The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1905-02-14
ATTACK ON FOOTBALL.
DIR. Eliot Says 1t Injuries Ra-
tional Academic Life.
OBJECTIONS TO GAME POINTED OUT
HnrvArd's President Says Immoder-
ate Desire to Win and Mass Plays
Are Among the Sources of Grave
Evils - Calls fhe Game Fight.
Rules Frequently Violated.

Evils - Calls the tame Fight.
Rules Frequently Violated.
DIR, Charles w. Eliot, president Of
Harvard university, who in his 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 col
leges, and 1t lis 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 I'm the col
iege 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, 1t keeps before him
an untrustworthy and unwholesome
standard of public approval or disap-
proval
"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 n well managed
college, where men physically unfit for
football are prevented from playing the
ha yfaT 80 hn fhaIy
field within four years is not so great
as the risk in riding horseback, driving
an automobile or boating and yachting
IL 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 handicap to the victim
In later life
THE football hero is useful in a soci-
ETY. OF yonng men IL he illustrates gen.
er0us strength and clean life, but his
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 or
business purposes In future life bet
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
r,t1hffalp nif ta1 In, h,1n
ways, as when a member of an oppos-
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 lines
TO wash the face of PROSTATE player
The precaution taken against trickery,
Ike arnor and padding against hurts,
shows what the game has come to be.
None OF these things, however, enter
into the main objection to the game,
for the main objection lies against the
moral quality. As developed In this
country under fierce intercollegiate
competition it has become a game in
which the actions of Individual players
can often be entirely concealed not
only from the mass of spectators on
atAN RNhthNSf -bQt tic HthTtE Op-
servers on the side lines or even the
umpire. who gets as near as possible
to the combatants.
The game Is played under estab-
lished and recognized rules, but the
uniform enforcement of these rules Is
impossible, and violations of the rules
are in many respects highly profitable
ri lat ~f&Ex
the side lines, offside play, holding and |
disabling opponents by kneeing and |
kicking and by heavy blows on the |
head. particularly about the eyes, nose
and Jaw, are unquestionably profitable |
toward victory, and no means have
been found of preventing these viola
tions OF rules by players and coaches
THE common justification offered for |
these hateful conditions is that football |
is q fight and that its strategy and eth |
les arc those of war One may there |
fore resort In football TO every ruse,
stratagem and deceit which would be /
justifiable In actual fighting New /
tricks are always desirable as surprises |
The weaker man lis the legitimate prey |
VI lIE sAIDuSEI. oIE buUuiu always ITy
to discover the weakest man In the op
line, as, for example, the man |
most recently injured, and attack him
again and again
These rules of action are all justifa-
Bile and even necessary In the consum-
mate sayagery called war, In which the
object is to kill and disable
as many of the enemy as possible. To
surprise. ambuscade and deceive the
enemy and invariably to overwhelm a
smaller force by greater one are ex-
pected methods Of war. But there is no
justification for such methods In man
~ game OF sport between friends They
are essentially ungenerous, and no
sport IS wholesome In which ungener-
Gus and mean acts which easily escape
detection contribute to victory, wheth-
er such acts be occasional and inciden-
tai or habituai.
"The essential thing for the uniyer-