Question: "Resolved. That the present development of athletics in the United States is excessive."

Brief for the Affirmative:

F. J. V. DAKIN AND R. W. HALE.

Best references: Majority and Minority Reports to the Board of Overseers. Professor Hart in Atl. Mo., July 1890, LXVI, 63-71; Professor Shaler in Atl. Mo., Jan. 1889, LXIII, 79-88.

The great good done by athletics has been accompanied by:

I. Physical Injury. - (a) Experience not statistics show this. - (b) Studies in college or work outside and athletics, carried on together result in a break down. - (c) Short periods of training do not affect general character.

II. Neglect of regular work: Atl. Mo., LXVI, 70; LXIII, 79. - (a) No work done in football season. - (1) By 'varsity and substitutes. - (b) Amateur athletes of any distinction rarely do any work.

III. By an undue amount of injury to spectators. - (a) Betting; Atl. Mo., LXVI, 67-69; LXIII, 84. - (b) Professionalism. - (1) Hippodrome base ball. - (2) Hippodrome rowing matches - (c) Blackguardism. - (d) Waste of time.

IV. Undue exaltation of physical superiority. This is shown by the cases of - (a) Kelley. - (b) J. L. Sullivan. - (c) College "grand stand" players. - (d) Bad blood between amateur athletic clubs. - (e) Change in popular idea of college man who once a "grind" is now a "slugger."

V. Great and unnecessary expense is incurred. - (a) Rep't Grad. Treas. shows expense here $34,000 in 1890-91. - (b) Club houses, etc., are out of proportion to existing needs.

Brief for the Negative.

J. C. BRECKENRIDGE and J. H. HAMMOND.

Best general references: Report of 1887 on the athletics of Harvard College; Professor N. S. Shaler on athletics in education, in Atlantic, vol. 63, p. 79; Professor C. L. Richards in Popular science, vol. 32, p. 721; same, vol. 24, p. 587; Harper's Magazine, vol. 68, p. 298.

I. Athletics are beneficial; (a) They discipline the participant. - (1) By fostering bodily strength and skill; Atlantic Monthly, vol. 68, p. 82. - (2) By developing many good points of character. - (3) By promoting best moral growth, by inducing the cultivation of good habits; Harper's, vol. 68, p. 300; (b) Competition in athletics arouses a healthy general interest; Harper's, vol. 68, p. 298.

II. Athletics are more necessary now than formerly. - (a) Conditions of life at present unfavorable to sound physical development; Popular Science Monthly, vol. 24, p. 730. - (1) Life is faster; Saturday Review, vol. 58, p. 465. - (2) Wear and tear on nervous system is excessive. - (3) Incentives to mental work much greater now than formerly. - (b) City masses need healthful recreation. - (1) Concentration of population into large cities has been rapid; Popular Science Monthly, vol. 24, pp. 730 and table. - (c) Increasing knowledge demands the exercise of greater brain power; Ibid. p. 731. - (d) This increase in athletics in the U. S. is merely a part of a general development all over the world.