Training Table Extravagance.

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

It seems to me that nearly every undergraduate will grant that training tables are of distinct value in promoting the physical efficiency of the athlete, his interest in his sport, and his interest in his fellows. The question is not whether training tables should be maintained, but whether they should be maintained at their present high cost. If this high cost is due to extravagance, and the extravagance is removed, all cause for complaint should vanish.

The cost of training table board is often as high as $14. The average amount contributed towards this by the individual is about $5, so that the net cost to the management is often $9. It seems that after allowance has been made for the better quality of food and the higher rate due to the small number of boarders, the cost is much above what it should be.

W. Minot in his article in your columns Saturday said that "we find broiled capons on the menu rather than beef and lamb, which medical authorities consider unquestionably to be more nutritious; and strawberries, asparagus, or grape fruit at the very season when these only moderately nourishing delicacies are most expensive." If the object of the training table is to promote the physical efficiency of the athlete, and if strawberries in December and aspargus in February do not particularly promote that efficiency, I cannot see why they are necessary or even desirable. A man who is taking hard exercise needs good food, and plenty of it, but that food can, I think, be given him at the training table for much less than is now being spent. JUNIOR.