The additions to the class races are as wise a move as could have been made in athletics under present circumstances. There has been a tendency, becoming more marked lately, for 'varsity contests to overshadow class contests. Since in the former the first athletes of the University take part, and since on them the athletic reputation of the University is staked, they have come to absorb so much interest that other contests are, by the force of contrast if nothing else, inevitably depressed.

Now the purpose of athletics is to make physical exercise attractive: and not only this, but to make it attractive to as many men as possible. The number of men who are physically capable of trying for the class crews is large, and it is therefore of the first importance that the interest in these crews should not be weakened, but, since the development of athletics has been large in other directions, that a proportionate development should be encouraged in these.