ATHLETIC SUBSCRIPTIONS.

Whatever opinions may be held relative to the abolition of managership competitions, there can be no two views on athletic subscriptions. The beginning of each College year witnesses the visitations of swarms of collectors, who infest all quarters of Cambridge, making themselves objectionable everywhere. Things have come to such a pass that upperclassmen, realizing the small part subscriptions play in supporting the teams, seldom receive the collectors with civility, and still more seldom with charity. The baffled harpies are driven to "bleeding" guileless Freshmen, haunting their rooms during the first two or three days in order to catch them before the first installments of allowances are exhausted, or before they cut their eyeteeth. Thus the greatest part of the total yearly income by subscriptions is made up; much of the remainder is accounted for by the contributions of competitors' friends.

The total amount realized from subscriptions during the past year was $7,900--only one-sixteenth of the total athletic income--while the sale of H. A. A. tickets alone brought in more than $10,000. The deficiency resulting from the complete abolition of collections could be made up in more ways than one. The most feasible would probably be raising the price of H. A. A. tickets. As the demand for them is pretty constant, and advance of from $3 to $5 would probably not result in a greatly decreased sale. Even this problematical decrease could be met by having the tickets admit to games in other sports than football, baseball and track. Since the amount taken up in gate-receipts at games played by the hockey team on Soldiers Field during the past season alone amounted to $418, most of which came from undergraduates, it is apparent that its inclusion would provide a substantial inducement to purchasers. A similar result would follow from the inclusion of other sports. This reasoning has been tested in connection with track meets: the Graduate Treasurer of the Athletic Association in his report for 1906-07 says, "The track events did not seem to draw, when standing on their own feet, the income they did when they were thrown in as part of the inducement to buy the regular H. A. A. season ticket." An indirect effect of the extension would undoubtedly be an increased attendance at the minor sport contests, a result much to be desired.

We hope that the Athletic Committee at its final meeting today will seriously consider this matter, which has been in the air for years past. If it abolishes the system, the Committee will be conferring a great blessing upon the College in general, and the prospective members of the class of 1913 in particular.