"What has become of the good old-fashioned competitions?" asks the August Senior. "Now when I was a compet. . . ."

The remark is often heard. Like everything else, the competitions of the Good Old Days have degenerated sadly. Then it was that compets would perform Herculean tasks, and come back looking for more. Anything to win. But now. . At least, so says the August Senior.

And then there is the faculty, which sees competitions in a somewhat different light. To the faculty, competitions are one form of time-consumer devised by the students to eliminate those hours which should be devoted to study. More accurately, this is the student's understanding of the faculty view.

Now certain changes have taken place in the competitive system which are the cause of the August Senior's contempt for present-day compets, and which at the same time are the answer to the above-mentioned faculty point of view. The change came largely as the result of high casualty rates among compets. The public attention which attached itself to these casualty rates, though it caused much hard feeling at the time, was a good thing in bringing about alterations in the competitive system. Slavery has been abolished; compets now have a few rights as students which their bosses must respect. No longer is the compets between the devil and the deep sea, endeavoring to satisfy both his manager and his professor.

Competitions have changed somewhat, and changed for the better. But the fear of competitions persists. Freshmen of mediocre scholastic ability are advised by their elders that they had better stay in the University first, and worry about competitions afterward. Which is most excellent advice, except that of late the sage upperclassmen have grown a bit over-cautious; for they remember the many, many compets who have made the supreme sacrifice, and they become wary beyond all reason. --Cornell Daily Sun.