ATHLETIC PAGEANT FOR THE CONGRESS OF MOTHERS IN THE STATE OF WASHINGTON The school-children of Tacoma, Washington, in honor of the National Congress of Mothers in session A PEEVISH HERO Babe Ruth returned to the baseball world International SHARP COMMENTS BY UNDERGRADUATES N this third group of prize-winning letters from undergraduates of American colleges the readers who have followed this expression of student opinion will find, we feel sure, quite as representative and interesting contributions to the debate as in the two groups already published. All of the writers were winners of fourth prizes, but in frankness and in sharp comment and free and direct criticism their letters are quite as noteworthy as were the letters from the winners of the higher prizes, even if not as thorough in presenting a well-thought-out line of argument. We think that athletic graduate committees in colleges can get some shrewd and practical hints from the points made here by these four undergraduates. Among the things that the writers whose letters we present herewith caustically criticise are the stressing of star players, the desire of the grand stand to see the side it favors win at any price, the lack of appreciation of the student who studies while the athlete is idolized, the spirit of professionalism in college rivalry, the backing of one's team by betting. How far such things are general or typical is another matter. So far as they do exist, such protests as appear in these letters from students must, we are confident, exercise an influence in making college athletics independent and whole some. As we said in estimating the general trend of these letters from one hundred and twenty-five colleges in all parts of the country, "Undergraduate opinion not only favors athletics as a source of recreation and pleasure, but, and beyond that, because athletics foster the college spirit, and loyalty to the college is as essential for the functioning of college life as loyalty to the country is essential to the functioning of citizenship." THE LURE OF ATHLETICS junior college. The real spirit of the A game is forgotten; the primary purpose lege, but I look at this question with the benefit of eleven years' experience with the man in the street. When a college man thinks of sports, he thinks of the one real sport-football. Personally, I love the game, but common sense tells me that football is a decided menace to learning and development of worth-while character traits. Every college has an alumni body. Most colleges have a graduate manager of athletics. This man's job is to keep tabs on the promising high school athlete and induce him to enter college. The alumni provide the funds, and from these funds the man's expenses are paid. He may or may not get spending money, but he does get his tuition and his living expenses. This man has his choice of the social fraternities; when candidates are selected for the honoraries, the football player is taken and the merely successful student is passed by. When other students are dropped, the football player is kept on. In extreme cases he will be dropped too, but this seldom occurs. BOVE the door of State Gym at the Iowa State College hangs a copper plate bearing these words: "If by gaining knowledge we destroy our health, we labor for a thing that will be useless in our hands. He that sinks his vessel by overloading it, though it be with gold or silver or precious stones, will give its owner but an ill account of his voyage." Its purpose is to instill into each redblooded student passing under it the necessity of a well-rounded development. It has served in the past, but to-day the pendulum is slowly but surely moving towards athletics with a physical de velopment at the expense of the mental. Ten years ago John , now county agent of a western Iowa county, was the star quarterback of the Ames football team. On the field he "hit the line hard," played up and played the game; at his study table he learned the fundamentals of his profession. He never sacrificed football for studies or vice versa. When he was graduated, he was prepared to face both the world and his chosen vocation-the two situations which every college graduate must face. Last year a number of fine athletes were graduated from the same institution, but only a small percentage of them took up the work which they had majored in while in college. Instead they are instructing or coaching athletics in high school or college, thus continuing to spread the development of the physical at the sacrifice of the mental side of a man's development. But herein lies the trouble. The professions to-day need technically trained men who can face the world, but too large a number of them are going back onto the athletic THE CHEAT WHO GOT BY I am personally acquainted with helps field. Why is this true? I believe that the colleges of to-day are so thoroughly inoculated with "jazz" that students are thinking in lighter channels. Sports are over-emphasized; victory must be had at any price, the champions are worshiped for their ability until they become gods before the eyes of the Donald Twalm, s I shall be severely criticised by state my view-point in advance. At the At the Christmas examinations one of our star half-backs was caught cheating. The penalty is dismissal. But this man's place next year cannot be filled easily. As a result he was placed on probation for one year by a Faculty committee who lacked the sand to fire him. Incidentally, a misguided student body fought hard against this man's dismissal and influenced the Faculty's decision. This is not an exception. I don't have the space necessary to go into this matter further, but I want to say that the system is all wrong. Every college that the athlete. If you say that they buy their players, you mortally offend them. They don't buy them; they just pay their expenses and give them a little pocket-money. I, personally, have friends in three of the large colleges who are getting a free education for their services on the ball field. I've con tributed to funds for this purpose myself, but I don't like the results from this system. It places a premium on athletics and knocks at the roots of a higher scholarship standing. If a man makes good grades and happens to lead his class, then we say that he is a "grind" and we despise him. But is it right? An athlete is a campus idol; he makes all the honorary fraternities, and is lauded for what the profs call his leadership qualities. Ask any student. What counts-athletics or scholarship? It is athletics every time. I'm a fraternity man myself, and I love football, but, although it is a great advertisement to any college, I'm against having a winning team at any cost. We are honoring the athlete and despising and belittling the successful student. But the colleges were built for learning, and learning and knowledge are the least prized things on the campus. A heavy-weight championship prizefight will draw sixty thousand people; so will a big football game; so will a war. Think it over. win games and championships in intercollegiate athletics. Such a feeling has developed a spirit of intense rivalry between different institutions, and this in turn has resulted in the commercializing of healthful sport. The larger universities have expended enormous sums of money for coaches, trainers, equipment, and stadia. The lust to win has spread so far that championship teams are sent across the continent to play single games. Such a trip not only involves a large sum of money, but takes the players away from their studies and detracts from the real incentive of college life. Here I ask, "Is this the aim of athletics in education?" The first intercollegiate game of football between Rutgers and Princeton was played for the pleasure derived from the contest. Now the aim seems to be anything but that. Furthermore, this intense rivalry between schools has led in no small degree to the professionalizing of the college athlete. The alumni and others who are interested in athletics for the sake of winning games have paid the school expenses of star high school performers, and this has brought to our schools a type of undergraduate who is endowed with a different spirit than that which was prevalent in the past., A keenness to excel has been the cause of laxity in regard to scholarship and also in regard to eligibility rules in many colleges. This professionalized rivalry has not only wormed its way into the morale of the players, but also among the students and spectators who crowd the sidelines. The players are made a means to an end by many students, alumni, and other interested parties. Gambling has become prevalent, and respective teams are backed to the limit. Some no doubt think betting proves a man's college spirit, but if it is allowed to go on by the college authorities it will in the end cause the downfall of the truer feeling of clean sport for clean sport's sake. When a team loses under betting conditions, a spirit of animosity is always aroused, which is detrimental to the school. Players are severely criticised, and the coach loses his popularity and many times his position. Therefore we see that the winning of games and championships, which seems to be the aim of the coach, players, GUGLIELMO FERRERO ORDER OR DISORDER? BY GUGLIELMO FERRERO THE THE OUTLOOK will have the honor and pleasure of publishing in its next issue an article by the distinguished Italian historian, philosopher, and man of letters, Guglielmo Ferrero. As our readers know, Signor Ferrero is the author of one of the most noted and also most readable books of our time relating to the history of Rome, namely, "The Greatness and Decline of Rome." The article will have the title "Order or Disorder?" It is a searching discussion of the conditions and dangers of European civilization under the stress of post-war conditions. It is admriably written and deserves the most careful consideration. alumni, and undergraduate body at the present time, presents a serious problem. A spirit of rivalry is developed which has led to the commercializing and professionalizing of otherwise wholesome athletics. It has caused a laxity in scholarship standards and eligibility rules, all of which is undesirable in education. When coaches in some institutions receive higher salaries than the presidents of the same schools and manufacturing concerns present automobiles to the best players, then it is time that some plan of reconstruction be adopted. My plan involves the following points: 1. Sever all connections with the alumni in regard to athletics. 2. Place all intercollegiate activities in charge of the college authorities through a department of physical education. 3. Place the financial side of athletics under the college treasurer with budget system; (a) Limitation of gate receipts in relation to expenses; (b) Do away with athletic scholarships. 4. Raise scholarship standards and enforce all eligibility rules. 5. Do away with seasonal coaches, spring football, summer camps, training tables, and lower the salaries of coaches. 6. Limit number of hours that a coach can require of players; (a) Prevent coast trips and intersectíonal games. 7. Play different schools each year, thereby removing the tendency towards intense rivalry. 8. Form conference with these points in view. ALFRED G. WHEELER, Oberlin College, Class of 1922. DISILLUSIONED, BUT I' "'M through with college athletics! For three years I've slaved, and strained, and sweated, on grid, and ice, and diamond. I've grinned at knocks and bruises. I've scoffed at pains and aches. I've bowed to censure and blame. I've sacrificed amusement and pleasure. I've denied myself smokes and eats. I've neglected studies and ambitions. I've subordinated all to sport. And to what end? The love of Alma Mater-bunk! The respect of student and faculty-a vain hope! The praise of press and public-nothing to it! The satisfaction of personal desire-idle vanity! Yet these are the things I strived for. And with what success? A collection of campus distinctions that are useless. A respect that amounts to nothing. A scholastic record that is abominable. A broken nose that is a reminder of my folly. A bunch of press clippings that contain more knocks than boosts. That's all. What a miserable and stupid fool I've been! Why should I have been so willing to give of my strength and of my time, while hundreds of other students sat back refusing even to raise their voices in a cheer of encouragement for the team that was representing them; while the Faculty looked on and did its best to flunk the men who were doing more to advertise and popularize the college than all the other agencies put togther; while the public smirked in smug satisfaction at mere idle rumors of crookedness and professionalism; and while the college itself held up its hands in horror at the hint of a scholarship in lieu of services for the needy? So I'm off athletics for good. I'm going out after a little joy in life. I'm going to do as I please, and eat what I like, and sleep when I feel like it-for a change. I'm going to get down to some real work. No more training quarters for me. I'm through. I suppose I'll miss the old life of activity a little. That feeling of elation with which one responds to the first call for candidates. The satisfaction of being retained on the first squad. The glow of perfect physical condition. The pride of seeing one's name posted on the first team line-up. The thrill of the first game, with a thousand voices urging one on to greater effort. The flush of victory. The glory of having done one's best. The suppressed excitement with which one scans eagerly down the sports sheet to see what the writers have to say. The congratulations of one's fellow-students. Yes, I shall certainly miss all these things. And how stupid it is to stand on the sidelines and watch others trying to play the game! I I I hear they're up against it for material this year. No worth-while recruits, and some of the old chaps leaving. was talking to the coach to-day. didn't have the heart to tell him I'm quitting. Gad, I wonder if I can quit! There's something about it that seems to hold right onto me. It gets into one's system. The sporting blood, I guess, and there's no beating it out. I've only got one more year of college. Aw, what's the use of trying to be a piker? I guess I wasn't built to grind into books, and go to the movies, and the cabaret, and out to parties, and all that sort of thing. The devil! I won't quit. Hurrah, I'm going out for the team again! D. B. R., Columbia University, Class of 1923. I IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION F I had the time, I should like nothing better than to study the histories of the nations and the races of the earth away back as far as our records of early civilization go. I should like still better to go beyond these records and help in the great research work that is still being done in an effort to bring to light the stories of primeval life and struggle for existence among the tribes of this old world of ours long before the oldest of the nations now existing boasted of a semblance of civilization. But I have been deprived of the opportunity of delving far even into the labyrinths of comparatively modern history. Strange to say, I was prevented from learning a great deal of history as a boy because of the very fact that makes that subject so interesting for me I was an immigrant boy. The struggle for a livelihood in a new country was so full of what some people call hardships, but what I call experience, that at an early age I was working as a puddler in a steel mill, contributing a small share toward keeping our family happy and contented. I have no idea when it was that man first migrated from "the cradle of humanity." It is enough to say that it was a long time ago that men first felt the pinch for room and began to go out to seek new fortunes, bigger herds, and larger and greener pastures. They found wild beasts and barriers of mountains and of waters and forests. The more daring and courageous ventured far and found keen pleasure in the adventures of wild lands. Feats of strength and endurance were the pride of the leaders of their bands. And so it came about that the strong explored into far countries, set up their own kingdoms, and prospered, while the weaker of mind and body, the lazy and dependent, stayed behind, only moving when conditions in JAMES J. DAVIS AS PRESIDENT OF THE AMALGAMATED ASSOCIATION OF IRON, STEEL, AND TIN WORKERS OF AMERICA, AT ELWOOD, INDIANA, AT TWENTY-ONE YEARS OF AGE their old localities-crowding, scourges of disease and filth, or of exploitation of more ambitious hostile foes-forced them on in the direction the more energetic of their races had gone before. One after another great pioneering nations have risen and fallen. We are all familiar enough with ancient and modern history to have heard of periods of Roman, Danish, Norwegian, Spanish, British, and other international conquests. Long before Christopher Columbus discovered America the Norwegians had been here, and before them, according to Chinese history, Buddhist priests had visited the coast of California as early as the fifth century. Early immigration to every new country consisted of the very bravest, stanch est, and most loyal subjects or citizens of their mother countries. It was necessarily so, because of the great hardships and dangers of travel. It took courage to sail the viking ships of the Norsemen on their journeys of thousands of miles, battling the tempestuous northern seas of cold and ice, and strength to pull the oars they used. It took the same courage and strength in the days of the Pilgrim settlers who came to our shores, but of still more importance in building the foundation for our advanced civilization was the strength of character which prompted their coming. Peace-loving, fearless, and conscientious, as well as strong physical beings, ready to battle for what they believed was right, strong in Christian faith-these were the people who began the work of construction of the greatest nation of the world. greater love for liberty and a greater respect for the rights of individuals, together with a determination and willingness to endure the hardships of pioneer life, drew to America the very best blood of every nation of Europe. A Conditions of emigration to America have changed. No longer is ocean travel beset with danger and hardships nor sacrifice of wealth. Steamship travel is luxurious; the steerage of a steam liner even forty years ago was superior to many, many homes of the poorer classes of Europe; and this travel when the new immigration started became cheap-at times passage from Hamburg to Chicago has been offered as low as $10 a person, and at this price any one could afford to travel. Every inducement for emigration was offered: A big and new country, money to be had for the asking. It required very little work to become wealthy, as these peasants counted wealth, in America. At least such were the stories |