ELI SECRETS

The disconcerting way in which Yale has of late been victorious in her athletic contests has defied explanation. But with the rashness of men certain of graduation the Yale Senior class has revealed what might prove to be the puzzling secret: for four years the most cherished ambition of the men of '24 has been the winning of a "Y". The Phi Beta Kappa key which for generations was voted the highest honor a Yale man could receive has definitely fallen into that limbo toward which Ralph Henry Barbour first pushed it. Against men who find college dormitories merely a convenient place of residence while gaining proficiency in football and crew, opponents burdened by concentration and distribution have obviously no chance.

It is difficult to determine fairly whether the Yale vote is but a sign of temporary mens iusana, or a result of an understandable desire to smash traditions, or in fact, as educators will fear, a last crushing blow delivered to free the glorious American sports forever from the age old incubus of scholastic fetters. If this latter is the real significance, the Yale Seniors are to be commended most highly for their unselfish, frankness. Other universities will doubtless try the same policy with hopes of comparable athletic results.

A generous critic, however, will see beneath the surface and discover that the Yale Seniors were actuated merely by that general restlessness which is manifest in every eastern university. At Princeton the impatience against tradition has reached such a height that not only the Seniors, but the Juniors and Sophomores have discarded regular clothes and are strolling about the campus in "beer suits" which are best described as pajamas made of canvas. And at Cambridge even John Harvard has shifted ground. The hostility toward study and the golden key is, therefore, probably not the only explanation for Yale's athletic prowess.