The Abuse of Competition at Harvard.

The following is an extract from an article which appeared in the New York Tribune of last Sunday. 1t was written by William B. Harlow, Ph. D., of the class of '77:-

"Whatever may be said of Harvard's tendency to neglect study for the encouragement of athletics, her system of deturs, prizes, scholarships and final honors has by stimulation to overwork caused the death of many a promising student. I was graduated from Harvard nine years ago, and know whereof I speak. The sudden insanity of one of the most promising of recent graduates recalls painful memories of that forcing system which has so long been in vogue at my own university. The leader of my class shortly after entering upon his sophomore work died of brain fever. The brightest light of the class of '78 was on the point of being graduated with highest honors. His overwork for scholarships and other means of support had brought on severe headaches. A few weeks before commencement he became violently insane and died before his class graduated. My own room-mate in his efforts to retain his scholarship neglected exercise and all relaxation. During his senior year he was obliged to leave college in a vain attempt to escape consumption.

"Harvard is generously equipped with scholarships which benevolent people have contributed for the assistance of needy students. Of more than seven hundred undergraduates probably over one half need, or think they need, pecuniary assistance. These scholarships are assigned upon the basis of the student's percentages appearing on the annual rank list. In such a large college the competition is necessarily great. Those who have been fitted at the Harvard preparatory schools of the Eastern States generally have the advantage from the start. Scholarships being regarded as prizes for high marks are often eagerly sought after whether needed or not. Many a student with sufficient assistance from home is glad to supplement his funds and thus live in luxury with the added honor of having his name printed among the holders of scholarships. During my own course I never ventured to apply for a scholarship. I knew that it would be useless. My marks were not high enough. I believe, however, that none of my instructors would have denied that I was a hard-working and needy student. During my senior year my health was broken, through spending my spare time as a private tutor or as clerk in the library at fifteen cents an hour, and also through lack of food which could not always be procured. Several of my classmates were living as gentlemen on scholarships which they did not need. Some were drawing two of these benefices at a time. The future, however, proved to me that I was much more fortunate than my fellows, who had become permanently disabled in their zeal for prizes and scholarships. Bodily exhaustion had prevented me from working permanent injury to the brain. I was enabled to return and be graduated, though for several years the effects of the strain were a constant reminder of what might have been.

"Was it the design of would be benefactors of Harvard that their bequests should become prize scholarships to be fought over by the competitors on a petty rank list? Is it conducive to the development of manhood and of scholarship for its own sake that students must become the slaves of annual marks and that the difference of one per cent should debar them from obtaining needed assistance at one of the most trying periods of their lives?

Must it not be confessed that the system of college prizes is, on the whole, productive of bad results? It has little effect in stimulating the idle. It incites those who are already ambitious earnest workers to over-exertion. Success renders them conceited: failure often makes them bitter and discouraged. The whole system practically amounts to a lottery where the time staked instead of being regarded as a means of culture and future usefulness is considered as almost thrown away if the mercenary competitor fails to draw a prize.