The Boston Advertiser of Dec. 28, takes the Intercollegiate Rowing Association to task for accepting the offer of the hotel and railroad men of Saratoga to provide board and passes for the crews, and says that college "athleticism" will be very objectionable if it is to depend upon hotel men and their followers for its patronage. This hardly seems just. In these days of enormous expenditures for athletics, anything which will honorably lighten the burden of the students will meet with approbation. Boat-races are a species of contest which do not make any money returns to the crews for their expenses for travel, board, training, boats, vans, etc. While the manager of a college ball nine or team may depend on gate receipts to pay for many of their expenses, the manager of a crew is wholly dependent on subscriptions from the students unless some such offer as cited above may be made.

What harm then can there be in accepting such an offer? No attempt is made to induce the crews to act unfairly in the race. The offer is made to all alike. They simply select Saratoga because it will cost them less to row the race there then elsewhere, and their fellow students will be thereby relieved of a corresponding amount of subscriptions. Besides they are not to depend upon the hotel men for patronage. They will not row the race to please and benefit a set of businessmen, such as hotel keepers, but to have a chance of contending for honorable laurels against other colleges. They expect to be backed by their own fellow students and friends. The race is determined on without any fingering on the part of outsiders. The only question that outsiders can have ought to do with is when the race shall be rowed, a mere matter of convenience, economy and desirability, The crews themselves will gain nothing peculiarly by going to one place rather than another, only by going to the cheaper place they lighten the burden of college subscriptions.