Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1907-03-17

results OF attempts to check or control
actual abuses actual dangers and TO meet
actual emergencies and difficulties. or act
ual demands and criticisms from fellow
Institutions. These assertions could be
verified by a study Of athletics at Harvard
during the last quarter Of a century.
THE present body Of rules has been the
slow product Of years OF trial and eX-
perience. and has been subject to constant
scrutiny with desire 70 adapt Il 20 pres
ent conditions, nowhere more than In the
athletic committee itself That the whole
code has not been thoroughly overhauled
and smplined during the last two years,
as was planned by the committee in the
spring Of 1904, Is due to causes quite be-
yond the control Of that committee"
OF this statement the Harvard Bulletin
says editorialy:
Graduates who are inclined to think
that Harvard athletics and intercollegiate
athletics generally are hampered by too
many rules and regulations should bear in
mind the statement made by the chairman
Of the athletic committee in his letter
which is printed in another column OF the
Bulietin-that all these restrictions have
been provided to meet certain cases and
developments ir the athletic relations Of
one college to another and have not been
established TO Mt theory. In other words,
| these rules are necessary evils which exist
because there would be worse things IL It
were not for them.
THE Bulletin has said many times that
/ in its opinion, there were altogether too
many rules defining the eligibility Of play
| ers, for instance, but these statements were
not intended as reflections on the athletic
committee The position taken by the
Bulletin is that the necessity for such rules
Is, of itself, a demonstration that inter
collegiate athletics need reformation. When
friends go out to play tennis, or golf, or
baseball, or any other game, they do not
have to draw up a set Of rules before they
begin to play; they rely on one another's
honesty and honor.
Such conditions should obtain in con-
tests between teams representing colleges
or schools. In private competition the
average man would prefer to lose rather
than do his opponent a wrong; in inter
collegiate games It seems to be proper &c
do unfair things for the sake Of winning.
1.-THE conditions in intercollegiate matches
are illustrated by what took place IN 9
certain golf tournament between COLLEGE
teams not so many years ago. One of thu
players lost his ball; although he spent {
long ume looking LOT IL ne Coulu not NM
It., and at last he had to give the hole to hi
opponent Immediately the latter said
There Is your ball behind the bush. o.
course, / could not show 1t to you before
because l was playing for my college Thu
spirit which will lead a man to do such
thing and to believe that 1t is an honorable
act is the spirit which makes It necessar!
to cumber our intercollegiate athletic book
with all kinds Of rules and regulations. TIL
Bulletin would like to have the spirit dis
appear, then there would be no need o
, rules.
Perhaps It would be difficult to phrase tn
situation better than the Bulletin does. A
any event, IL the theory set forth by tn
! editorial article meets acceptance at Har
ward and later spreads to other colleges
: so much the better for intercollegiate sport