The Free lance., April 01, 1901, Image 19

The College and its Magazine .
In the first place the organization of the editorial board
could be improved. The present method of election by class
es has proved itself a poor one. When the Free Lance was
first published it was very different from the present Lance.
Its contents then consisted of editorials, news and jokes,
with few or no literary articles such as essays, stories and
verse. The election by classes was then a good method,
since each class could then express itself in the editorials as
it had a right, and each class would also be sure to elect the
right men, i. e. those who did and would have the most to
say about class and student rights and privileges.
But the magazine has essentially changed both in form
and character. literature now forms the principle feature,
news takes a second place and editorials a third, while jokes
have been relegated to the La Vie. This is as it should be.
But although the magazine and the consequent require
ments in the editor have changed, yet the old system of elec
tion still remains.
Now what does any class as a whole know of the liter
ary ability of its particular members? Very little as com
pared with what the instructots in English know. These
are the only competent judges of the best literary men in the
class.' It would then seem that a far better method of or
ganizing the Lance board would be to make selection to it
competitive—some test being given to determine capa
bility—supervised by a committee consisting, say, of mem
bers of the faculty and the existing board of editors.
Some such competitive system of selecting the board is used
by nearly all college literary magazines, and its efficiency is
proved by their quality. Positions upon the staff would
then become honors as they ought to be.
There would then be an incentive for students to write
for the mag’azine. And to make the incentive still greater
encouragement should be given them. Let the English de
partment give credit on the required work for all articles