INTERCOLLEGIATE CONTESTS 85 



charge should not be made lightly, for those in responsible place are usu- 

 ally the last to hear of irregularities. At the same time, one who reads 

 the sporting page of a great daily paper and considers the pettifogging 

 disputes of committees representing contesting institutions can not 

 resist an uneasy feeling that the lowering of morale has not stopped 

 with the student body. 



College students are quite as willing to yield to temptation as are 

 other young men; some of them indeed, like other men, are ready to 

 go somewhat out of their way to fall into temptation. This much 

 must be conceded ; yet no one would regard that as a ground for open- 

 ing a subway tavern on the campus or for licensing a high-grade 

 gambling outfit in the library building. Students, like others, are 

 apt to show decided disinclination for the work in hand ; yet no college 

 official would announce that as justification for encouragement to 

 neglect study. But to encourage membership in college organizations 

 of to-day is to encourage neglect of study. The active members are 

 required to maintain respectable standing in class-room work, though 

 no ordinary man can do this, if the college course be what it is sup- 

 posed to be, without interfering with his duties, which students in 

 many places evidently think more important than studies. And the 

 college authorities seem to agree with the students, for they permit 

 glee clubs to sing at evening concerts near and far away; they permit 

 teams to undergo training and to absent themselves — all in such fashion 

 that the men must fall behind in their work, if the work be what it 

 purports to be. Yet these men get through and all the students 

 know it. 



The incongruity of the conditions affords constant play for news- 

 paper wit, and colleges are regarded popularly as agglomerations of 

 associations with a teaching annex. Colleges receive great attention 

 from the newspapers on pages devoted to sporting news, very little 

 elsewhere except in columns devoted to wit and humor. The coach is 

 much more important than the professor of Latin. 



It is impossible for college authorities to escape responsibility for 

 the conditions and all the evils connected with them; any attempt to 

 evade that responsibility is, to say the least, unmanly. Intercollegiate 

 contests are recognized as part of collegiate operations; the students' 

 control is nominal, the institution's control is absolute. Fields for 

 athletic sports have been provided at great cost and they are well 

 equipped with ' grand stand ' and ' bleachers ' ; the gymnasium with all 

 its paraphernalia for gymnastic contests is, at times, almost as imposing- 

 as the library building ; and the excellence of the equipment is set forth 

 duly in official publications. Qualifications for active participation in 

 the organizations are determined by the authorities who supervise the- 

 schedules of engagements and in some instances even the pecuniary 

 affairs. 



