PRINCETON RELATIONS

The resumption of athletic activities with Princeton in the form of a triangular crew race with Technology is very pleasant, but it does not solve the major question, that of the breach. Despite the fact that it is worth while closing a breach, unpleasantly made and foolishly maintained, the spring races will not change the situation in the slightest particle.

Since the break there have been other meetings between Harvard and Princeton on the invitation of a third party. At Derby and on the Schuylkill 150-pound crews representing Nassau and Cambridge have raced. Yet every attempt on the part of Harvard and Princeton crew men to resume relations without a go-between has met defeat. Among the oarsmen this mutual desire to meet has been strong each spring, perhaps stronger than in the case of any other major sport teams. Minor sport teams also competed, but always at the instigation of an outsider.

In view of these facts it is more obvious than ever that the disruption of the entire sports program through the difficulty of arranging mutually agreeable football schedules is unnecessary. Princeton may be right in principle when it says that the break came through football and must be mended through football. But when there is no possibility of mending the football breach for a number of years, at least, it is a narrow principle that will not admit a full program of sports to be more important than a game of football. In no sense is this to be construed as a defense of Harvard's action at the time of the break, or of its present demands.

The crux of the situation is that undergraduates in both institutions desire to resume relations. Conditions on both sides make it impossible to play football. Technical difficulties in arranging schedules, old prejudices, the unwillingness of either side to yield, and all the innumerable factors, important and unimportant, serve to keep the teams off the gridiron. Princeton and Harvard should admit this without ranoor, and recognize the greater importance of the rest of the sports program. Future meetings should be held through their own initiative.