2 STOUGHTON HALL, CAMBRIDGE, Dec. 10, 1889.

"Prof. J. B. AMES

DEAR SIR:-In the spring of 1889, when I was a special student in Harvard College, I obtained, by the assistance of a member of the football team, a place in a store in Cambridge, and also a small loan of money from a Harvard student.

"This loan has been in great part repaid from my own earnings.

"In no other way, direct or indirect, have I received any pecuniary assistance from any association or individual for taking part in athletics at Harvard College. Nor has any such assistance been offered to me.

"Yours truly, "H. O. STICKNEY."

"Prof. J. B. AMES, "Harvard Law School, "Cambridge, Mass."

The "evidence" finally refers to a private letter from Mr. Upton, explaining why he did not go to Princeton, and to Mr. Dean's trip to Europe last summer. We regret that a copy of Mr. Upton's letter was not sent us by Mr. Miller, as requested, and that a statement in regard to the Spalding team which Mr. Miller intended to enclose in his second letter was also omitted. But a sufficient explanation of the matter is found in two letters printed herewith, one from Mr. Dean and the other from Mr. Spalding. We certainly think it undesirable that gentlemen should engage in sports on such terms; butin view of the fact that members of this exhibition baseball team came also from Yale and Princeton, we see no ground for special condemnation of the Harvard players.

We have not contented ourselves with an investigation of the charges presented by the officers of the Princeton Association, but have carried our inquiries further. We can discover no trace of the payment, or offer, of money to any person to play upon the Harvard teams this year. Employment has in a case or two been secured for men of moderate means by those interested in them. And there was in 1888-89 the instance, referred to above, in which an athletic man, not then a member of any team, borrowed a sum of money for college expenses from a fellow-student. There were, further, a few cases in which the full board of members of teams have been paid at training tables, during the period of training. This practice, however, has been stopped by the managers of the teams.

Rumors of irregularities in previous years have reached us, and while we have not been able to verify them, we cannot assert that Harvard has in the past been more free from this difficulty than her sister colleges. And even this year it is possible that vague and general promises of financial aid or advantage have been made by irresponsible persons; but the students and graduates, the officers of the athletic associations, and this Committee, all decidedly condemn any such offers, by whomever made.

5. The Question of a Retraction.

We beg leave again to correct an extraordinary misapprehension on the part of the officers of the Princeton Association, for which they must alone be held responsible. The Harvard Football Association has not "publicly based its withdrawal from the League upon the charge that Princeton defeated Harvard with a team partly composed of paid and irregular players." It has made no charges whatever against the Princeton Management, whether "general" or special.

The true position of the Harvard Association in this matter should be understood. It has been seriously misstated, and our students have suffered in consequence undeserved criticism.

The withdrawal of Harvard from the Intercollegiate Football League was due to the fact that the intense competition within that League had led to objectionable practices in all the colleges, which, as was proved at the meetings held in New York on Nov. 4 and 14, Princeton could not be brought to abandon by amicable agreement. The chief of these objectionable practices are-first, inducing good players to enter college, or to return to college mainly for the purpose of engaging in intercollegiate contests; and, secondly, putting on teams good players who are not in reality amateurs, but have received compensation for the practice of their sport. In many cases this has goue no further than the acceptance of board, travelling expenses, and perhaps a money allowance for incidentals. Present players on various college teams-in Princeton. Yale, and Harvard alike-have accepted such pecuniary advantages. But in other cases it has included the acceptance of money for playing particular games, the acceptance of a salary for teaching athletics, and the practice of athletics for a livelihood. According to the invariable practice of amateur organizations in England and America, any one of the three acts last named debars the person concerned from further participation in amateur sports.

Experience seemed to show that Princeton, perhaps because of her smaller numbers, was more prone to, these objectionable practices than Yale or Harvard. We leave it to you and to the public to judge from the evidence presented in 1 and 2 above whether or not she can justly be thought to have yielded to them this autumn in the constitution of her Football team. She is certainly on record as having opposed the passage of the rules aimed at their suppression, which were proposed in the convention held on Nov. 4. She alone voted against them, and the captain of her team is reported by the delegate of the Yale team to have said as he left the convention, that their adoption would disqualify one half of the Princeton team.