THE DECEMBER ILLUSTRATED

The fall athletic number of the Illustrated devotes an editorial, seven articles and a poem, directly or indirectly, to athletics, two articles to business and industry, and two to topics of special interest within the University. Football naturally absorbs most of the space, but cross-country and fall rowing come in for a share. No fault can be found with these proportions, since this is professedly an athletic number.

A true note is struck in the editorial on The Harvard Theory of Championships when the writer expresses the hope and belief that in Harvard the influence which sends men into athletics in order that they may make a club or society is at a minimum. This sets one to wondering just how many degrees worse it is to go into athletics for pecuniary than for social rewards.

There is genuine fire in the poem entitled "The Game," by F. B. T. '13. Instruments of precision would doubtless show, in the case of any reader, measurable results on his respiration, circulation, and muscular tension, thus taking the question of the merit of the poetry out of the field of opinion and into the field of fact. The magnitude of the results thus measured, however, would depend in part upon the sensitiveness of the reader, and in part upon his experience in the game.

Several of the articles discuss athletic problems with a view to discovering the elements of strength and weakness in various sports. These are symptomatic of the efforts of the undergraduate mind to solve the problems in which it is interested. The educational value of these efforts to analyse living, moving problems is easily overlooked by those whose interest centers in philological, historical, and mathematical problems. A genuinely broad mind, however, will not pronounce too hastily upon the comparative value of different kinds of mental effort, or effort devoted to the solution of different kinds of problems. If one finds, for example, that the Aroostook farmers talk about potato growing, and the western farmers about cattle feeding as incessantly as Harvard law students talk about law cases, one may have definite opinions as to which class of problems is least important, but one will be slow to decide which kind of talk is least educational. Similarly, if one finds that one group of students talk as incessantly about the problems of football as another group does about the problems of syntax or historical criticism, one may be certain as to which group of problems is less important, but one can not be too certain as to which kind of talk is less educational. The ability to solve a problem whose factors are live, headstrong, rampant human beings is probably as much needed today as any other kind of ability. Mr. Gardner's article on Quarterback play, Mr. Hann's on an All America Football Team, and that of F. H. G. on Modern Football, are particularly interesting for their analysis of some of the problems of football generalship. It remains to be seen whether the power developed by this kind of analysis will be as effectual in industry and politics as that developed by the recognized lines of academic study. It is "up to" the students of athletics to make good.

It may be accident, or it may be design, that two articles devoted to the analysis of living problems outside of the field of athletics should appear in this athletic number. One is by Hon. Wm. C. Redfield, M. C., on "The New Industrial Organization," the other is by A. H. Whitman on "Opportunities in Business Training." Mr. Redfield's article, which is the second of a series on "The College Man and Current Problems," is sane and well balanced, but somewhat dull and pointless. Mr. Whitman presents a convincing argument in favor of the training furnished by the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. While Mr. Whitman is convincing, he is over modest, for, if the training is as useful as he says it is, it is safe to predict that the School will do more for the solution of economic and social problems than all the "social workers" and talking reformers combined, though, doubtless, the talkers would claim the credit for each step in progress.

Two articles, one on "The Liberty Tree," by George H. Seldes, and the other on "And the Band Will Play 'Fair Harvard' to the Tune of 'Up the Street'" leave one in a decidedly optimistic mood with respect to the present as compared with the historic Harvard. Not only have the football songs improved in quality, but the class day celebrations and other festivities have largely lost their bestiality.