Seymour's "No" Ends Talk Of Subsidizing Eli Football

President Charles Seymour's open letter to the Yale News silenced the discussion of athletic subsidization in New Haven, saying that "athletes should be admitted to Yale on exactly the same terms as anyone else, no harder and no easier," it was learned from the News last night.

An article by Dean DeVane in the Yale-Princeton football program stating that Yale was opposed to athletic scholarships on principle started the entire controversey. George Trevor, writing in the New York San, picked up the issue and asked if Yale was too pure to spend $10,000 of its $90,000 annual scholarship fund on scholar-athletes.

Then Coach Spike Nelson said that he favored athletic scholarships as a "good investment," although he did not advocate proselyting or even specifically say that he wanted aid to football men at Yale.

Causes Much Discussion

By this time the problem was of prime interest at Yale. The News printed several letters on the subject, including one opposing subsidization from John B. Dempsey, Chairman of the Alumni Board, and also conducted a poll of New Haven residents, of whom more than two thirds favored scholarships.

The controversy reached Princeton, where the Daily Princetonian printed an editorial which supported the Big Three Presidents' Agreement and said, "We hope Yale, in spite of Spike Nelson and his undergraduate supporters, sticks by the agreement. If it doesn't, the traditional Yale-Princeton rivalry will be made into a mockery."

In his letter, Seymour said, "We like to see good players go to Yale. We are all agreed that athletes should be admitted to Yale on exactly the same terms as anyone else, no harder and no easier. If the athlete needs financial assistance in order to win an education at Yale his application should be judged by the same criteria as those applied to the non-athlete. It is the Yale tradition that we admit athletes and non-athletes upon an exactly even plane."

This repetition of former policy ended all chances of athletic scholarships at Yale. The result may be effective prodding of alumni to get good athlete-scholars so that there will be better material and better teams.