The report of the standing committee of the Board of Overseers on health and athletic sports, recently accepted by the Board, was made public yesterday.

Reviewing the organization and record of Harvard athletics, the committee strongly commends the policy of "athletics for all" and endorses the Athletic Committee's proposals for further squash courts and a large modern swimming pool.

In a significant section the committee declares that the chief problem in athletics "is one of relative values; and it must be met, in our opinion, by following the principle that athletics is an element in the education of the individual to be given its due place but no more than that." The committee also comments favorably on the various agreements eliminating "everything that tends in the direction of professionalism," and praises the high standard of sportsmanship in modern athletics at Harvard.

The committee also indicates the relation between the Board of Overseers, the Athletic Committee, the H. A. A., and the various team managements. It commends the establishment of a budget for the H. A. A. and suggests that the surplus funds of the H. A. A. should be turned over to and invested by the Treasurer of Harvard University. This suggestion was approved by the Board of Overseers and was the basis of an article which appeared yesterday in one of the metropolitan newspapers, declaring that Harvard was approaching faculty control of athletics. Officers of the University said yesterday that the decision marked no radical change of policy but merely the logical development of the relation which has existed for years between the H. A. A. and the University.

The report is signed by Colonel Arthur Woods '92, of New York, former police commissioner of New York City and chairman of the committee; and by John W. Hallowell '01, William F. Garcelon '95, Dr. J. Bapst Blake '87, Alfred Winsor Jr. '02, Barrett Wendell '01, Dr. Channing Frothingham '02, Ernest A. Stillman '07, and John F. Perkins '99.

The report follows:--

Your committee has studied the present organization and work of the various agencies at Harvard University which are engaged in the management of athletics and the safeguarding of health, and is impressed by the advance that has been made. A generation ago only a comparatively few men engaged in athletics, and the responsibility of the University for the health of its students was largely confined to taking care of illness. Today Harvard is actively concerned in bringing athletics within the reach of all, and in the positive promotion of the health of the student body as a whole.

The matter will perhaps be made clearer by an explanation of the functions of the agencies concerned with health and athletics. The department of hygiene, under Dr. Roger I. Lee, has general charge of the health of students. In this department are the medical adviser, Dr. Bailey, who takes care of students who are ill, and has immediate charge of the Stillman Infirmary; and the director of physical education, Mr. William H. Geer, who directs the compulsory exercise plan for freshmen and is in general charge of unorganized athletics.

The direction of organized athletics and of the facilities for outdoor sports in general is in the hands of the Athletic Committee, composed of three members of the faculty, three graduates, and three undergraduates. The three faculty members appointed by the Corporation, with the consent of the Overseers, are Dean Briggs, chairman, Dr. Lee, professor of hygiene, and Professor Greenough, dean of Harvard College. The three graduate members, similarly appointed, are Henry Pennypacker '88, chairman of the Committee on Admission; B. I. Young '07, Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives; and H. H. Faxon, who was first marshal of the class of 1921.

The undergraduate members, nominated by the presidents of the college classes and by representatives of the teams, are George Owen Jr. '23, Charles C. Buell '23, and J. G. Flint '23. Under the general direction of the Athletic Committee is the athletic department, which goes by the name of the Harvard Athletic Association. It maintains the outdoor athletic fields such as Soldiers Field and the Stadium, and has charge of other phases of athletic management, including the large business of ticket assignment and distribution, and the supervision of the work of the managers of the various teams.

H. A. A. to Take Over Indoor Sports

The Corporation has recently voted, on the recommendation of the Athletic Committee, that the committee should take over and operate, through the agency of the Athletic Association, the general facilities for indoor as well as outdoor sport. This decision is commendable. It means that all organized sports and athletics, and buildings used for them, will be under the jurisdiction of the Athletic Committee and maintained by it. This should effect a saving of something like $20,000 a year to the University, which has hitherto maintained out of other funds such buildings as the Hemenway Gymnasium and the University Squash Courts; and the increased income which the Athletic Association has received in the past two or three years from the sale of tickets will make this very reasonable policy feasible.

The primary object of all these agencies, of course, is and should be the health and physical development of the entire student body. The progress made in the past few years in this respect is great.

Physical Examinations Valuable

In the first place, the establishment of a compulsory physical examination and of prescribed exercise for freshmen has proved its value. The requirements have been sensibly devised so as to encourage participation in organized athletics, and to make men take part in games which are enjoyable and can be played in after life. This is a wise policy; the college performs a useful service if it develops in men a liking for games they can play as they grow older, and for outdoor activity generally. Except for the comparatively small number of men who need some special sort of physical building up, none of the wearisome gymnasium exercise with chest weights and other apparatus which naturally come to mind with the phrase "compulsory exercise" are required.