(The Crimson invites all men in the University to submit signed communications of timely interest. It assumes no responsibility, however, for sentiments expressed under this head and reserves the right to exclude any whose publication would be palpably inappropriate.)

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Yale and Princeton have sanctioned a dual boxing tournament. If successful in this trial the event will become an annual feature. Why should the "manly art" be confined to the Big Two and not extended as in other sports to the Big Three? Surely Harvard ought not to sit back and watch while her brothers in sport "try out" the scheme.

If our Athletic Committee should decide eventually to sanction boxing meets with other colleges, it will do so on second hand information. The question for us is not whether Yale and Princeton men have or have not the qualities needed to foster boxing as a sport, but whether our own material can stand the acid test.

We have excellent facilities for conducting intercollegiate boxing. Mr. Connelly, the University boxing instructor, is thoroughly competent. He has been successful at Middlesex School. There is every assurance that Harvard would be ably represented. The zeal and skill of the men actively interested as shown in the annual Harvard tournament may be taken as proof that intercollegiate boxing would be supported by the students.

But our material for a boxing team does not figure as an incentive to the committee. Do they suspect the inherent spirit of the game? Perhaps they feel that the beginning and final handclasps of two college boxers will not represent the spirit of friendly contest for which Harvard athletics have always stood.

If my diagnosis be correct, the Athletic Committee are "on the fence" concerning a sport which England indorses by the attendance of her nobility in evening attire. The committee hesitates about a game which Yale and Princeton are initiating. Why not give boxing a fair trial? College men should be gentlemen as much in a boxing contest as in a gridiron clash. AUSTIN BLAIR '21.