New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-12-04

time. Anyhow, it will be something else than
football.
What are the facts about the brutality" Of
football? The collector of the statistics that
have so excited our friends at Columbia and
New-York universities, together with all those
persons who rejoice to work up a newspaper
sensation. finds that in the season just closed
twenty players were killed in football games
or died as a result of playing in football games.
Then he gives his list. It shows that out OF
that number only one member OF col
Iege team-Moore, the halfbaek of Union Col
lege eleven. of the rest all were high school boys
but two and all But one were under eighteen
years of age Probably not less than io,VOV
men and boys were playing football IN the sea
son that has lust come to close. Even il we
grant that every OF the twenty deaths
spoken of may be legitimately charged TO the
game OF football, what other sport is there that
can show a better record? Not infrequenuy
Ne road Of y golf player who is seriously in
iured or killed by being hit with a ball or CLUB:
Does anybody, therefore, propose that golI
should be abolished? Numerous lives are ioSL
every season among persons who follow the
hounds in this country and lin England. Ger
tainly the mortality in hunting is far greater
than in football in proportion TO the NUMBER OF
persons who engage in it. Coming down TO
motoring find an employment which nun
dreds of persons dignity by the name OF sport
mind YOU not only dangerous to the person
who follows it himself, but even more perlous
dragged in to share its catastrophes. Yet We
don't hear of any legislation against motoring.
We have been proceeding upon the assump-
ton that ell these twenty deaths may be prop
erly charged to the game Of football That this
is a false assumption will become apparent upon
the most superficial analysis. Football suffers
han frOTT7 enemies.
Eighteen of the deaths referred TO were those of
mere hoys. all of them under eighteen years.
Football is a mans game, the most strenuous
snort that we know It is fit only for players
Who ara absolutely sound in wind and in limb.
ar5 who have arrived at physical maturity 50
80 erov-th Is concerned Even then II Is
madness for any one to play the game except
after a proper period OF training calculated 70
fit him for it's rigoTs And vet here We nave
thousands Of mere schoolboys and str!plngs.
many Of them not cut of kniokerbockers az
n,avinp football. suppose you put the same
bcvs at work in a New England bayfield, day af-
fer day under July sun. How many Of them.
+binl Won would escape sunstroke? And vet
hayra king is not regarded as proper supJeSt
for prohibitive legislation It is Simply amazing amazing
that parents and school principals ana leaCIleiS
DISPLAY so little common intelligence II. lllo
matter It is not too much to say that any
school principal who encourages the boys dhueI
hi- care under eighteen years of age. TO play
fo0ths deserves TO lose his place Immediately
go never IA have another position of similar re-
cnonsihty And Vet the principals of some OF
onr most inportant and famous schools are as
keen for new and promising material Tor 1oot-
hall teams as Yale or Princeton coach could
nossibIv he II only requires a trding use of
the brains God is supposed to have given them
to assure the pupils of the pTotectoh tney are
entitled to receive against such ignorance
one Of the deaths aseribed in this arraignnlent
of football as due to the game is that of mill
hand who went into a match right from work at
the bench and without any but the slightest
prepare ton. Another is that of Maryland
girl. Think of that! And football takes the
blame Really it is quite too ridiculous for words
Earlier in the season I called attention TO case
N line with this discussion to which / wish
again to refer. I repeat it because 1t occurred
in the team Of one Of the two newborn 1hsu-
4,,+ions Of learning which now heading TINS
da1i~foT,e attack Uunu football. In a game IN
which this team was participating IN TINS CITY
one of it's backs collapsed. A physician VINO
happeped to he among the spectators Went 70
his assistance He found the man had an or
ganicaIy weak heart. In fact 1t was crlIIlII!al
ca re!essness to allow him 70 play al an V IIt ,
the physician knelt by him on the sideilhes liIe
mans puIse fell to such low and feeple stroke
that he was actually on the brink OF death
They took him off TO the hospital hAacty one
week later that man played as usual III ms Gus
tomary position. That he didn't drop deau on
the gridiron is simply an amazing BIZ OF luck
But If he had done SO MS dedlH "ouiu Se,1.
edIv have been attributed to the rlgors OF thal
brutal game, football There can be no manner
of doubt that in some of the cases in that afore-
said list a rigid examination would show that
the dead youth was a victim of some Constitu-
tiouaI weakness and not Of football at all Inc
facts I have narrated about the local player
are easily ca pable of substantiation. and the
authorities can get them from me If they wish
II Is difficult to believe that either the player
or his captain or head coach could have been
ignorant of the fact that hes was taking ms
life in his hand every time he played football
Yet he played.
I picked up paper the other morning and
read 4 dispatch from Salem. Mass. II SAID.