President Eliot's Opinion on Inter-Collegiate Contests.

President Eliot, on being questioned as to whether the statement made in the Fact and Rumor column in yesterday's CRIMSON, that he was in favor of abolishing all inter-collegiate contests, was true; said that he was decidedly in favor of continuing them, since they were in a fair way to become properly regulated. He is, however, of the opinion that there are too many of them, and thinks that Yale should be our only opponent, and that our games with Princeton and Columbia should be given up. President Eliot would, also, if he had the power, abolish all freshman contests, considering them useless and unnecessary.

The theory which some people hold that a college gains in numbers on account of its athletic victories he considers entirely unsupported by facts. Harvard, not with standing her defeats, gained more proportionately than victorious Yale. Individuals may be influenced by athletic success, but the vast majority are governed by other considerations, and their decision is unaffected. Some parents even prefer to send their sons to the less athletic colleges, as they disapprove of the excesses to which these contests often lead. The consideration of this matter will be more fully taken up in the President's report, which is soon to appear.