ON A COMMON BASIS.

In the face of the action of Yale and Princeton in limiting their debating teams to undergraduates, the decision of the University Debating Council against such a change is open to question. All athletic teams in intercollegiate competition are limited to under-graduates; the debating team, meeting in its only intercollegiate contest two strictly undergraduate teams, may include three graduates. This is not an equal basis of competition. For one year it is justifiable, since the regulations of the triumvirate are going through a period of readjustment; but for the future, if the triangular contest is to continue, debating at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton should be placed on a common footing. Perhaps it should be a footing of graduate eligibility perhaps of undergraduate.

Interest in debating here is feeble in proportion to the attention it merits. A sad but evident fact! Consequently its value as a link between graduate and undergraduate life is doubtful. Yet if it can exist only through admitting graduates--which is rather incredible--by all means keep it as it is. Better debating with graduates included than no debating. Whatever the final settlement, however, the facts remain that intercollegiate competition of teams under widely different eligibility rules is bound to be unsatisfactory to all parties concerned, and that there exist at present inconsistencies between the triumvirate debaters.