the conclusion that the pride they take in Victoria College is a thing of naught.

That the academic side of our activities is not conducted on democratic principles, but by a Board on which there is no Student representation, seems to be a source of discontent to many, which is hardly justified in view of our lack of interest as a body in the self-government to which we are entitled in our own domain. The Students' Association, though fundamentally democratic in principle, is in actual practice, and with the acquiescence of the students themselves, directed and controlled on oligarchic principles—an oligarchy of the minority who consider that a minute or so per annum is not an unreasonable amount of their valuable time to devote to the selection of their representatives.

Whether or not an Executive more adequately representative of the Students' Association as a whole would or could have been elected had every eligible student voted is not the point; it is a matter of principle, and the silence and strict neutrality of the many in an issue which concerns us all so nearly is, to say the least, disconcerting to progressive and public-minded students, as well as discouraging to an Executive Committee who will use so much of their time and energies on behalf of their fellow-students.

The launching, of a revised Constitution this term is another case in point. This, in common with most new measures, has been the subject of much facetious and unintelligent comment, and that from many who are quite unaware of any of the provisions it embodes. Without passing judgment on any merits or demerits of the Constitution, we deplore the non-participation of the vast majority of the students who were eligible to vote on its adoption or amendment. At the general meeting which was called to consider this document the attendance was little, if at all, above a bare quorum.

Can it be that most of us have no interest in the College beyond the commercial value of the examinations we hope to pass? If any such there be, the place for them is the corner of an attic with a stub pencil and an arid text-book; or is it that we quite like our College in our little way, but are contented to drift aimlessly and ineffectually along and "let the other fellow do it"?

If we want our examination fees reduced and other conditions improved, oh, well, someone is sure to elect, an Executive, and the Executive will probably do something about it. Dolce far niente—an easy philosophy.

It is said that the fault of our system of secondary education is that it prepares us only for the University, and not for the practical problems of life; as for a University education, it can prepare many of us only for drivelling ineptitude if we passively ignore the abundant opportunities for the allround development a University provides outside the lecture room.

The economic world is now more than ever in a painful and laborious process of getting down to hard realities, and students passing on from the Universities are beginning to learn that more is required of them in the competitive struggle for existence than mere education. "No University graduate need apply" is now by no means an uncommon stipulation made by employers seeking additions to their professional or business staffs. The reason is not far to seek; we have only to look around us.

'Tis life, whereof our nerves are scant,
'Tis life, not death, for which we pant;
More life, fuller, that we want.