The CRIMSON is strongly in favor of the petition that temporary grand stands be erected and that the nine and the Mott Haven team be allowed to continue the use of Holmes Field. Even those opposed to the petition must admit that it will be best for the success of the two teams, both in their finances and in their training, and for the convenience of spectators at their games that they should remain on Holmes field. Leaving out of consideration the cost of laying out a new diamond and a new cinder track on Soldiers Field, which would amount to many hundred dollars, the likelihood of developing winning tenms would be lesened if practice was removed to Soldiers. The effect on the nine would be much less than on the track team. It would indeed be comparatively small.

But the Mott Haven team would suffer greatly. A good cinder track can be built and put into good condition, under the most favorable circumstances, in not less than two or three years. On the soggy, infirm ground of Soldiers Field it would take longer. Some of the track athletic authorities, indeed, believe that an even, smooth and firm track could never be built and kept in condition.

The greatest objection to the use of Soldiers Field for the track team is that its great distance from the Yard would cause to stop training almost all of that large proportion of the candidates who try for the team merely for the exercise and the pleasure, without expecting or hoping to make it. It is from among these men that many members of the team are developed each year. The lessened gate receipts and smaller attendance at practice games of the nine are important to note.

For these reasons the nine and the Mott Haven team should be allowed to use Holmes Field at least another year. If at any time the welfare of the University demands the ground occupied by the diamond and the track for purposes nearer to the aims and needs of Harvard, athletics should willingly be removed. But as yet no immediate need for the ground has been made known to the undergraduates at large. Until such a need is shown, the nine and the track team should be unmolested and should be allowed to build all necessary grandstands on Holmes Field.