VIEWS.
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VIEWS
When the University was canvassed recently on presidential predilection only about one hundred votes were cast. It is fair to suppose that the canvass was complete, and every student had an opportunity of expressing his preference in the matter. If so it shows an amazing indifference to a question of national importance. That opinions on the tariff were scarce is not so strange, but it seems as though "reasoning animals," old enough to attend the University, those of the masculine persuasion at least, ought to have a choice with regard to the chief magistracy of the nation. The record should be highly gratifying to those who consider that the entire time and energy of a student should be devoted to poring over the mysteries of science, the refreshing details of foreign grammars and the profound abstractions of metaphysics. It is eminently necessary to success in after life that a student should possess an accurate knowledge of the woes of Greeee, the anatomy of the rose bud and the dandelion, the equations of a point and the exceptions to rules for scanning. All these are required to flt the youthful mind for future usefulness; but the habit of keeping informed on current events and cherishing opinions in regard to the same must be discouraged and frowned upon, lest it detract from the student's proficiency in scholarship by so much as the "estimation of a hair."
It has always been the policy of the faculty to repress as far as possible any active attention to politics. Chapel orations on political subjects have been discouraged, and often nipped in the bud when it seemed probable that a reply would be provoked;
and thus we are spared the demoralizing effect of controversy upon the chapel rostrum. Some students also echo the same assertion that a student has no business with politics; that is, our own. The political dissensions, which are as dead as the men who took part in them, are open for discussion and reflection, but to tamper with the filthy pool at our own doors is unbecoming the dignity of a gentleman and a scholar. So are we qualified to take part when our time shall come, in "independent conferences," where we man place our rancid self-righteousness on dress parade for the wonder and admiration of the unsophisticated, and issue dire warnings to the corrupt of the land, and sage advice to its purity, while we stand aloof from elections and nominating conventions and shudder at the triumph of wickedness over virtue. Then at last will we vindicate the wisdom of the policy which keeps us out of politics till we cannot endure the thought of soiling our immaculate robes by entering therein.
The presiding elder of this department wants it understood that he is exceedingly weary of satisfying the fiendish yell for copy, with productions of his own. It seems not a little remarkable that among six hundred students there are no pent-up emotions which long for expression through the religious department of this great semimonthly. These columns were set apart as an outlet for the "views" which were supposed to be struggling for publicity. But so seldom are they forth-coming that the page usually has to make its appearance as a sort of assistant editorial department. Friends of the paper are requested to remember that variety is the spice of life and college papers, and instill a to little of taht desirable quality into the Views.