The managers of the defunct Harvard University Training Table Association, are, we believe, to make some statement in a few days as to the causes whereby the scheme has so signally failed. We shall await this statement with considerable interest; for it ought to show in just what point the plan was fatally weak.

When the Training Association was organized early last spring, it appeared to be eminently praticeable. For years the boarding house keepers had been charging exorbitant prices for food furnished to the athletic teams, who were practically helpless in the matter. The originators of the new plan proposed to turn all this middle-man's profit over to the teams. A house was to be rented, a suitable steward and cook engaged, and preparations completed for boarding all the 'varsity, and some of the class teams. All the large athletic associations, with the exception of the foot ball, entered the organization, and the outlook was very bright. The managers secured estimates which showed that the saving would be as high as a dollar or two each week on every man. The consequent gain for our athletics was to be very great; the college subscriptions were to be reduced and a distinct advance in athletic management was to result.

There is no manner of doubt that the scheme was practicable, if it were rightly managed.

Look, now, at the result. Instead of a saving to the teams, the Training Association is now in debt $3 000. To be sure there are some assets, but they will hardly reach more than half that sum. This debt, instead of helping out the associations, will have to be divided among them and paid.

The explanation for the failure of the plan is due, in great part, the managers declare to the cost of raw food which almost doubled the estimates. If that is the case, the estimates must have been made without due care. We are loath to lay the charge of mismanagement upon any one or all of the executors of the scheme; yet, when a perfectly feasible plan utterly fails, there is certainly a deal of blame to be attached somewhere.