A recent number of Harper's Weekly contains in its sporting column, conducted by Mr. Caspar Whitney, certain allegations concerning Harvard baseball players which it seems to us should not pass unnoticed. The so-called "summer nine black list" is an expression of personal opinion pure and simple. It has no status whatever as an authority. In fact, were it not for the injustice to the individual Harvard men whose names appear there in the issue of October 2 we should not care to pay any attention to the matter. Injustice has been done, however, as Mr. Whitney would know if he had been able to give the charges a more thorough investigation. It is unnecessary to go into details. Every man on the list who is still connected with the College in any way has kept during the summer the Harvard rules, and acted according to the policy of the entire athletic managent.

Now we do not wish to question Mr. Whitney's sincerity, or the value of his efforts to purify athletics. He is working for a good cause and deserves far more support from the college public than he has received. But the task he has undertaken is tremendous, and we take the liberty to doubt the ability of any one man to keep a personal watch over the whold field of athletics. In fact it is apparent that in this case, as in many others, Mr. Whitney has been forced to depend upon secondhand, or at the best, outside, irresponsible information.

Mr. Whitney's position as an independent reformer, so to speak, is a delicate one. In the first place there is no hard and fast rule for testing in all cases a man's amateur standing, and just where, in the intermediate territory between the professional and the amateur, the division line is to be drawn, is largely a matter of personal opinion. Certainly the best guide for Harvard men is the code of Harvard rules, while, as for the column in question, it can accomplish nothing without the support of public opinion, and next to nothing without the support of college athletic authorities.

Mr. Whitney can surely do much to obtain this college support by personal application. He knows or ought to know, that the Harvard Athletic Committee is working for the same ends as he, and every whit as earnestly as he. Yet he has attacked individuals under the committee's jurisdiction, without giving them a chance to speak for themselves. The course he has thus taken runs the risk of error, and it tends very strongly to cause such distrust and illfeeling as to destroy the influence which he might exert as the ally of the conservative movement in the colleges toward athletic reform.