Another problem with respect to qualifying tournaments was the
contention that certain districts are too large. The Eighth District,
for instance, found it difficult to persuade Washington and Oregon
colleges to compete, and the suggestion has been made that certain
districts be permitted to sub-divide their districts. On this question
fourteen replies endorsed sub-division, provided the total number
of qualifiers from the entire district was not increased, four were
against sub-dividing, and four were non-committal.

It would appear almost an impossibility to receive any unanimity
of opinion with respect to some of these questions. Certainly the
qualifying tournaments this year were not successful and without
complete cooperation on the part of college authorities it is the
opinion of the chairman that the qualifying tournaments cannot be
made to be successful. In many cases the college authorities them-
selves are opposed to the qualifying tournament, in which case their
enthusiastic cooperation might not be forthcoming. ‘The study of
former intercollegiate tournaments which were open to all colleges
without qualifying indicates two major objections; first, that the
number of’ entries is too large to permit the proper completion of a
tournament within one week, and, second, the number of entries
from the vicinity in which the tournament was held was greatly out
of proportion to the entries from the rest of the country. It was
this predominance of local entries which necessitated the “weeding
out” process, for in most cases remote colleges would not bear the
expense of sending their players across the country unless the
caliber of play justified.

Therefore, in the consideration of this problem, the chairman is
inclined to the opinion that perhaps the ideal solution would be to
return to the open tournament, any college being permitted to enter
a maximum of four men in singles and two teams in doubles, but
with a restriction on the number of entries being imposed upon the
district in which the tournament is held. This would undoubtedly
result in an entry list of more than one hundred, which brings up
the question as to whether it would be advisable to have the inter-
collegiate tournament extend over a period exceeding one week.
With uncertain weather conditions, a large tournament condensed
into a period of one week generally results in serious congestion
during the last few days when the matches are more important,
and in some cases certain important matches (for example, the
doubles finals) are unsatisfactory and perhaps unfair, because of
the physical exhaustion of certain players. Unless the college
authorities and the clubs or colleges holding the final event would
be willing to extend the tournament over a period exceeding one
week, then it would not appear advisable to have an entry list which
exceeds sixty-four, and in order to have an entry list restricted to
sixty-four it would appear that the qualifying tournament should
be continued.

It should be borne in mind, however, that this was the first
attempt at an entirely new venture, and it is undoubtedly unfair to