Columbia Rowing Difficulties

The Columbia crew management has threatened to disband the university and freshman crews unless more men report for practice. Columbia would then be forced to withdraw from the intercollegiate regatta at Poughkeepsie and cancel the race scheduled to be rowed with the University crew on the Charles River on April 17.

This announcement was made after a conference with J. C. Rice, the coach. It was decided that any attempt to maintain a crew with the small number of men now practicing would be a useless expense and unfair to the students and graduates who have aided in paying the debt outstanding from last year and raising money for this year's crew.

A bad start was made in the fall, there being no practice until late in November. Since then the greatest number of men to report has been twenty-two, not enough to fill three boats, and the number has been gradually decreasing.

The situation of the freshman eight is the same, Coach Rice having threatened to withdraw their entry at Poughkeepsie if more men did not report for practice on the machines. Every effort is being made by those interested in the sport to get men out, for rowing is Columbia's chief sport, and the crew's prospects in the intercollegiate regatta have been constantly improving since Mr. Rice took the position as coach in 1907.