The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-11-21
PRES. ROOSEVELT FOR
 CONTINUING FOOTBALL
SEEKS ONLY THE ABOLITION OF BRUTALITY AND FOUL
 PLAY.

Discusses Situation With Dr. J. William { White, Member of Pennsylvania Conn
 mittee on AthIetics-BOth Favor In-
 crease of Powers of Officials and of
 the Severity of the Penalties Where
 ever Eecessary-WOuId be Real Mis-
 fortune to Lose So Manly and vigOr-
 Ous Sport.
 Philadelphia, Penn., Nov. 2O.-Dr. J. William White, professor of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania, and a member of the university committee on athlethics, returned tonight from Washington, where he had been sum- moned by President Roosevelt to dis cuss matters relating to football. In an interview tonight Dr. White said:
 "The president did me the honor of asking me to lunch with him at the White House to-day for the purpose of discussing with him the situation as to American football. An article of mine published in last weeks Outlook was the occasion of the invitation. As to what took place during my visit the president has permitted me to say that we are in complete accord as to the need of the permanent abolition of brutality and foul play; of the increase of powers of the officials, and of the severity of the penalties as being nec- essary to bring about such abolition; as to the desirability of careful con- sideration of any changes in the rules that may be required to minimize dan ger while preserving the essential, manly and vigorous characteristics of the game, and as the urgent need of earnest effort to secure simple and uniform eligibility code for all Amer jean colleges and universities.
 ''The president says he 'emphatically believes in continuing the game
 "The president added: Brutality and foul play should receive the same sum- mary punishment given a man who blow in boxing. The umpire must have the widest latitude in enforcing this principle, even to the extent of order ing not only individual players, but whole teams off the field, and college presidents should hold to the sharp est accountability the umpire who per units foul or brutal football in any. game. We want simple rules, not complicated rules, because complicated rules offer too many looDholes. The responsible authorities of the several colleges whose teams play together should have what may be called gen. tlemen's agreements among themselves that these rules shall be enforced in spirit as well as in letter. each being held responsible for what goes on in his own college, and each seeing to the permanent removal from the game not only of the foul or brutal player, but of the man who is not bona tide stu dent and amateur. It would be 8 real misfortune to lose so manly and yigor- ous a game as football, and to avert such possibility the college author stties in each college should see to it that the game in that college is clean.'
 ''The president explained to me the se- lection of the institutions that came to the conference at the White House last month by saying: I was asked to call it by representatives of Harvard, Yale and Princeton and called it according ly. If Pennsylvania, Columbia and Cornell representatives had happened to make the suggestion, then only those three colleges would have been asked
 ''He spoke more than once of the de- sirability of continuing the game, and of extending to as many as possible it's advantages, with the safeguards al- ready mentioned He said that the five or six leading colleges should get to- gether and agree to play one another under such an agreement as he pre- scribed.
 'He also spoke of the far greater relative danger of many other soprts and pastimes, some of which he enum- erated. He showed characteristically keen interest in and thorough acquain- tance with the whole subject"