To the Faculty-Committee on Out-Door Sports, Princeton College:-

GENTLEMEN:

We have received from the President and Treasurer of the Princeton University Foot-Ball Association an "official statement" dated Nov. 27, 1889, in regard to the members of the Princeton and Harvard eleven for the present year. This statement contains:-

First, a "Faculty certificate" that all the members of the Princeton Eleven are "bona fide students on the rolls" of Princeton College or university.

Secondly, the certificate of Professor Sloane, a member of the Committee on Out-Door Sports, that no member of the Eleven is in any way a "beneficiary of the College."

Thirdly, a declaration made by the officers of the Princeton Football Association ("without any qualification whatever,") and certified by Professor Sloane as true "to the best of his knowlege and belief," that no member of the Eleven has been benefited in any pecuniary or business way by belonging to the team.

Fourthly, an allegation that the officers of the Princeton Association have in their possession "evidence that a number of the Harvard Eleven were offered pecuniary inducements to enter College to play football, and are at present beneficiaries of the college funds." A "portion" of this evidence was enclose to us, but was not published by the officers of the Princeton Association with the statement.

Fifthly, the request that "since the Harvard Football Association has publicly based its withdrawal from the league upon the charge that Princeton defeated Harvard with a team partly composed of paid and irregular players the Harvard Football Association make a public retraction of the general charges made against the Princeton management."

We need not further specify the contents of the "official statement," since the whole appeared in the public prints some days before we received it, and has been the subject of much public discussion.

Under ordinary circumstances any statement of the officials of the Princeton Football Association in regard to the constitution of their team would have been transmitted by us to the officers of the Harvard Association, with the request that they make answer. But since the communication of the Princeton Association contains grave public charges against one of the athletic organizations over which this Committee has supervision, we have undertaken to examine the evidence transmitted to us and also such other evidence as we could discover. This letter, which we beg leave to address to you, states the result of our investigations; and explains the present attitude of Harvard students towards Intercollegiate athletic contests. Since the public has been led to believe in the existence of "evidence" too damaging for publication, affecting the character of "a number of the Harvard team"; and since the attitude of the Harvard students has been seriously misunderstood and misrepresented, you will not regard us as discourteous if we give the public full opportunity to compare the evidence with the facts.

We shall consider the five parts of the Princeton statement in order.

1. The Academic Status of the Princeton Players.

We beg leave at the outset to correct a misapprehension on the part of the officers of the Princeton Football Association. The officers of our Association do not doubt that the members of the Princeton team are all duly registered students in Princeton College or University. Instead of establishing this uncontested fact, the Princeton Association should have explained how it happened that two members of the Princeton team, Mr. Cash and Mr. George, were so late, the one in entering and the other in returning to college. The latter is now an instructor in a great preparatory school, and resumed connection with Princeton College as a graduate student several weeks after the work of the year had begun. The other entered Princeton College for the first time, as a special student, only a short time before the Princeton-Harvard game on Nov. 16, which was the first game in which either of them played. The natural, although perhaps mistaken, inference is that these gentlemen were brought to Princeton to play football The inference is strengthened in the one case by the engrossing nature of the duties of an instructor in a large preparatory school; and in the other by the fact that the gentleman referred to is said on trustworthy authority to have entered the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania in the autumn of 1888 for the purpose of becoming a member of the Eleven, and to have left it as soon as the football season was over. It is further strengthened by the following admission of Captain Poe, published in the New York Evening Post, of November 2, in regard to a third player, Mr. Wagnehurst, who was lately a member of the New York professional Baseball Club: "We do not deny that the reason of his returning for a post-graduate course is to play football."

We cannot but regard it as contrary to the best interests of colleges and of college sport that players should return to college merely to engage in athletic contests. Last year there was a similar case at Harvard. So convinced was this Committee of the evils of the practice, that this year all candidates for the Eleven about whom any doubt was felt were sharply inquired about. The cases of five among thirty-one candidates were thus specially investigated. All of these five gentle men were and are "bona fide students on the rolls" of the University; against four of them efficient protest was lodged by this Committee or some other authority of the University; so that only one of them played in the games against Princeton and Yale.

2. The Question of Beneficiary Aid to Princeton Players.

In this case again, no one questions the certificate of Professor Sloane; and no one could have doubted that, had such aid been given, it would have been deserved, since conferred by the authorities of Princeton College. But the question of beneficiary aid-which, it should be noted was first raised by the officers of the Princeton Association-is irrelevant. We are not aware that the receipt of beneficiary aid, earned by good scholarship and good conduct, has anywhere been held to render the recipient ineligible for membership of a crew, a nine, or an eleven. It would have been much more to the point to have presented evidence in the "official statement" in refutation of the wide-spread opinion that three of the players put on the field by Princeton at the beginning of the year, two of whom played against Yale and Harvard, are professionals, and ineligible, for any college team. One of these gentlemen, Mr. Ames, is currently reported to have received specific sums of money for his services on base-ball teams at different times last summer in Chicago. At a meeting of the Advisory Committee held in New York, on Nov. 14, 1889, the Harvard delegate endeavored to have the true facts made known The Princeton delegate objected on a point of order, and all investigation was stopped. We have been shown a letter from a professor in Princeton College in which he says: "Although we deplore Ames' receipt of money on this occasion, this fact does not constitute professionalism, which is a habit." A second member of the team, Mr. George, had been since the beginning of the present college year, and is now a salaried teacher of field sports and other subjects in a preparatory school. A third member, Mr. Wagenhurst, who played in the games in the earlier part of the season, including a championship game, had been a member of a professional baseball team. At a meeting of the Graduate Advisory Committee of the American Intercollegiate Football Association, held in New York, on Nov. 4, 1889, a rule was passed that no professional athlete should take part in any contest of the Association. This rule barred the member of the Princeton team referred to. The Princeton delegate alone voted against the passage of the rule. Most unfortunately for the best interests of college sports the statement sent us contains no reference to these three questionable cases.

In none of these cases do we consider the acceptance of money a reflection upon the character of these gentlemen; but we believe it a very serious detriment to amateur and to college sports that men who have voluntarily assumed the status of professionals should be received upon college teams. Since no protest against the reception of these men from within their own college has been made public, we feel that a different opinion prevails at Princeton.

3. The Question of Other Pecuniary Benefit to Princeton Players.

The statement sent us by the officials of the Princeton Association further says: "No member of the eleven has received either from us or from outside parties, to our knowledge directly or indirectly any pecuniary compensation, either as an inducement to enter Princeton or as assistance while here. Neither have we entered into any form of promise or engagement to pay present or past expenses or to make future compensation in any way. Neither has any member of the team benefited by any business arrangement while here." This, however, can hardly represent the invariable attitude of the Princeton Football Association. We have been shown a letter addressed to a member of the present Harvard team by a prominent member of the Princeton team, who was formerly its captain. From this letter we take the following extracts:-

"I told you when there that I thought we could get you a scholarship. I have since found out that we can get one for you and also for any particular friend that you may have. I can also get a club for you and a friend. In fact we can give you all that could be desired, I think."

And in another letter of Mr. Knowlton L. Ames, to Mr. Stickney, published at the end of section 4 of this letter, he says:

"I will tell you plainly, I will do all I can for you in every way. I can get your board, tuition, ete., free. The athletic men at Princeton get by all odds the best treatment in any of the colleges."

4. The Charges Against the Harvard Team.

The charges against the members of the Harvard team in the Princeton statement appear to be reducible to the following:

It is intimated that scholarships have been conferred by the Harvard Faculty in order to attract athletic men. In answer to this charge it is only necessary to state, if indeed any statement is necessary, that all scholarships in Harvard University are conferred by special votes of a Faculty or of the Academic Council, and confirmed by the Corporation; and that in both bodies the only grounds of bestowal are good scholarship and need. It should perhaps be added, in specific answer to the allegation that "a number of the Harvard Eleven are at present beneficiaries of the college funds," that only one member of the Harvard team is the recipient of beneficiary aid from the college. He holds one of the eighty-nine grants of the "Price Greenleaf Aid" for the current year, the only form of undergraduate scholarship which is granted in advance. The assignment was made by the President and Dean of the College upon the written recommendation of the teachers under whom the applicant was then studying in one of the largest New England academies, and was made on precisely the same basis as all other assignments to boys in the same and other schools, namely, indigence and good promise."

It is further asserted that a number of the Harvard Eleven were offered pecuniary inducements to enter college to play football. "Evidence" is presented in support of this assertion. This "evidence" consists of two letters, two extracts from letters, one of which was not addressed to the officers of the Princeton Association but appeared in the public press, a reference to a fifth letter which is not produced, and finally reference to the trip to England made last summer by a baseball team consisting of seven collegians under the charge of J. W. Spalding of New York.

It may here be said that the Secretary of this Committee wrote to the President of the Princeton Football Association on December 3, requesting that all the evidence in his possession be sent to us. Particular request was made that a copy of Mr. Upton's letter referred to in the "evidence," should be sent. Mr. Miller wrote on December 13, that the person holding this letter refused to surrender it on account of its private character. This gentleman was then authorized by Mr. Upton by telegraph to make its contents known. We have not received it. We send you a copy of all the evidence submitted to us.

It is specially charged in the "evidence" that officers of the Harvard Football Association made offers of money to members of last year's Andover team. The only support to this assertion is found in the following, which we repeat here verbatim:-

"ENGLEWOOD, N. J., NOV, 25, 1889. TO PRES. P. U. F. B. A.,"

"DEAR SIR: Messrs Sears and Cumnock speaking to the Andover Team last fall effered any man who would come to Harvard and get on their team their expenses paid through College. I myself was absent but was told by members of our Team, one of whom is now playing on Harvard's Team. SMITH MOWRY."

The second is an extract from a letter of L. D. Mowry, a former Andover player:-

"Upton told me that Sears and Cumnock told him and for that matter the whole Atdover Team that it would not cost them a cent if they would go to Harvard and get on the Team. Joe Dennison told me that Sears said that if he would try for the team and get on he would see that it did not cost him (J. D.) anything, if it cost Harvard five hundred dollars ($500) it would be all right. They would stand the cost."

There is no positive testimony here whatever in support of the serious charge against Mr. Sears and Mr. Cumnock. Neither correspondent himself heard them make the offer alleged, but each reports the fact on hearsay.

In rebuttal we present letters in which the charge is contradicted in every particular by the statements of every person mentioned who is accessible. Mr. Cumnock says: "I have never made any offer of pecuniary aid to any person, to become or to remain a member of the Harvard team, and such offers have not to my knowledge been made by any member of the Harvard Football Association. The whole charge is false and without foundation from beginning to end." Mr. Upton says: "I did not state to Mr. L. D. Mowry or to any other person that money offers of any kind had been made to me or to other members of the Andover team. No such offers have ever been made to me." Mr. Dennison says: "The extract is false from beginning to end. I was never offered any inducement to play on the team either by Mr. Sears or anybody else." Mr. Sears is absent in Europe. We have written to him, and his answer will be at your disposal, if you so desire, when it arrives.

The testimony, further, is invalidated by errors of circumstance, as is shown by Mr. Cumnock's letter. He and Mr. Sears did not go to Andover "in the fall," but in the following March; they did not see the Andover team, but only three members of it. It is probable that the Messrs. Mowry, whom we believe to be honorable men, have accepted vague rumors running through the school, and have become confused as to their source. The visit of Messrs. Sears and Cumnock was made, not of course to extend offers of financial aid, but to present the legitimate attractions of the College to men whom they wished to interest.

The next charge in support of the statement "that the Harvard Management have offered pecuniary assistance to players" is that offers of money were made to Mr. Ammerman of the University of Pennsylvania. In proof of this the "evidence" offers an extract from a letter of Mr. Ammerman, published in the Philadelphia Press on Nov. 26, 1889, as follows:-

"Inducements of the character mentioned, a scholarship and pecuniary compensation, a ticket to Boston, etc., were extended to me by a Harvard man early in November to enter the Law School at Harvard and become a member of the Harvard Nine and Football Eleven."

Mr. Linn, the captain of the Harvard Nine, says in the letter printed herewith: "I have not made, and no one has been authorized by me, to make any offer whatsoever to Mr. Ammerman or to anybody else." Mr. Cumnock also makes denial for the Football Association. Mr. Ammerman, further, designates the person who solicited him simply as "a Harvard man," whose official connection with the Harvard Association he says, in the full text of the letter published herewith, he is unable to give. He refuses to confirm the original rumor that this person was "a prominent Harvard baseball official,"

We find it difficult to weigh the value of Mr. Ammerman's statement, inasmuch as he declines to give any additional information. A member of this Committee, on seeing the original report of this transaction in the New York Herald of Nov. 16, wrote to Mr. Ammerman requesting further explanation. Mr. Ammerman receipted for the letter, but has made no reply. The alleged offer would constitute so serious an offence against good morals and college discipline that we regret that Mr. Ammerman has not seen fit to be more explicit. It seems likely that Mr. Ammerman has been imposed upon. It is extremely improbable that any "Harvard man" would have had the temerity to offer him a scholarship in the Law School. These scholarships-eight in number-are assigned in October, and are given only to those who have been a year in residence and have passed with credit the annual examinations in June preceding.

The "evidence" further contains a letter written on April 11, 1889, by Mr. Stickney, who played on the Harvard Eleven this autumn, to Mr. Knowlton L. Ames at Princeton. The only part of this letter-which is printed in full herewith-which can possibly be adduced as evidence in support of the charge against the officers of the Harvard Association, is the following extract: "I am tutoring now at Cambridge with the idea of entering Harvard, and Cumnock thinks I am going to enter sure next year, but they don't seem to want to do much for me."

The following was the reply to Mr. Sticknev's letter, which we print in full. It was not included in the Princeton "evidence"-

PRINCETON, N. J., April 16, 1889.

"DEAR MR. STICKNEY:-Was very glad to get your letter. I was away on our spring baseball trip, or your letter would have received a prompt reply. As to your coming down here I will tell you plainly, I will do all I can for you in every way, if you really wish to come. I can get your board, tuition, etc., free. The athletic men at Princeton get by all odds the best treatment in any of the colleges. I would like to talk it over with you personally. If you will accept an invitation from me to come down and spend Sunday-say to one of our Yale games. If you will do this it shall be at my expense; I am talking to you with full confidence, Mr. Stickney, that if you do come down it will be to judge the question on its merits. I will be very glad to have you accept this invitation and shall do all I can to give you an idea of our life, We have had so many men down here already with athletic goods that I think it would he useless for you to come down solely to sell your athletic goods. Choose your own time for coming.

"Yours sincerely, "KNOWLTON L. AMES."

Mr. Stickney's letter affirms that at Cambridge they were not willing to do much for him. Mr. Ames writes from Princeton that he will do all he can for Mr. Stickney in every way, and that he can get him his board, tuition, etc., free: adding that athletic men get by all odds better treatment at Princeton than in any other of the colleges. The precise nature of the assistance received by Mr. Stickney at Cambridge is stated in the following letter:-

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.

These rules were passed by the combined efforts of Yale and Harvard, but proved ineffective. A Princeton player, who was challenged under them as ineligible to play, took refuge in a technicality at the meeting held Nov. 14, and refused to answer any questions, and Yale and Harvard were outvoted by Princeton and the smaller colleges. The Harvard Football Association then felt that only one course was open to it, namely-to withdraw from the present League, and to frame rules which should suppress present objectionable practices, and should govern the constitution of its own team hereafter. This course left open for future consideration the question of forming a new league.

We are of the opinion, that the action of Harvard, in withdrawing from the Intercollegiate Football League, is justified. To put on teams players who are not bona fide students has a pernicious effect on the teams, on the colleges, and on the sport. College athletics have become infected with professionalism, and there is no prospect of improvement under the present League. The spirit of recent conventions has been that of casting formal difficulties in the way of a proper agreement between gentlemen. We are convinced that the League in its present form is an obstacle to genuine sport.

We are entirely in accord with the effort made by the students of this University so to reform college sports that they shall hereafter be played under rules which will limit participation in them to bona fide members of the University, who have never had any pecuniary profit from their sport; and we heartily approve the new rules (subjoined), which have lately been unanimously adopted by the Harvard Football and Baseball Associations, and have been sent to us with the request that they receive our sanction. They provide that no one shall be allowed to represent Harvard University in any public athletic contest, who is not a bona fide member of the University, taking a full year's work, and who is not in a strict sense an amateur. They will hereafter govern the constitution of all teams in this College, whatever may be the rules in other colleges.

These rules are the best evidence of the sincerity of our students in their effor's for reform. Within them no objection will be made by this Committee to any arrangement entered into by the students, provided these arrangements avoid interference on the part of participants and students at large with that study which is the purpose and reason for which young men come to college.

In closing this communication, we beg to assure you that we deprecate the public nature of this discussion.

We have the honor, Gentlemen, to be,

Very respectfully yours, The Committee on the Regulation of Athletic Sports:

JOHN WILLIAMS WHITE,

WILLIAM E. BYERLY,

ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, Faculty members.

HENRY P. WALCOTT, '58,

WILLIAM HOOPER, '80,

GEORGE B. MORRISON, '83, Graduate members.

B. T. TILLON. '90.

S. V. R. CROSBY, '91,

NEAL RANTOUL, '92, Undergraduate members.