The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-06-29

possesses hardlhood, physical address |
and courage. But when these injuries
are inflicted by others, either Wanton-
ly or of set design, we are confront
ed by the question, not of damage TO
one mans body, but of damage to the
other mans character. Brutality IN
playing a game should awaken the
heartiest and most plainly shown con-
tempt for the player guilty of 1t, es-
pecially if this brutality is coupled
with a low cunning in committing II
without getting caught by the umpire.
hope to see both graduate and I'M
dergraduate opinion come to scorn
such a man as one guilty of base ana
dishonorable action, who has no pace
in the regard of gallant and upright
men.
1T is a bad thing for any college
man to grow to regard sport as the
serious business of life. 1t is a bad
thing to permit sensational1sm ana
hysteria to shape the development or
our sports. And finally it is much
worse thing to permit college sport
to become in any shape or way talnt-
ed by professionalism, or by so much
as the slightest suspicion of money
making; and this is especially true II
the professionalism is furtiVe, II the
boy or man violates the spirit or the
rule while striving to keep within the
letter. Professional sport is all right
in its way. | am glad to say that
among my friends l number profess
sional boxers and wrestlers, oarsmen
and baseball men. whose regard l
value, and whom in turn l regard as
thoroughly good citizens. But the
college undergraduate who, in furtiVe
fashion, becomes a Semi-profeSS1onal
is an unmtigated curse, and that not
alone to university life and to the
cause of amateur sport for the col
lege graduate ought i'm after years
to take the lead in putting the bust
ness morality of this country on a
proper plane, and he can not do it. If
in his own college career his code OF
conduct has been warped and twisted
Moreover, the spirit which puts so eX-
ceSsiVe a Vmue upon his work as to
produce this sem-professional is it
self unhealthy. l wish to see Har-
ward win a reasonable proportion Of
the contests in which it enters, and |
should be heartily ashamed of every
Harvard athlete who did not spend
every ounce there was in him in the
effort to win. provided only he does
it in honorable and manly fashion.
But | think our effort should be to
minimize rather than to increase that
kind of love ofl thletics which mani
tests itself, not in joining in the
athletic sports, but in crowding by
tens of thousands to see other people
indulge in them. 1t is a far better
thing for our colleges to have the av-
erage student interested <n some form
Of athletics than to have them all
gather i'm a mass to see other people
do their athletics for them.
$50 much for the undergraduates.
Now for the alumni the men who are
at work out in the great world. OF
course. the mans first duty is to him
self and to those Immediately depend
ent upon him. Unless he can pull his
own weight he must be content to re-
main a passenger all his life. But
we have a right to expect that the
men who comes out of Harvard will
do something more. than merely pull
their own weight. We have a right
to expect that they will count as posi-
tive forces for the betterment of their
lloW-countrymen; and they can thus
count only if they combine the power
of devotion to "a lofty ideal with prac-
teal common sense in striving to
realize this ideal
This nation never stood in greater
need than now of having among its
leaders men of lofty ideals. which
they try to live up to and not merely
to talk Of We need men with these
ideals in public life, and we need
them just as much in business and in
|such a profession as the law. We
can by statute establish only those
exceedingly rough lines of morality
the over-passing of which means that
the man is in jeopardy of the con-
stable or the sheriff But the nation
is badly off if in addition to this there
is not a very much higher standard
of conduct a standard impossible eff
feCtiVcly to establish by statute. but
one upon which the community as
a whole, and especially the real lead
ers of the community, insist. Take
such a question as the enforcement OF
the law 1t is. Of course, elementary
to say that this is the first requisite
i'm any civilization at all But great
many people in the ranks of life from
which most college men are drawn
seem to forget that they should con-
denim with equal severity those men
who break the law by committing
crimes Of mob violence, and those who
evade the law or who actually break
it, but so cunningly that they can not
be discovered, the crimes they COM
NIT being not those of physical! out
rage. but those of greed and craft on
the largest scale. The very rich man
who conducts his business as if he be-
lieVed that he were a law unto him
self, thereby Immensely increases the
difficulty of the task of UNFOLDING or
der when the disorder is a menace to
men of property; for if the community
feels that rich men disregard the law
where it affects themselves then the
community is apt to assume the
dangerous and unwholeSOme attitude
Of CondOning crimes of violence COM
United against the interests which in
the popular mind these rich men rep
resent. This last attitude is wholly
evil; but so is the attitude which pro-
duceS it, We have right to appeal
to the alumni of Harvard, and TO the
alumni of every institution of learning
in this land, to do their part in Great
ing a public sentiment which shall
demand of all men of means, and eS-
pecially of the men of vast fortune
that they set an example to their less
fortunate brethren, by paying Scrup-
ulous heed. not only to the letter, but
to the spirit of the laws, and by ac-
knoWledging in the heartiest fashion
the moral obligations which can not
be expressed i'm law, but which stand
back Of and above all laws 1t is far
moro important th@t they should con-
duct their business affairs decently
than that they should spend the sur
plus of their fortunes in philanthropy.
ha nd