It may seem strange to many men in college that we have dwelt so often of late on the need of the most loyal support for the football team in these last weeks before the Yale game. We shall be very much surprised if we do not hear today from a number of sources that though the paper is handling an old theme it handles it with as much apparent enthusiasm as before. This, however, has nothing to do with the case. We feel that in keeping this matter of support to Captain Waters and his men before the minds of their fellow students we may gradually bring up the whole plane of feeling here so that finally the grumbler and the critic shall find themselves distinctly out of fashion.

The only thing in the world to make a team feel that it is backed by the students is to make it feel that it is backed by all of them.

Half hearted support is almost as bad as no support at all and many a Harvard team has lost partly because it has had to fight a battle against Yale and part of Harvard. The students here have been altogether too prone to leave the gaining of victories entirely to the teams without feeling that they ought also to have a hand in the matter. Every one of us has heard time and time again of "Yale sand," "Yale pluck" and even "Yale luck"; yet what have these terms meant? Practically nothing but this, that the Yale supporters have not allowed themselves to conceive of anything but victory for their teams and their own confidence and enthusiasm have simply spread over the field and touched the spirits of their players. We do not in any way admit that Yale has a finer spirit than Harvard. Their long line of victories and their fine system of coaching have simply given them a bit more unity of feeling than we have commonly had. Yet there is no reason why we cannot have the same thing here. We have good coachers, we have a good leader, we have good material, and if these three are to combine for a winning team they must have the best wishes and the Learty support of the other factor, student public spirit. The game Saturday has been cancelled and we may not see the team at work again till we see it at Springfield. Every man who feels that college honor and college pluck are put to a legitimate test in our football games must feel it his duty from now on to see that he and his friends leave doubts and criticism for the past and take up hope and enthusiasm for the future. If we keep speaking of this, as we have every present intention of doing, it will be from the sincerest motive of interest; we ask the students to see if it is reasonable and then to join us in this spirit of victory.