The Frankfort roundabout. [volume] (Frankfort, Ky.) 1882-1908, 1894-03-03
General Comment.

President Eliot's timely protest
against the too great indulgence in,
and the brutality Of, college athletics,
is awaking favorable responses
throughout the country. Now seems
a good time to start the work of
a much needed reform in this direc-
ton. The average man has enough
of the brute in him without 'educat-
ing" it's development at the expense
of everything else Courier Journal
Editorial, February Goth.
The province of the editorial page
of q great paper should be land SO
seldom is) to probe deeper into causes
and their relations to results, than
can be done in tho news columns,
which are mere record of the most
apparent of the results. If the
writer of the editorial quoted above
had read and studied what he terms
President Eliot's protest." had
given full and complet attention to
the thorough and comprehensive
articles on college athletics which
have appeared in late numbers of
the leading reviews; and above all,
had determined to look at the matter
from an unbiased standpoint, instead
of viewing it from mind prejudiced
by sensational newspaper reports of
the public exhibitions of college sports;
he would not have made such a
showing of superficiality unworthy
of 80 great paper as the Courier
Journal.
1t it is unfortunate that such edi-
torials as this, from their brevity
and greater acceptability to the
masses, should be more potent in
forming public sentiment than the
most logical and exhaustive argu-
ments by men who look further be-
meath the surface of things. That
such is the case should induce those
who write such editorials to be more
careful Of their premises. So much
has been said and written on the SUBJ
ject that no excuse can be given for
ignorance on the part of the writer.
Those who are really DESTROYS of
arriving at the concensus of opinion
amongst the college faculties will find
how distorted it has been made to
appear by reading the articles on the
subject which were published in the
January numbers of The Forum and
The North American Review. But
the last sentence in the editorial
quoted is an attack on athletes in
general, and not merely college
athletics in particular.
.*
1.-THE average man has enough of
the brute in him without educating
its development at the expense Of
everything else" The logical infer
ence from this is that all athletics are
more or less an education" in brutal
ity. The average man is not collie
gian. Neither is he one of those
exceptionally strong physical organ
isms from whom the ranks of prize
fighters and professional athletes are
recruited. But the average" man
who is not educated in the
control of the muscles; who does
not know how much the body
can stand, nor where to draw the line
in the tax he puts upon the brain; who
does not know how to obtain from
each part Of his being the best that
it is capable of furnishing-this man,
although brutal enough, is less brutal
than the average" man who does
know these things. This 10 what the
Courier-Journal thoughtlessly de-
clares. How many intelligent read
ers, who can think for themselves
and who have compared the men
Of their acquaintance that belong
to the two classes, will believe it? I
dare say If the writer who made that
statement were confronsed with the