WAYS AND MEANS

Down from the ivory tower of the Harvard Advocate has issued a critique of the college's athletic difficulties that clarions the need for a permanent endowment policy. It is true that Harvard has climbed few of the stairs leading toward the goal of an endowment fund large enough to divorce the sports program from dependence on gate receipts. If minor sports are permanently to be retained, and if a successful intra-mural program is to be developed, President Conant must propagate with all his energies the endowment ideal among the alumni, and it is to be hoped that not a few benevolent philanthropists will be uncovered to put the plan on its feet.

But although the president may be able to induce the more opulent and generous alumni to contribute to an endowment fund for athletics, it seems evident that gate receipts, for some time at least, will remain the backbone of the H.A.A.'s financial set-up. For collecting the several million dollars that would be needed to put the whole athletic program on a self-sustaining basis is not just a simple day's work, and may not be accomplished before years have gone by.

To bridge the gap between the present day and the time when the wished for endowment drops down like the gentle rain from heaven, temporary expendients must inevitably be adopted. But there is no momentary measure that is really satisfactory in all respects. A compulsory ten dollar athletic fee for all undergraduates, for instance, has been given much thought, and has been supported as a satisfactory method of getting all undergraduates to contribute to the upkeep of the athletic equipment. Objection to the proposal rests on the ground that it is unfair to tax a disinterested minority for opportunities which they do not want, but the most telling argument against the compulsory levy is the fact that the additional revenue that could be squeezed from the few people who now do not hold participation cards would make hardly a ripple on the H.A.A.'s budgetary pond.

Nevertheless, it does not appear altogether fair that alumni should be asked to back without stint a program which not even all the students wholeheartedly support, since the students are not incapable of hearing a small part of the burden. Only hearty cooperation between the undergraduates, in voluntarily supporting the H.A.A. while in college, and the alumni, in contributing toward a permanent fund, can bring an ultimate solution to the athletic program of the University.