SCHOLASTIC BIG THREE

The return to sanity in athletics, scarcely begun in the colleges, gains great impetus among the preparatory schools through the agreement between Taft, Loomis, and Choate, made public today. After a general statement to the effect that sports have gained an undue place in the life of the school, the headmasters agreed on seven specific points where the emphasis might be cut down.

Difference of opinion will probably manifest itself in regard to the real efficacy of some of these proposals. It seems quite doubtful, for instance, that the provision against substitutions unless a player is physically exhausted or incapacitated will have the desired effect. This logically would place greater emphasis on the outstanding athlete and corresponding less on the principles of athletics for all and for the sake of the sport which are essential positive elements in any reconstruction program. The other points are by no means novel but on the whole they represent the sanest portion of the reform opinion.

The chief significance of this triple agreement is not however the proposals themselves, it is the spirit manifest behind them. Particular points in the program will soon be proved or found wanting by the simple process of trial and error. All three schools are in the first rank. Norman Batchelder, Principal of Loomis, is a former Harvard athlete, and Arthur F. Howe of Taft a former Yale star. Their influence is likely to prove decisive in the history of school athletics. They have, further-inore, set the pace for the colleges. Signs are not wanting that such agreements will be multiplied before the end of the present scholastic year. There is a crying need for them and much publicity has given this need wide recognition.