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faculty control, ancl th a t the resu lts derived from th is condition are
highly beneficial. It may therefore be claim ed, w ithout danger of lie-
ing contradicted, th a t at the present tim e very few colleges su p p o rt a th
letics for com mercial reasons.
Of a m ore serious natu re is the charge th a t has been frequently m ade,
th at athletes suffer perm anent physical in ju ry . F o rtu n ately , this
charge has never been substantiated by evidence. A careful search
th ro u g h th e m any articles in w hich this charge is m ade, fails to reveal
any evidence th a t would su p p o rt the contention. As a m atter of fact,
it has been proven perm anently th a t college graduates who, during
their college life, have participated in ath letics live longer than the fel
low graduates who have not taken part in athletics. T h is has been
proven by a com prehensive study m ade by Professor A nderson of Yale
U niversity. F u rth e r proof has been adduced by a recent study made
by Dr. M eylan in charge of the Physical D epartm ent of Columbia U n i
versity of New Y ork City.
T h e m ost im portant objection to college athletics, and the one of
w hich the most capital has been m ade, is th e charge th at athletics are
detrim ental to the interest of scholarship. T h e staunchest proponent
of this charge is President W illiam T . F o ster of Reed College of P o rt
land, O regon. H is indictm ent, how ever, is based on facts gathered
here and th ere in colleges w here the sporting and com m erical aim s in
athletics have attained undue prom inence. It m ust be rem em bered
th at such aims in athletics prevail in a few colleges only. Dr. F oster,
in order to rem edy th is condition, introduced in Reed College a system
of inter-m ural athletics. In accordance with this system , the Reed
stu d en ts are not perm itted to participate in inter collegiate athletics;
instead, team s are formed w ithin the classes and societies of the college,
and gam es are played between them . T h u s, basketball was w orked
this year a t Reed College under this system . Only a few days ago,
Coach H ugo Bezdek, of O regon U niversity, proved by figures th a t
R eed’s inter-m ural system was more detrim ental to the interest of
scholarship than the system of inter-collegiate athletics w hich prevails
in all other collegiate in stitu tio n s. It was a com partively easy m atter
for Coach Bezdek to prove his contention. W hile th e num ber of gam es
th at can be played between colleges m ust necessarily be sm all, such a
restrictio n cannot apply to gam es th a t are played by various factions
w ithin a college. T h e result was th a t m ore basketball gam es were
played at Reed and th at more tim e was lost by the stu d en ts of Reed in
practicing for those gam es, in playing and in w itnessing them , than
can be said of the pupils of other in stitu tio n s.
H av in g th u s proven th e charges against inter-collegiate athletics to
be based upon u n tru e evidence, it rem ains for us to determ ine w hat in-