ENERGETICS

Compuisory physical training, for Freshmen, has joined the accepted traditions of the University, and the compulsion has lost much of its odium. In only one merit claimed for the system can its success be put in question; that is the teaching of habits of exercise which the student will continue, after the pressure is withdrawn, throughout his college years. One hears much, nowadays, about over-emphasis on athletics; as much might safely be said on the other side. For every man in college who carries his athletics to the extent of hurting his studies, there is at least one who neglects athletics to the extent of hurting his health.

No one proposes to drive upper class men under the Freshman yoke of compulsion. But the old ideal of "mens sana in corpore sano" is one which a certain proportion of students will always overlook. Time is limited; the man for whom exercise is now particular pleasure does not always find it easy break into the afternoon for a game of tennis or squash or a row on the river; often, too, it is difficult to find partners or facilities. The temptation of the easiest way is to let exercise slip, or to put up with the old-man's expedient of walking or the much-vaunted "daily dozen," which fit more easily into the day's routine. The result, too often, is the sad spectacle of a fine mind or able character wasted in an unsteady framework.

The University is aware of this danger, and it has made an effort to lead men, without compulsion, into wiser ways. Certainly exercise of every sort has been made convenient and easy for any member of the University. The regular organized sports offer a natural solution; but for the man whose time or inclination forbids them, there is a sufficiency of other answer. Tennis has become by all odds the most popular pastime for good weather; in winter its indoor counterpart, squash, holds equal popularity. Both of these are well provided for at the University; about fifty tennis courts are already in play, and a score or so more planned. Squash courts, too, are numerous, and their number rapidly being increased. Furthermore, a tennis instructor has recently been engaged with the avowed intention not of building up a championship team, but of encouraging the game among student by giving instruction to any who may desire it.

Still there remains a group of men who do not find their needs supplied by these agencies. Perhaps they lack the instinct for pleasure in play, perhaps they do not know how to go about getting into a game, or finding a partner at a convenient time. For them, Hemenway Gymnasium is an adequate reply. They the necessary equipment for any sort of excise may be supplied "free on request", and the assistant in charge, Mr. Fradd, presides as a sort of "genus loci" to advise and encourage all searchers after individual physical diversion.

The University, thoughtfully and efficiently, has provided wherewithal to keep its members sound physically is well as mentally. It remains for the individual to appreciate these opportunities and to realize the importance of taking advantage of them.