UNSUSPECTED DANGERS

The announcement by the Brooks House Association that deputation work is being actively organized for the first time, brings to the force the old question of the proper relation of the college to its prospective members in high school and surrounding preparatory academics.

It is folly to expect that the work of these deputation groups in visiting the schools will be confined to the ideal boundaries of merely encouraging the schoolboy to desire a college education for schlastic reasons. Any such delegation must discuss the college life as a whole, and just as men are moved to go to college for a multitude of reasons, so the deputation group-must, from the very nature of the case, discuss these reasons in relation to Harvard in urging men to come. And any discussion must of course include athletics, which perhaps more than anything else interest the schoolboy in college and influence him in deciding to go. At that point the delegation is getting dangerously near to proselyting for athletes, a thing of which Harvard has not been and should not be guilty.

If these new deputation groups can dissipate Harvard's reputation for "indifference" which is prevalent among the schoolboys, and can show an unselfish friendliness and interest in their cases,--and yet adhere strictly to their original purpose--they are to be commended and encouraged. But deputation work at best is a ticklish business--the attractive opportunity thus offered for proselyting is too great a one to be resisted by most colleges. Phillips Brooks House should realize the dangers before embarking on a new work, the actual results of which might not be those expected, and which might engage Harvard in a practice she does not countenance.