d I am glad to hear that next year the colleges
will eliminate the mile walk and the bicycle race. The schools cannot do
better than follow this example, and those leagues which have throwing
the baseball, standing high jump, standing broad jump, and other
acrobatic feats on their lists will do well to start in on sweeping
reforms. There is nothing athletic about throwing the baseball,
especially, and it certainly is not a picturesque feature of any
meeting.
Uniformity is a great thing in any branch of human endeavor, and the
sooner we can attain to it in interscholastic sport the farther advanced
we shall be. The formation of a general interscholastic league, such as
I spoke of last week, will be of great service in that very direction;
for the greater association would adopt a definite programme, and all of
the schools holding membership would have to accept it, and would no
doubt be delighted to do so. I am glad to say that the suggestion of
forming a general league has been favorably received by many enthusiasts
in interscholastic sport, and, so far as I know, has been unfavorably
commented on by no one. I have received, already, several letters
endorsing the scheme, and the only point so far on which my
correspondents differ is concerning the best place to hold the annual
meeting. Until representatives from all sections are heard from,
however, it will be impossible to say what the preponderance of opinion
really is. Mr. Evert Wendell is heartily in favor of the formation of a
joint league. In his letter he says that such a thing would increase the
interest in the subject everywhere, and would prove a great success.
Continuing, he writes: "The only part of it of which I disapprove is the
holding of the meeting in a distinctly college town. The interests of so
widely representative an interscholastic meeting must be so diverse that
it would be unwise, for many reasons, to hold it in a town identified
only with one of them. New York would be the most central place for it,
and, to my mind, the most advisable choice. The best tracks are here,
the best-known officials are here, and the greatest number of spectators
would doubtless be gathered here. The Inter-collegiate Association has
chosen New York as the most central and representative place in which to
hold its annual meeting, and the localities of the various associations
which you propose to have constitute members of the new-school athletic
body would in gener
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