The following article ran in the April 6, 1922 issue of the M.C.M. Lode.
The students of the Michigan College of Mines have been following the development of the high school swimming pool discussion with close interest. For the past year or so, and perhaps even before that, there has been a gentle movement in the college to arouse interest towards the installation of a pool in our own gymnasium. Up to this time, opinion has been more or less inarticulate, but since embodiment of a pool in the new high school building has been controverted, the murmurs of the college pool protagonists have become distinctly audible.
No one will deny the benefits of swimming as a source of health and pleasure; it has few equals. And inasmuch as a pool is a necessary adjunct to swimming, it would be most illogical to deny the benefits of a pool. A swimming pool properly built, efficiently and hygienically managed, and capably supervised, is a decided asset to any school or community.
Such a pool would be an addition of incalculable value to the College of Mines. Its desirability is unquestioned. And yet we seriously doubt the wisdom of equipping the gym with a swimming pool at the present time, or at any future time for that matter, until we can be assured that our pool will be adequately and hygienically maintained.
We have seen many swimming pools. A few were properly run. But in a woefully large majority of cases, the name is only a euphemism for community bath tub. In only too many instances does a beautifully tessellated marble tank hold the stagnant water of a frog pond.
A pool sixty feet long, thirty feet wide, and a depth ramped from two and one half feet to six and one half feet holds 8100 cubic feet of water. Calculate the cost of the water alone to fill this tank two or three times a week. Figure the cost of heating this water as it comes from the main to a temperature of sixty-five degrees. Computing the cost of keeping this huge volume of water at the desired temperature when the thermometer outdoors registers zero or lower. Add to this the salary of an attendant or lifeguard. Add it all up then get another piece of paper; you have only started to reckon the cost of maintaining a pool.
To be sure, a pool can be run for less. Lots are. The economy is accomplished by dosing the water with chlorine, by skimming the surface when it gets too thick for navigation, and by eliminating the guard with the fervent hope that the doctrine of the survival of the fittest is apocryphal and that fools will know enough to stay in shallow water. M. C. M. doesn’t care for the latter type of pool. And we doubt the attainment of the former sort.
Forget the pool. Try something more feasible. Some new furnaces and machinery for the metallurgy and mechanical buildings could be used to much better advantage and wouldn’t burn up nearly so much coal. You can get them. All you have to do is ask — everybody — all the time.
