New-York tribune., 1907-12-03
QUANDARY OF COLLEGE
By 4boHshing Sports Sscarthmore
Can Gain Million.

Swarthmore, Penn, Dec. 2.-At a meeting of
the board of managers of Swarthnore College
this afternoon the committee appointed to ex-
anime the coal lands bequeathed TO the college
in the will of the late Anna T Jeanes, of Phila-
delphia, condition that the college abolish in
tercollegiate sports. made report in which it
said that 70 determine the value of the lands it
would be necessary 10 engage a coal engineer,
and that the committee would make conclusive
report on the second Tuesday in March The
committee stated that the hiring Of an engineer
would involve large expenditure Of money.
and that they had requested the Philadelphia
yearly meeting of Friends. who will receive the
property in case SWarthmore does not accept the
bequest, 70 advance the necessary money with
the provso that it would be returned in
Swarthmore refused to abolish sports. Dr.
Joseph Swain. president of the college, in a
statement in which he reviewed the entire sub
tect and in which he held that the question
not of abandoning intercollegiate sports.
but was one Of college policy, said
Il doubt the wisdom of accepting without
qualification the conditional gift Of Anna T
Jeanes even if the property is worth 100000
But I willing and even anxious to
try the experiment"
DR.. Swain said that "in the thought that the
question discussed is one touching the policy of
all the colleges and universities of this and other
representative presidents Of colleges and uni
versities, asking for their opinions. The ques-
tions were follows:
l. In your opinion, have the trustees of a
college the right TO bind for all time institu-
ton of learning by such a restriction as the one
mentioned in the foregoing?
. If so. If the principle of accepting condi-
tional gifts be approved. should the gift be ac-
cePted in case it amounts to $Io0oO0O d or more?
B. If the gift should be $4,000. what then?
ing results:
non-committal, two yes legally. no morally.
. Thirteen negative. seven affirmative, four
non-committal. one unanswered
Question No. 3.-Seventeen negative, four nom
committal, four unanswered
President Woodrow Wilson of Princeton
wrote:
have many times argued with myself about
the peculiar question which SWarthmore has
satisfactory conclusion. L fear that my counsel
would be of value to you. It is most
puzzling and singular question
President Butler of Columbia was also nom
committal. He wrote:
Nobody has offered to give any money on
the condition named in yours of the I'D, and
cannot cross that particular bridge. even by
proxy, until / come to it If you VIII turn over
the bequest and its conditions TO us we will take
the matter I'D seriously
In opposition to the principles lnVOiVeu III inc
acceptance Of the Jeanes gift President Eliot
of Harvard wrote:
7 do not know whether under the statutes of
Pennsylvania and the decisions Of its courts
the present trustees of Swarthmore College have
q right to bind the college for all time to go
without all forms of intercollegiate athletic
sports l am clear. however. that 1T is mex
pedient for the present trustees to undertake
to so bind the trustees of fifty or hundred or
two hundred years hence
President Schurman of Cornell said:
On general principles 1 am convinced that
our colleges and universities should be centres
of unrestricted freedom. L see no reason why
n board OF trustees which limits that freedom
in one direction should not by parity of reason
he f1stlv expected to limit Ii in another IL a
college prohibits intercollegiate athletics for all
time why should IT not prohibit military drill,
which | think most beneficial and important
feature in our Cornell scheme of education
And II would be difficult, ! think, to limit such
restrictions to the field of physical training.
Might not a college which puts restrictions on
physical training be reasonably expected 10
accent a gift of millions of dollars on condition
that II oppose socialism free coinage of sill
yer or free trade materiastic philosophy, or
what not?
President Judson of Chicago University
writes:
1t seems to me that board of trustees could
hardly hind their successors matter of this
kinT OF course If the condition of the gift is
such as fully accords with the views of the
trustees and in their opinion ought TO be
adoDted as a matter of permanent policy for the
college they might feel free to accept the glft
on those terms Otherwise l should think the
matter would a least cause serious hesitation
The prevailing belief is that the college viii