THE BALANCE OF POWER.

According to the New York Times of yesterday, the Executive Committee of the I. C. A. A. A. A. at its recent meeting in New York discussed informally an intercollegiate alliance between Cornell, Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, Syracuse, and possibly Columbia, based upon the Yale, Princeton, Harvard rapprochement. The Times article further suggests that the smaller colleges feel the need of such a union to maintain a balance of power against the Big Three, whose mutual reconstruction policy, they believe to contain the element of exclusiveness toward other universities.

The mutual understanding between Yale, Princeton, and the University was not the result of an attempt to foster this exclusiveness in athletics, but to establish between themselves uniform legislation and control of sports. That is, to ensure the same regulations of athletics at each of the universities, and thereby work upon a common basis. This cause of alliance is just as applicable in the case of the five colleges mentioned as it was with the three who have taken the lead in this respect.

The benefits to be derived from a common understanding between different units are becoming more evident each year. Organization is something to be sought for in intercollegiate athletics as in any other instance of the outside world. Co-operative legislation and control mean the minimizing of inherent advantage, disadvantage, and misunderstanding. Unification of policies will result in the smoothness which occurs when each college is working toward a common end in complete accord. With the universities of this part of the country united in two or three big alliances it will be possible to set and maintain a standard of sports otherwise impossible and thereby a truer spirit of athletics will be fostered.