AND STILL REFORM

The long awaited report of the Dartmouth Athletic Council on the football proposals referred to it by President Hopkins last winter is surprising both in the clear and concise manner of its statement and the general favor which it accords to the primary aims of the Dartmouth head. True it disagrees outright with one suggestion and expresses considerable doubt as to the efficacy of another, while supporting the most revolutionary of the proposals in full. But even as it refuses to acknowledge the "thought that college football anywhere has been so exploited beyond all other college activities as to seriously and harmfully affect the basic educational purposes of the colleges," it puts forward four sound suggestions for football reform to be discussed at a conference of college faculties, athletic councils, and undergraduates. Of these four suggestions one is contained in the proposal of President Hopkins, that two teams of equal strength be developed to play games away and at home simultaneously.

In general the Dartmouth athletic body has shown good judgment. It has accepted the most important suggestion, has admitted an open question and possible need for action in regard to the second in importance, and has turned down the one which remedied the lesser evil and which gave fewest indications of a practical improvement. Every revolutionary plan can stand some modification, the danger always being that the modifying process completely devitalize the original. The result in this case still retains much of its former power along with a few valuable additions.