Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1905-02-17
ATTACK ON FOOTBALL.
DR.. Eliot Says 1t Injuries Ra-
tional Academic Life.
DIRECTIONS TO GAME POINTED OUT
Harvard.s President Says Immod err
ate Desire to Win and Mass Playa
Are Among the Sources Of Grave
Evils Calls the Game n Fight.
Rules Frequently Violated.

DR.. Charles W. Eliot. president of
Harvard university, who in has annual
report attacks football, says in part:
The game of football has become
seriously injurious to the rational aca-
demic life in American schools and cob
leges, and it is time that the public. es-
pecially the educated public. should un-
derstand and take earnest considera-
tion Of the objections to this game.
Some of the lesser objections TO the
game are its extreme publicity, the
large proportion of injuries among the
players. the absorption of the under
graduate mind in the subject for two
months and the disproportionate exal-
tation of the football hero in the col
lege world. The crude and vociferous
criticism, blame and praise, which falls
to the lot of the football player can be
Of no possible advantage to any young
man at the opening of his active life.
On the contrary, it keeps before him
an untrustworthy and unwholesome
standard of public approval or disap-
proyal.
Some danger attends most of the
manly sports, and taking their risks
makes part of the interest in them. but
the risks Of football are exaggerated
and unreasonable. In well managed
college, where men physically unfit for
football are prevented from playing the
game, the risk of death on the football
field within four years is not so great
as the risk in riding horseback, driving
an automobile or boating and yachting
if these sports are followed for years
Nevertheless many serious injuries oc.
cur which are apparently recovered
from in good measure, but which are
likely to prove q handicap to the victim
in later life.
"The football hero is useful in soci
ETY. OF young men if he illustrates gen
erous strength and clean life. but bis
merits of body and mind are not of the
most promising sort for future service
out in the world. The alert, nimble
wiry, tough body is for professional oil
business purposes In future life a bet
ter one than his, and the mental quail
ties of the big, brawny athlete are al
most certain to be inferior to those OF
slighter, quicker witted men whose
moral ideals are at least as high as his
The state of mutual distrust and
hostility between colleges which all too
frequently football creates is another
of these lesser evils. The distrust Is
publicly manifested in humiliatine
ing team or an official of the game puts
his ear close to the mouth of the train
er who has run out from the side line.
to wash the face of PROSTATE player
The preeaution taken against trickery
like armor and padding against hurts
shows what the game has come to be-
None Of these things. however, entel
into the main objection TO the game
for the main objection lies against ths
moral quality. AS developed in this
country under fierce intercollegiate
competition it has become a game il
which the actions of individual players
can often be entirely concealed no
only from the mass of spectators oil
the benches. but from the nearer oh
servers on the side lines or even th'
umpire, who gets as near as possible
to the combatants.
The game is played under estab
lished and recognized rules. but thu
| uniform enforcement of these rules i
| impossible, and violations of the rules
are in many respects highly profitable
| toward victory. Thus coaching from
the side lines, offside play, holding ant
disabling opponents by kneeing ant
kicking and by heavy blows on th'
head. particularly about the eyes, nos'
and jaw, are unquestionably profitabl'
toward victory, and no means hav'
been found of preventing these viola
tions of rules by players and coaches.
The common justification offered TO
these hateful conditions is that football
is a fight and that its strategy and eth
ics are those of war One may there
fore resort in football to every ruse