Follow the Leader

Awards for merit are only the external symbols of actual achievement, which in itself is an absolute quantity, not subject to the fickleness of public opinion. In intellectual or athletic superiority, symbolized by the "key" or the "Y", achievement in separate instances does not represent the same amount of ability or effort on the part of the individual.

To the versatile scholar or athlete real success is insignificant compared to the one who has achieved despite handicaps. In the case of the former, the "key" by no means represents equal ability or effort except within certain limits, above which there are many variations.

In other words, the award is a matter the true evaluation of which can be determined by no arbitrary criteria. This is the theoretical argument which in this case also includes the practical.

Beyond a definite point the distinction in athletic attainment does not indicate the absolute prowess of one member of the team compared to another, or one sport to another. In the point of sacrifice and other unascertainable factors, such as mental effort and relative amounts of "native capacity," human beings cannot pass impartial judgment upon their own species.

Because awards are based on the favor of public opinion without reference to the intrinsic potentialities of a sport or of an individual. The News has advocated therefore that the distinction between major and minor sports be abolished.

It has been supported in this stand by eminent authorities: William J. Bingham of Harvard and Reginald D. Root of Yale; it has seen Amherst abolish the distinction between major and minor insignia and Princeton place all minor sports upon the same footing. These are all indications of a trend toward a similar aim.

Now Columbia students, headed by the captain of a major sport and fortified by the results of a questionnaire, have recommended the abolishment of the artificial distinction between the two. When will Yale? --Yale News.