Editors Daily Crimson:

I have often thought that the men in college do not co-operate sufficiently with the managers of athletics in the work of training the candidates for team. In order to test the endurance and energy of the candidates, a certain amount of work is required-not too much for a man who obtains nine hours of regular sleep and obeys the other rules in regard to training. The trainer has a right to assume that the training rules are obeyed. But unfortunately there are men dishonorable enough to disregard those rules, after having offered themselves as candidates for teams. What is more trouble some is the fact that the friends of such men are willing to stand by, and even to join them in doing things which are prohibited, and then feel bound to keep the matter from the knowledge of the captain or coach. I have very recently heard rumors concerning the doubtful training of individuals who are rowing with various crews, even concerning candidates for the 'varsity. Of course a coach can see that there is something wrong with the men, but is hard to accuse them of breaking training. When asked why they are looking badly, or why they are slow and unsteady in their movements, they "don't know, but suppose they are being worked too hard." Of course they are! When individuals on the team succumb under those circumstances, there arises a fear of "overtraining," and that fear of hard work has defeated Harvard more than once. It is a well-known fact that the Yale teams do a greater quantity of work than Harvard's; as a result their "team work" is superior.

A man who, in spite of careful training, breaks down under the work required of him here is certainly too weak to row. The danger arises not from too much work but from too lax training. And the manner in which college men can aid the trainers of teams is by refusing the encouragement of their presence on occasions when training rules are disobeyed; then if the candidate continues in his dishonorable course, those who know the facts should inform the captain of the team for which he is trying.

The captain of a 'varsity team said to me not long ago: "This makes me tired; men come to me after the season is over, and tell me they knew-and-were not training. Why didn't they tell me when it might have done some good? Now I get the blame when I knew nothing of the fact." I hope Harvard men will learn to discriminate between "hard work" and "lax-training;" the latter is to be feared, the former is to be desired.

W. ALEXANDER, '87.