HARVARD INDIFFERENCE

Almost complete apathy on the part of the Harvard undergraduates toward the proposal for a Stadium seating 80,000 people was the most marked evidence produced in last night's debate in the Union. Thirty-five undergraduates were present at the close of the discussion to vote in favor of the proposal, action upon which has been temporarily postponed by the Corporation. The later body had hoped to obtain a fairly definite idea of undergraduate opinion on the question. The subject of the debate seemed likely to attract a large interest; two years ago, the question of football overemphasis drew a thousand students to the Union, a majority of whom agreed that the undue importance on the sport should be checked. Speakers with reputations in the world of athletics were on the schedule last night, the Boston sporting writers predicted an enthusiastic crowd, provision was made for several hundred people--and less than sixty undergraduates appeared.

The debate itself, ranging from tables of statistics to the poetry of dropkicking, proved more than anything else that the Stadium proposal had not excited the Harvard graduates of the future. It is a matter that has deeply agitated some loyal alumni, and more and more appears to be of exclusive interest to the graduates. The Corporation can now face the question squarely, as Mr. Withington put it last night: Is football primarily a game for the undergraduates to play, or a spectacle for loyal, returning alumni to enjoy? Underlying all the arguments was that question, the old problem of the proper relation of football to the life of the University. With the settling of the Stadium question, Harvard's position on that more important issue will be made clear.