The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-10-19
Pages 9 to ~.

1t Is not inconsistent with the spirit a
progress to value them highly. Edmund
Burke was one of the most liberal and
progressive men of his century; yet
Burke was the man who set the truest
value on those forms of the English
constitution which, as he himself
aVowed, were rooted in prejudice. The
! constitution of Yale to-day, with it's
strange combination of liberty and privi-
lege, or prescriptive custom and pro-
gressive individualism, has not a few
points of resemblance to Burkes Eng
land. I can avow myself conservative
in the sense that Burke was conserva-
| tive; with him. I should hesitate to cast
away the coat of prejudice and leave
| nothing but the naked reason.
| Another group of cohesive forces
which strengthens the influence Of
university upon its members is con-
nected with college athletics. The val
ue of athletic sports when practiced
in the right spirit is only equalled by
their RIGHTEOUSNESS when practiced in
the wrong spirit. They deserve cor
dial and enthusiastic support. The
time or thought spent upon them,
great as it may seem, is justified by
their educational influence. But side
by side with this support and part of
it, we must have unsparing condem-
nation of the whole spirit of profess
sionalism. 1 do not refer to those
grosser or more obvious forms of pro-
fessionalism which college sentiment
has already learned to condemn. Nor
do l chiefly refer to the betting by
which intercollegiate contests are ac-
companied, though this Is a real and
great evil and does much to bring 9TH
er evils in it's train. I refer to some
thing far more widespread, which still
remains a menace to American college
athletics-the whole system of regard
ing athletic achievement as a sort of
advertisement of ones prowess, and Of
valuing success for it's own sake rath-
er than for the sake of the honor
which comes in achieving 1t by honor
able methods. I rejoice in Yale's vic
tories, / mourn in her defeats; but I
mourn still more whenever I see
Yale man who regards athletics as
sort Of competitive means for pushing
the university ahead of some rival.
This is professionalism of the most
subtle and therefore most dangerous
sort 1 know that the condition Of ath-
letic discipline in a college makes
difference in it's attractiveness to
large and desirable class of young
men, and rightly SO. Whether vic
tory or series of victories makes such
a difference and increases the num-
bers that attend the university, / do
not know and I do not care to know
The man who allows his mind to dwell
on such a question, if he is not tempt
ed to violate the ethics of amateur
sport, is at any rate playing with
temptation in dangerous and repre-
hensible way I am glad to believe
that our colleges, and our nation as
whole, are becoming better able to I'M
derstand the love of sport for it's own
sake. The growth of this spirit through
three generations has relieved English
of some of the problems
which day confront us in America.
To the growth of this spirit we must
ourselves trust for their solution here.
l am ready heartily to cooperate in
any attempts that other colleges may
make to lay down clear rules for the
practice Of intercollegiate athletics, be-
cause the absence of such cooperation
would be misunderstood and would
give cause for suspicion where none
ought to exist. But 1 cannot conceal
the fact that the majority Of such rules
can only touch the surface of the diff
fculty; and that so far as they dis
tract attention from the moral ele-
nent in the case which is beyond all
reach of rules, they may prove a posi-
live hindrance to progress. If we can
snter into athletics for the love of hon.
Or, in the broadcast love of gain in any
sense, we may now and then lose few
students, but we shall grow better
year after year in all that makes for
sound university life.
Last in order of discussion though
perhaps first in the imminence with
which they press upon us for solution,
ire some of the problems Of university
organization, on whose proper treat
nent depends that economy of effort
md utilization of financial resources
which is necessary for the efficient
of the institution as it
stands and for its growth in the inn
Mediate future
1t is hardly necessary to say to this
audience that Yales organization diff
ers somewhat fundamentally from
hat of most other American UNIVERSE
les. 1t is group of colleges, whose
property is held in the name of a sin
lie COTpOTdtl0Il, Out WHOSE I1ldudSe-
neny is, by tradition and In some
light degree by legal authority, To-
ated in the hands of separate facul-
les In this respect, Yale is not with
ut points of resemblance to Oxford
r Cambridge. I shall not try to dis
uss whether this system is on the
Whole a good one. 1t is here, and we
annot for the present change It, Like
II other systems, it has it's advan-
ages and it's disadvantages. The adj
antages are those which are possess
d by local government everywhere
II independence of initiative; loyal
pirit among the members of the sew
raj faculties which is the natural re-
ult of such independence; sort Of
atural grouping of the students I'M
er which a common set of rules can
e made for each department and the
wills of too great freedom may be
voided. The independence of initia-
we has manifested itself in the de-
elopment of new methods of instruc-
on like those Of the Sheffield Scien-
tic school in the past, or the depart
lent of music in the present. The 10y
boo Gad