4 © Ati ALUMNI VW Eee YALE ALUMNI WEEKLY SUBSCRIPTION, - $2.50 PER YEAR. Foreign Postage, 40 cents per year. PAYABLE IN ADVANCE, Checks, drafts and orders should be made payable to the Yale Alumni Weekly. All correspondence should be addressed,— Yale Alumni Weekly, New Haven, Conn. The office is at Room 6, White Hall. ADVISORY BOARD. H. C, Roprnson, ’538. J. R, SHEFFIELD, ’87. W. W. Sxippy, ’65S. J. A. HARTWELL, ’8958. C. P. LinpsLey,’i5S. L.S. WELcg, ’89. W. Camp, ’80. E. VAN INGEN, 91S. W.G. DaaaxTtT, ’80. P. Jay, 92. EDITOR. Lewis 8. WELOH, ’89. ASSOCIATE EDITOR. WALTER Camp, ’80, ASSISTANT EDITOR, E. J. THOMPSON, Sp. NEWS EDITOR, FRED. M. DAVIEs, ’99. PRESTON KuMuER, 1900, Athletic Department. Davip D. TENNEY, 1900, Special. Entered as second class matter at New Haven P. O. NEw HAVEN, CONN., FEB. 10, 1898. DON’T WATT. The report of the meeting on Feb- ruary I, of the directors of the Alumni University Fund, ought to be a re- minder to those, who, by pure oversight, are not making the use of this fund which they might. The best of it is that it offers an opportunity of helping Yale directly and practically, however limited one’s means may be, No sub- scription is too small to be received. The Fund is wisely administered. Everybody admits that. It is a good thing to send your check or your money-order now, while you think of it, to your Class Agent or to Mr. W. W. Farnam, Treasurer, Yale University. The contribution has the two-fold ad- vantage of actually aiding Yale and of keeping one’s interest in the University more real and substantial. We are all stockholders in Yale, and have drawn out big dividends without paying much on the stock. - = = +> THE CORNELL LETTER. Elsewhere is printed a communica- tion concerning Cornell’s position on the boating question. It is from an old Yale man, and one who is at Cor- nell, and it is, on its face, therefore, entitled to more than usual considera- tion. We are glad, anyway, to print it, for if one wants to talk about these things, it is better to talk right out and not contribute to the chorus of grum- bles, of those who avoid headquarters and make things unpleasant in an in- direct way. In regard to this letter, it seems hardly necessary to say that any re- flection, direct or implied, on the ath- letic government of any other univer- sity, is the last thing desired or likely to be attempted by any Yale manage- ment of the present day. It will un- doubtedly come as a surprise to Yale boating authorities here that anybody could have considered their action as a means of ignoring or making any kind of criticism of Cornell’s Athletic Council. There certainly could be no harm in having the captains get to- gether. -The purpose of the conference, as we understood it, was simply to get a good understanding of each other’s position, and it was to be assumed that the captains were perfectly competent to give that. This is a practical, com- mon-sense way of looking at it. It was supposed that this end had been ““death-trap” instead of ‘‘hell.’’) reached after the conference had fin- ished its session. We hope it is not necessary to say that in this we are not speaking in any sense Officially, but merely expressing a natural Yale way of looking at the thing. From this standpoint, such a construction as our correspondent’s letter put on the situa- tion seems a very technical one, and in- dicates a hypersensitive situation. As to the other point, to wit, Cor- nell’s contention as to equality, that has all been discussed frankly and fully. It is unquestionably Cornell’s right and privilege to make no arrangement with Yale which she does not consider con- ducive to the best interests of her ath- letics. It is certainly impossible for Yale to make any arrangement with Cornell, either for the present or the future, which does not seem to further the principal objects of Yale’s intercol- legiate contests. In following out these principles, any position which either college takes is certainly no reflection on the other, but may consist with the best of feeling for the other. We feel very sure of our position in saying that the two universities‘are certainly not going to be arrayed against each other in a hostile spirit because of some technical detail in the arrangements for talking things over. That ought not to stand in the way of racing even, but a race is a comparatively small thing. —_—_—__++e—_____ A SETBACK. A press dispatch from Cincinnati an- - nounces that one, W. F. Ferguson, de- scribed as editor of the Voice, which isa clean, wholesome, truth-loving home journal, presented a certain resolution at the conference of leaders of the Pro- hibition party held in that city recently. The resolution expressed in formal terms the moral situation at this Uni- versity, hitherto described with uncon- ventional terseness by Mrs. Poteat and emphasized by the Richmond County Prohibition Club, (which is more con- servative than Mrs. Poteat, and says, The resolution pledged the delegates to dis- courage the sending of young men to all such morally hopeless institutions as Yale. The dispatch up to this point bore all the ear marks of veracity. The.clos- ing sentence, to speak plainly, para- lyzed us. “Meeting vigorous opposi- tion,” says the dispatch, “he withdrew the resolution.” At first blush, and look- ing at it from that standpoint from which Yale men nowadays regard most public agitators when they tackle the University, this sentence would seem like a common, ordinary lie. But there isn’t any use in insulting anybody. It may be true. There are lots of Prohi- bitionists who know things, and some of them may have, in the course of their reading of the calm and careful Voice, fallen on some such article as came to our notice the other day. | We always read the Voice very care- fully, as we want to know what is going on.in the University. A copy of a week or so ago contained an account of some orgy which would have shamed the most advanced sinners of imperial Rome. This was described in language pecu- liarly adapted to the family circle. The place was a Westerntown. The offend- ers were the members of Yale’s musi- cal organizations. Of course, no one was surprised to learn that they were doing these things They were this year a particularly representative set of young men from the University. And Yale students, as you know, come here handicapped by the limited advantages which even the best American homes can give, and while they are at Yale find only such incentives to decent liv- ing as come from the examples of the most influential and most honored men of the University, and from a social condition which is so ordered as to make right living simply the most natural and easy course for a man. They are never led in chain gangs along the straight and narrow way, and may go directly to perdition, or get a good start in that direction, if they make a determined effort. So, as we say, what the Yale Glee and Banjo Clubs did in this Western city wasn’t at all surprising; but we were interested in noting an apparent change from the original itinerary. Inquiring of the Managers of the Clubs as to why they departed so many stadia from their route as laid out in advance, we learned that neither the Clubs nor the indivi- dual members had visited this town or come at all near it. We did not investi- gate any farther the details of what they did there. And the story served its purpose just as well. We simply hap- pened to know about it, and the rest of the paper didn’t taste quite as well. So it may have been with some of these delegates at Cincinnati, for all we know. Perhaps if the editor of our es- teemed contemporary will get some one else to introduce his resolutions, he will get them along farther. He ought to be careful. Things are in a bad way. When the representatives of the cause for which this paper unself- ishly exists, are pointed by its editor to the exact location of the abomination of abominations, to the open mouth of hell itself, and are asked to do what they can to keep the flower of American youth from falling in, and they actually contend with him and refuse to follow him to the work of rescue, then the mis- sion of a great and good journal is sadly handicapped. The editor of the Regisier would say that its destiny is being monkeyed with; but we don’t treat these situations lightly. > was > Aes CORNELL'S CONTENTION, A Wale Graduate Gives His Under-=- standing of It. To the Editor of YALE ALUMNI WEEKLY: Sir:—As formerly a student at Yale and now a teacher at Cornell, I may perhaps be granted a little space in which to state my interpretation of Cor- nell’s position regarding the boat race with Yale this year. Let me say at the start that I desire good understanding and good feeling to prevail between the students and graduates of the two Uni- versities far more strongly than I desire a race. Apparently some misunder- standings exist and, although I have no NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY. JOHN A. MCCALL, PRESIDENT. This Company has been in success- ful operation since 1845, and has now Over 300,000 policy-holders and over $200,000,000 in assets. It offers the most privileges and on the most favor- able terms, of any Company. Under its new system of classifying and com- pensating agents, it offers to young men continuous employment and a life income. Its policies and agents’ contracts will interest all students. ae & NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, 346 & 348 Broadway, i BNEW PORK, BROOKS & COMPANY Are now showing many new and striking Novelties in Gentlemen’s Alpine Hats, in imported cloths of effective coloring. At- tention is asked to their desirability as a Walking or Driving Hat. * %* * Kit Bags, Coat Cases, Ash- land Valises, in leathers of Superior quality. * * 3 Chapel, cor. State Street. Yale Law School. For circulars and other information apply to Prof. FRANCIS WAYLAND, Dean. connection with and no especial inter- est in rowing matters here, I may pos- sibly contribute a mite towards remov- ing these misconceptions. Cornell’s positions throughout have been based upon a demand for a recog- nition in the negotiations of her equality. She has made no demand for anything else, but for this claim she has stood consistently. Yale’s challenge, by de- ciding upon the time and place of the race, denied this equality. Cornell, in her conditional acceptance, reasserted it by assuming that the rights Yale exer- cised this year would be granted to Cornell the year after. - The latter’s demand for a two-year understanding was only a means not an end, and pro- bably would never have been made, had Yale’s challenge been unconditional. The same end was kept in view in re- gard to the conference. Athletic inter- ests at Cornell are controlled by a Council in which the alumni and Fa- culty have a minority of the votes. That Council asked for a conference. In reply a message invited the Captain of the Cornell Crew to meet the Har- vard and Yale Captains at Albany. This action of Yale denied the right of the Athletic Council to name its own conferee and so, by direct implication, the equality of Cornell. Hence Cap- tain Colson was clothed with no au- thority from the Council, because this was the obvious way of reaffirming Cornell’s contention. Hence, too, Cor- nell holds that the conference asked for has never been granted or held. Doubtless Yale objects to the methods of athletic control which are in force here, but if the two universities stand on an equality in such matters, that feeling should not receive official ex- pression. In selecting the representa- tive of Cornell with whom she was will- ing to confer, Yale not merely denied Cornell’s fundamental claim of equality; she also officially ignored Cornell’s Athletic Council and reflected upon the manner in which athletic interests at Cornell are governed. In the official statement accompanying Cornell’s reply, therefore, is found a counter reflection upon the manner in which athletic in- terests at Yale are goverend. It is well known to your readers ‘that a similar difficulty arose recently between Har- vard and Yale, and that the position of Harvard then was substantially the same as that of Cornell now. I have no desire to argue for or against the position of the Athletic Council. But none of the comments I have seen in print has stated quite correctly its fundamental character. Therefore, I have thought it might en- lighten some of your readers and con- duce to mutual understanding and re- spect to have it distinctly set forth. Yours respectfully, WALTER F:; WILLCox. Ithaca, New York, Feb. 2, 1808. ~ Rel,