To the Editors of the Crimson:

My attention has been called to an article in the Yale News by Mr. C. U. Clarke, president of the Yale Union, in which he discusses the action of the conference on intercollegiate debating held at New Haven last spring. I shall not discuss the questions considered at the conference but I wish to correct several of his statements of fact. He says that "The utter prohibition of faculty help proposed by one of the Harvard delegates was considered impracticable." We did not ask for "The utter prohibition of faculty help." We only asked that such help be limited to the giving of information. We opposed only the revision of speeches by members of the faculty and their participation in practice debates. Mr. Clark says that "It was found impossible to come to any agreement upon the subject, Harvard holding a different opinion as to the point at which faculty assistance becomes unjustifiable from that of either Yale or Princeton." At first the Princeton representatives did side with Yale, but after we had explained our position they joined us and supported us in all the discussions of this question. They did join with Yale in asking that the debates be limited to undergraduates. After saying that reports of faculty coaching had been exaggerated he says: "We fully explained these exaggerated accounts to the Harvard delegates last spring, apparently to their satisfaction." I can not understand what made him think that we were satisfied when the conference closed with a complete disagreement between Harvard and Princeton on the one side and Yale on the other. We were glad to hear that these reports had been exaggerated and of course we believed their statements in regard to the matter. But they did not deny that members of the faculty had often participated in practice debates and it was to this that we objected. At any rate we cared little about the past, we desired some definite plans for the future, and this Yale absolutely refused to join us in making.

It is to be hoped that the three universities can come to some understanding upon this question in the near future.

FLETCHER DOBYNS.