THE BOAT-CLUB SYSTEM.

THE practical working of an institution is only discovered by experience, and if by trial it is found to demand changes, those changes must be made if it is to become permanent. The system of four distinct boat-clubs has now been established for a year and a half, and the organization is found to be so imperfect as to be threatened with complete failure unless some remedy be applied. To find by what changes the present system may be improved is the purpose of this article.

The object of the club-system when founded was (1) to afford the general body of the students a cheap way of obtaining healthful exercise, (2) to develop material for the crews, (3) to stimulate excellence in rowing by the emulation of the different clubs. The latter two are contingent aims, to be reached through the accomplishment of the first, and the support of the clubs will always depend upon the success with which they meet the need of the main body of the students. Such being the case, it is evident that if all the clubs are not flourishing at the present moment, it must be because the students in general are not satisfied with their management. No student will pay $15 a year to a boat-club unless he considers the benefit he derives from the club to be worth the money. Why is it, then, that some of the clubs find it so difficult to obtain a membership sufficiently numerous to indemnify Mr. Blakey and fulfil their contract, and how may this state of things be improved?

Something might be done by altering the limits which divide the territories of the various clubs, but this would after all be but a superficial remedy. It is true that, since the Hollis fire, the Holyoke constituency is more than three times that of Holworthy; but to transfer members from one club to the other would not radically improve the condition of the clubs as a whole. This should certainly be done, but the reform should be carried further. The boats, with the possible exception of the sixes and fours, should be thrown into one common stock; the four separate organizations should be fused into one, and the absurd restriction should be removed which prevents a member of Matthews from rowing in a double scull with a friend from Weld. For all purposes of emulation, the clubs would then be the same as before; each club would have its captain, its two barges, and its two crews, and the cause of the present dissatisfaction among members of clubs not in any crew would be removed. If the single and double sculls were common property, one could be sure of finding a boat in, or, at the worst, of having to wait only a few minutes before one of the number would be returned. A Holworthy man could not then complain that he was paying fifteen dollars for one fourth the accommodations given to a Holyoke member; the trouble of four different organizations would be avoided, and with it the inevitable necessity of continual changes in the limits, if the clubs are to be fairly equal in size.

This reform would meet the general wants of the students more perfectly, would thereby increase the membership and success of the clubs, and would save continual trouble and much complex organization. By adding new members it would give yet more material for the crews, and as each club would still elect its own captain, the races would lose none of their interest. It would certainly seem for the interest both of the clubs and of the individual members that some such reform as this be effected.

A CLUB - MEMBER.