Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 24.djvu/609

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It will be observed that the total amount subscribed is less than half the expenses. Two hundred and ninety dollars of this sum was given by graduates. Deducting this, and considering that, according to the catalogue of 1881-'82, there were, in the undergraduate academical and scientific departments, seven hundred and eighty-six students, the cost (above earnings) of the present system averages only a little over ten dollars per man. As all departments are benefited by the system, the average ought to be taken for the whole university. There being in the university over one thousand men, the average cost per man would be considerably less than ten dollars. It will be said that part of the earnings come from the students, since they are the chief attendants at the game. This is true. Assuming that half the earnings come from the students (an amount probably in excess of the real amount), the average cost per man for the university will not be far from twelve dollars. Fifteen dollars per man would undoubtedly cover the whole cost of athletics throughout the year, counting not only the athletics represented in the table, but all other kinds as well. Certainly this does not seem an extravagant sum to pay for the benefits derived from the system. The writer believes that the expenses can be very much diminished. The tendency to unnecessary increase of expenses can certainly be diminished by measures hereafter noticed.

By the table, it will be seen that the subscriptions for base-ball and foot-ball were small in amount as compared with their earnings. It is generally believed, among students, that the university organizations of both these sports can be made self-supporting.

The evils already commented on are general. There are other so-called evils which are special—some peculiar to one kind of athletics, but not belonging to the others. One of these, charged against base-ball, is that the game brings the students into contact with "professionals." Whatever may be the extent of the evil in other colleges, at Yale it has not proved to be so great as to call for Faculty interference, or even to excite apprehension. All the evils, real or imaginary, connected with ball-playing, are reduced to a minimum when the students meet "professionals." They meet them simply for practice. Betting is, as a rule, precluded by the fact that the result is generally a foregone conclusion, and men bet on only doubtful issues. Off the field there is no more intercourse between the students and the "professionals" than is necessary to transact the business