If present support is indication of the future, the finances of the Mott Haven team are likely to be in a sad state this year. The amount of money which will be at the team's disposal depends very largely on the financial condition of the Athletic Association, and the efforts of this association have so far met with little response from the students.
In two ways has the support been very disappoiting. The number of newcomers to the University who have allied themselves with the association is small, and altogether out of proportin with a natural increase in this branch of athletics. And again, the winter meetings threaten to be little better than a failure. There are not at present sufficient entries to ensure success, and there seems to be no promise of a sufficient number.
It seems to us that this is not at all as it should be. In the first place, the Mott Haven team deserves better of the University. It has been the one form of athletic contests in which Harvard has, of late, met Yale with a great degree of success. Success has not come easily: it has been the result of hard thought, hard training, and great effort. Success, moreover, has not been of slight moment: the games are widely recognized as one of the chief tests of athletic superiority among the universities. Appreciation of honest effort and well-won success would dictate ample support to the team, and yet last year Yale, with all the circumstances reversed, contributed twice as much money to her team as did Harvard.
We deplore the present support, not only because it is unjust to the Mott Haven team, but because it is a bad thing for the University. The athletics which are fosterd by the Mott Haven team, and, in a wider way, by the Athletic Association, are productive of more benefit to the students than any other form of athletics, because they are of such a character that a very large number of students can, tentatively at least, take part in them. We are frank to say that, if the heavier and more exciting forms of athletic contest should threaten to kill out interest in the lighter and more quiet forms, we should be opposed to them. Athletics, like everything else, ought to be for the many and not for the few. We believe that the opportunities which the Athletic Association afford for training are of the very best, and that students, who do not make any attempt to take part in these, are making a grave mistake. We do not urge any one to support something unworthy of one's interest; rather do we urge upon men how well would interest in the Athletic Association's work repay them.
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