appeal concerns the official situation in the United. For several
years our foes have reproached us for excessive centralisation of
authority: asserting that the control of our society is anything from
oligarchical to monarchial, and pointing to the large amount of
influence wielded by a very few leaders. Denials on our part, prompted
by the conspicuous absence of any dictatorial ambitions in the minds of
our executives, have been largely nullified by the fact that while power
has not been autocratically usurped and arbitrarily exercised, the
burden of administrative work has certainly been thrust by common
consent on a small number of reluctant though loyal shoulders. A few
persons have been forced to retain authority because no others have
arisen to relieve them of their burdens, until official nominations have
come to mean no more than a campaign by one or two active spirits to
persuade certain patient drudges to "carry on" another year. Nor does
the formal official situation reflect all of the prevailing condition.
Much of the Association's most important activity, such as recruiting,
welcoming and criticism, verges into the field of unorganised effort;
and here the tendency to leave everything to a narrow group is
overwhelming.

Obviously, this condition demands a remedy; and that remedy lies in one
direction only--an acceptance of potential official responsibility by
all of those members who possess the time and experience to act as
leaders. As the fiscal year progresses, the season for candidacies draws
near; and amateurs who feel competent to sustain their share of the
administrative burden should come forward as nominees, or at least
should respond when approached by their friends. That office-holding
involves tedious work, all admit, but this tedium is a small enough
price to pay for the varied boons of amateurdom. In unofficial labour an
equal willingness should be shown. Why is it that all the private
revision in the United is performed by about three men at most, despite
the presence in our ranks of a full score of scholars abundantly capable
of rendering such service? If the _literati_ as a whole will not awaken
to the needs of the day, one of two things will occur. The United will
stagnate quietly under the perpetual dictatorship of a limited group of
unwilling but benevolent autocrats, or it will succumb to the onslaught
of some political clique of vigorous barbarians who will destroy in a
month what it