2 56 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



is greatly intensified by that crying evil of the age, the spirit of com- 

 petition. Competition is to-day the arch enemy of all true culture, 

 mental as well as physical. To recount all of the evils that may be 

 attributed to this factor in education would prolong this article to an 

 unwarrantable length. Let me return, therefore, to my premises. 



If there is any truth in statistics the world's work and greatest 

 achievements are to be attained by the men as a class who have the 

 best brains in the best bodies. A large part of the athletic class will 

 fail in the race of life for want of better trained minds, while an 

 equally large class of scholarship men will be eliminated from the 

 struggle for the want of more efficient bodies. What is the college 

 doing to even up the chances of these two classes in their preparation 

 for their life's work? She insists upon a required mental examina- 

 tion of all students, athletes included, upon entering college. More- 

 over, most colleges now require athletic students to attain a certain 

 grade in their mental pursuits before they can be permitted to contend 

 for honors in athletics. Would it not be altogether desirable for these 

 colleges to require all scholarship men to attain a certain standard in 

 their physical work before allowing them to compete for honors in 

 scholarship ? Such a plan would at least put the scholarly man on an 

 equal footing with the athlete and give him a chance to attain some- 

 thing of that mental force, physical vigor and sustained energy upon 

 which his success in life will so largely depend. Furthermore, inas- 

 much as the greatest amount of physical as well as mental improve- 

 ment of which the individual is capable must take place during the 

 formative period of his youth — should not the student come to college 

 prepared physically as well as mentally for the ordeal before him? 

 The moral effect of a physical requirement would be to throw the 

 responsibility for physical condition back upon the parent, the prepara- 

 tory schools and teachers, as well as upon the pupil himself. In my 

 opinion a large part of the community is already prepared to meet this 

 responsibility, as is indicated by the improved physical condition of 

 the average student when he enters college. We have already shown 

 that love of sports, games and physical exercise for themselves do not 

 appeal to the scholarship student. The thing necessary is academic 

 recognition of good health and physical vigor as an asset in education. 

 In taking this step the college would simply be making a practical 

 application of its own teaching. But in so doing it would not only 

 improve the physique of the scholarship man, and thus increase his 

 respect for physical training and athletics, but it would also increase 

 the respect of the mass of students for scholarship men and scholarly 

 attainments. 



