The CRIMSON publishes today the report of Dean L. B. R. Briggs '75 as chairman of the Committee on the Regulation of Athletic Sports.

The report is given below in full:

I have the honor of presenting a brief report on the condition of athletics in the University during the academic year 1908-09.

Success in Intercollegiate Sport.

The year was, on the whole, peaceful: the committee's relation to the Faculty and to the Governing Boards was never seriously disturbed; and its already good understanding with the students continued. Moreover, in intercollegiate sport the year brought unusual success. In football, Mr. Haughton, an unpaid coach, put the finest spirit into a young and inexperienced team, got the best work out of it, and won. In hockey, the University team showed great and efficient strength. In track athletics, the team lost the dual games with Yale, but came out first at the intercollegiate track meet with the largest score on record. In rowing, the University won its race with Yale handsomely. In baseball, the team was brought into its best form too early, and though it had almost unexampled success with Princeton, lost to Yale. Thus, though the baseball season was in several ways disappointing, the most ill-natured critic of Harvard athletics could no longer find a pretext for the old accusation of favoritism and incompetence.

Work of Committee.

As the new Graduate Treasurer, Mr. Garcelon, grew better acquainted with existing conditions, the committee turned over to him more responsibility for details. Nevertheless, the committee held fourteen meetings in the academic year. The worst weakness of the committee as a working body lies in the difficulty of securing regular attendance from graduates who are not members of the Faculty. The graduate contingent of men who at College knew athletic sport from the inside, and who now can look at it through the perspective of middle life, is essential to a balanced organization; no one of these three gentlemen attends a single meeting without showing himself valuable if not invaluable; the trouble is that the professional or business engagements of men of their calibre make continuity of service impossible. At fourteen meetings, their combined attendance amounted to twelve out of a maximum of forty-two; and at each of six meetings no one of them appeared. Theoretically this state of things is dangerous; practically it is only inconvenient. It is inconvenient and not dangerous because of the fine spirit shown by the undergraduate members. If the three Faculty members think one way, and the three undergraduates another, the undergraduates may put through what they please, since one of the Faculty members is in the chair and cannot vote, to make a tie. At such times, when the combined undergraduate and graduate experience of the absent members would be the most persuasive force in the committee, the undergraduates wait till the committee can get the benefit of that experience, and never, in any important matter, take advantage of the small attendance.

Moral Laxness in Athletics.

If the conduct of students in athletic contests were always as generous and sportsmanlike as the conduct of Harvard students in the committee that has charge of those contests, much of the talk against athletics would die a natural death. For the real danger in athletics is not physical, but moral. If a case against them is ever made out, it will not be because they kill a man now and then (though the risk of physical injury should be studiously reduced); it will be because they appear at times to paralyze the honor of contestants and spectators. I write as an enthusiastic believer in intercollegiate sports, who would see them not merely maintained, but maintained at such a level as shall keep them above legitimate question. These sports at their best have an immense educational power in every part of education that is not dependent on books or on works of art; but we persistently throw away much of what they offer by pursuing them in the wrong spirit. To my thinking, the sport most in need of reform now is not football (though that is far from perfect), but baseball. It is hard to conceive of anything meaner than tripping an adversary as he runs past a base, or "rattling" a batsman with derisive language poured into his ear by the catcher, or "breaking up" a pitcher and a visiting team by that organized cheering which is designed to make up for the home team's misplays by causing misplays among the visitors. Yet such things are tolerated by great institutions of learning and of truth, and thus far no official seems able to stop them. We like to think these evils less conspicuous at Harvard than at other colleges, and we still believe that a Harvard player would not trip an opponent or would be universally condemned if he did; but we are by no means free from ill-mannered talk on the field or from ungenerous conduct among the undergraduate spectators. Rules, though powerless to change the spirit of the players, might close their mouths, to the spectators' relief. The conduct of the great body of undergraduates on the field can never be changed till their leaders see what that conduct really means. These leaders are gentlemen, and hence capable of seeing it; but the tradition of recent baseball is not the tradition of recent baseball is not the tradition of gentlemen, and the gentlemen are overpowered by the tradition. That the gentlemanly instinct at Harvard dies hard is shown by the half-hearted and inefficient manner in which our illegitimate cheering is conducted--as if those who lead it knew better, but not quite enough better to abstain. It has therefore not even the merit of whole-souled barbarity.

Limitation on Expenditure.

One constant question for the committee and for the Graduate Treasurer is the question where to draw the line between legitimate and illegitimate expenditures. "The public interest in baseball and football," President Eliot wrote in 1893, "has made it easy to collect large sums of gate-money. . . . The money thus easily got is often wastefully and ineffectively spent." It is easy for young men to acquire a feeling that every expenditure nearly or remotely connected with organized athletic sport should be charged to the Harvard Athletic Association: that they should be liberally supplied with all clothing which they may possibly need in a game; and that when the season is over they should have a dinner and a theatre party, and should send the Athletic Association the bill. There is always a new manager, laudably eager for the happiness of his team and seldom so careful about expenditures as an older man would be. It is the purpose of the committee not to be stingy, but to check graft wherever it can. In one direction the committee believes that it has increased expenses legitimately. It has done more than in earlier years for the comfort of visiting teams and has shown them more hospitality.

In May, after long consideration the committee voted: "That basketball be abolished as an intercollegiate sport in Harvard College." The game has not flourished here, and is regarded by many competent critics as among the least desirable of athletic sports in this part of the country.

The committee authorized Mr. Garcelon to re-engage Mr. Wray as a coach for five years from January 1, 1910. Another item of interest connected with rowing is the gift of a four-oared shell from a graduate.

Reclamation of Soldiers Field.

The Stadium, as is well known, is in part the gift of the class of 1879 on the twenty-fifth anniversary of its graduation. The President and Fellows accepted the gift, brought the building to something like completion, received from the Athletic Association interest on the excess of the cost over the cost over the amount paid by the class of 1879, and received the principal from the same source in instalments. The very large sum required of the Association in payment for the Stadium has delayed work on the unre-claimed parts of Soldiers Field. When the committee, eager to begin this work, had paid the last dollar due for the Stadium, the class of 1879 proposed to celebrate its thirtieth anniversary by putting a colonnade round the top of the Stadium and thus carrying out something like the original plan. It suggested that the Athletic Association should pay twenty-five thousand dollars toward the proposed addition, and that the class should pay the rest. Generous as the suggestion was, the committee did not at first feel authorized to assume a new debt. At last the Corporation, the committee, and the class came to an agreement. To show the final position of the committee in this matter, I quote several paragraphs from the record of the meeting on March 8.

The proposition has been made that the Harvard Athletic Association be empowered by the Athletic Committee to assume a debt of not exceeding $25,000 for the completion of the Stadium.

The committee appreciates the desirability of completing the structure and of accepting the $25,000 gift of which the suggested amount to be assumed by the association would be the complement.

When this matter was brought before the committee a few months ago it was rejected, largely because the action of the Governing Boards of the University during the past few years has rendered uncertain both the continuance of intercollegiate contests and the income derived therefrom.

Mainly from the receipts of baseball and football games all the expenses of the other sports are paid. Soldiers Field, the boathouses, and the tennis courts on Jarvis Field are maintained, and a substantial sum is expended each year for the permanent improvements on the field so that there may be facilities for a more general participation in out-of-door exercise.

The special desire of those in charge