DOMESTIC AND INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS. 549 



ence upon students than a dishonest faculty. You would be aston- 

 ished and mortified if you knew the extent to which professors in 

 reputable institutions make false returns of the standing of players 

 supposed to be indispensable to the success of a college team. The 

 excuses they offer are that they must make allowance for different 

 standards, and hence some 'diplomacy' is necessary to secure a fair 

 game; and secondly that the demand for leniency is so strong that it 

 becomes a duty to the institution they represent to exercise a discreet 

 indulgence. It is extremely discouraging, it is said, to make a poor 

 showing in what are popularly held to be manly sports, through the 

 maintenance of high standards of scholarship. In one institution a 

 student is held to be disqualified by dropping below an average grading 

 of sixty or seventy per cent.; in another he is allowed to 'pass' on an 

 average of thirty or forty per cent. Similarly the phrases 'college 

 grade' and 'post-graduate' mean little or much according to usage. It 

 is clear that the temptations to place new and unwonted meanings to 

 the word 'conditioned' are very strong. 



Has not the time arrived for a general conference of representa- 

 tives from all institutions for higher education, whether literary or 

 technical, for the purpose of formulating rules and adopting uniform 

 standards in so far as they bear upon the question of eligibility to 

 athletic teams? All admit that high standards are necessary in deter- 

 mining a man's worthiness to be proclaimed an attorney, an architect, 

 an engineer or a physician; while a more moderate standard may be 

 admissible in the general studies which are regarded as in no way 

 professional. A university may require a passing grade of forty per 

 cent, in its college of letters, but insist upon sixty or seventy per cent, 

 in its schools of engineering, law and medicine. Evidently there 

 should be no such discrepancy in determining athletic eligibility for 

 intercollegiate games. 



Local conferences have already been held, but I suggest an effort 

 to bring together all institutions east, west, north and south, and if 

 possible to adopt standards and rules that all can faithfully observe. 

 My object to-day is to lay before you some considerations in favor of 

 the systematic management of both domestic and intercollegiate ath- 

 letics in every school or college of engineering, and to submit some 

 practical suggestions in regard to the latter feature. 



I have recently given some thought to manly sports, and I venture 

 a few words in regard to their value in every scheme of all-round edu- 

 cation. 



The General Value of Systematic Athletics. 



The modern development of athletics has resulted from a com- 

 bination of causes. The physical asceticism of the middle ages has 



