The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-01-20
Pres. HadIey Declares Foot ball Most Democratic and Least Dangerous
 of Major Sports.
BREAKS HIS LONG SILENCE
ADMITS IT INVOLVES PHYSICAL
 HARDSHIP AND DANGER.

To Incur These Man Must Have What is Known as Sporting BiOod--D espitc Them the Game Claims Fewer Vic
 tims Than Sports Whose Successful
 Pursuit is Confined to the Rich--AlI
 Too Often Deaths from Hunting and
 SaiIing-YaIe Has Had No Football
 FataIity--QuestiOns of Unfairness--
 Satisfied to Leave Modification of
 Rules in Mir. Camps Hands-Justice
 of Colleges, One to AnOther--ReIa-
 tiOna With Harvard--ProbIem of
 Athletic Finances.
 New York, Jan. 19.-More than 400 graduates of Yale university attended the New York alumni dinner at Sher- ry's tonight, at which President Ar thur T. Hadley was one of the principal speakers. Seats at the tables were as-
 
 number from the one gray haired grad uate who sat under the legend "46' to the several score young men who at the other end of the room clustered about the standard '50." The Yale Glee club, which had come especially from New Haven, sang during the dinner a num- Der of well remembered old college songs. Julian W. Curtiss of the class of '79 was toastmaster, acting in that capacity as president of the Yale club. Before introducing the speakers MT. Curtiss made a few remarks in which he touched upon the subject of foot ball. He said the game was necessa- rily a rough one, but it would always appeal to men of blood and muscle. The game could be improved upon, he declared, but should not be abolished
 A letter of regret from Secretary of War Taft was read. In 1t MT. Taft tions would be made in the rules gov erning football that lone of the most healthful influences of college life" might be continued.
 President Hadley of Yale was then introduced. He said:
 In the encouragement or regulation of the student interests we work quiet ly, and say as little as we can, But there is one among them which has been made the subject of so much dis cussion that our quietness has been mistaken for inactivity and our silence for indifference to evil. refer to foot ball. Football is a major sport, like hunting or deep sea sailing. Like them, it involves much physical hardship and some physical danger. To understand why people incur this hardship and danger a man must have what is known as sporting blood. If he does not have this, all major sports, as prac- tioed by their deyotees, will seem to him irrational and absurd. I shall not argue the question. But this I will say that among all major sports football has for college students the double ad- vantage of being the most democratic and the least dangerous. Played by rich and poor alike. it claims fewer vic- tins than the sports whose successful pursuit is confined to the rich. All too often we have had deaths from hunting or deaths from sailing; but during the thirty years that we have played Rugby football at Yale there has been no deaths, and to the best of my knowledge no grave case of perma- nent injury This record is partly due to good fortune, and still more to the wise care of our advisors in the dis couragement of plays which would be successful only at the expense of life and health; but it is sufficient to show that hard football is not necessarily at tended with overwhelming physical danger
 The possibility of unfair play perhaps constitutes graver evil than the pos sibility of accident. Unfairness Is of two kinds; systematic unfairness, con- doned by an institution as a matter of policy, and accidental unfairness, of which a player may be guilty on the sour of the moment Systematic un- fairness is a very serious thing; fortu- nately there Is a perfectly plain way of dealing with it. If an institution in- tends to play unfairly, do not play with that institution next year. If you are not prepared to adopt this remedy, then keep quiet. To say that man means to play unfairly and then keep on play ing with him is not the act of a gen. tlennan. I am convinced that if every American college student and graduate would see that it was his duty as a gentleman to attribute honorable inten- tions to his opponent as long as he &C., cepted him as an opponent, the worse causes of irritation would be avoided. There will indeed always be men who, under the spur of the moment, do things that they ought not to do. We try to teach them better, and I for one feel worse when Yale man disregards these teachings than could feel over half a dozen defeats. do Harvard and Princeton the justice to believe that they are aetUated by the same spirit. When hear that Harvard or Prince ton man has played unfairly dismiss three-quarters of the charge as a prob able exaggeration, and think that if
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