Communication.

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To the Editors of the Crimson:

If you will allow me I should like to present to the undergraduates my reasons for believing that the annual race with Yale should be three miles instead of four. Please note that I have no authority whatever to speak for Harvard rowing authorities on this matter, and it is merely my personal opinion that I am giving.

It is, I know, an unfortunate time to present this suggestion because, it is unhappily the fact, that in the last two races Harvard has been beaten by Yale after the three mile mark was passed, and therefore it can, and will be said that Harvard wishes to row three miles, because she cannot win at four. This is a discussion into which I will not go at present. I offer this suggestion now, because I believe that all the boys (men if you prefer so to call them) not only of Harvard, but also of Yale, who take part in these contests, will be the better if they are spared the strain of that last mile, and because the question may better be considered now before another athletic agreement with Yale is arranged.

I believe that the interest in the race will not change one atom whether it be four miles or three.

I believe that a three mile race can in no case be considered a sprint, and that the style and standard in rowing and in men, necessary for the best results, is the same as that required in a race of four miles.

I believe that three miles is less exhausting than four. That it is less exhausting because it takes five minutes less time. It is a well known fact that while a first-class man can row himself absolutely out at the finish of a short race, as at Henley 1 3-8 miles, or the National, 1 1-2 miles, he soon recovers, and is able to take part with effectiveness in two, and in some cases three, races in the same day, and to repeat the process the day following. I have yet to see or hear of the man who was able to pull two hard four mile races on the same, or even on consecutive days with justice to himself, and yet I doubt if he feels any worse immediately after the race than the man who has just finished a hard mile and a half. This, it seems to me, is ample proof that a mile and a half is less exhausting than four miles. Of course there is a great difference between a mile and a half and three miles, still it is after all a question of degree only. It is in the last mile of a four mile time row, or race, that the harm, if harm there is, is most likely to occur. The mere getting "pumped" as in a short race is not harmful. It is during the struggle to keep on, to do one's utmost towards the end of a long race, and when weakened from previous effort, that harm may occur.

I cannot show, nor do I believe it to be a fact that the men who have taken part in the contests of past years have been seriously injured thereby. Nevertheless the strain is a very severe one, greater than in any other of our College contests, and many men have, I know, felt the effects of it for a very considerable period.

Let us consider for a minute why we have athletic sports at all. Is it not for the pleasure and amusement to be gained from them, for the cultivation of manliness and for the benefit to general health and vigor? Of course in the case of our big teams or crews, where the strain is most severe, men do not try for them for their health, but to "make" the team, and for the honor and advancement to be gained thereby. And this is certainly worth some risk, as are also the lessons of experience and self-denial, and the spirit of co-operation, that must be learned. In the matter of health alone I think it open to grave doubt, as to whether the men who actually take part in the most strenuous of our sports, would not be the better if the strain was somewhat less severe. This was recognized in football some years ago, when the time of play in championship games was reduced from two halves of 45 minutes each, to two halves of 35 minutes, and yet no one will say that anything has been lost by the change.

Believing then as I do that nothing good which we now have, will be lost by shortening the length of the race, and that a certain amount of risk will thereby be eliminated, it seems to me well to make the change. Four miles was the distance adopted by Harvard and Yale principally because that was the distance rowed by Oxford and Cambridge; but I wish to point out that the Oxford-Cambridge race is rowed in March in cold weather, while our race comes at end of June, so that the contest and the final period of preparation come in hot weather, and while the men are having their final examinations, which makes the strain much more severe.

If this matter is to be considered at all, I trust it may be on the merits of the question itself, as to whether the change suggested is worth while on its own account, and not as to how it may affect the outcome of future races. For my part I believe that, barring accidents, the best crew will win in either case, and that the best crew for three miles is also the best crew for four miles, even though, at first glance, the experience of the past two years may seem to indicate otherwise. EDWARD C. STORROW.