Truth. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1901-1908, 1906-01-06

the play, of men who do not depend
en-. sport for living. A professional"
is one who derives his financial sup
port wholly or in part from the ac-
tivity in question. In any line of acti
witty professional will naturally excel
an amateur. A college exists to de-
velop professional excellence in intel
fectual lines. A college man is rarely
intending to become a professional
athlete. The professional life of an ath-
lete is short and precarious, and
college man can do better. College
sports are therefore the by-play of
scholars and of men in training for
creative action. Because they are the
by-play of men chosen for higher
things, they have their chief interest
to the public. A baseball match of
college seniors counts for far more
than game among street gamins;
though the latter may put up the
better game. The college men repre-
sent standards in life. They are men
with a future, and this trait is, or
ought to be, shown in their games as
well as in their themes of investiga-
ton. Moreover, the intercol-
legiate games involve COM
parison of ideals in institu-
tions each with it's group of loyal
partisans. The charm of football lies
| in its clash of clans. But in the fact
that each clan dearly loves victory,
the parasite of muckerism finds it's
place. In the joy of victory his per-
Torrance passes with the rest as part
OF college loyalty. He may win be-
cause he is professional, not an anna
teur; but the game has it's interest
and Importance to college folks solely
from its amateur character.
The evil is not in professionalism
itself. There is no crime in being
paid athlete; 1t lies in the trickery by
which professionals masquerade as
amateurs, and by which vulgar cads
and their vulgar ways are made OBJ
jects of worship to college students,
and of tender consideration by college
faculties.
The real remedy is this: 1t is the
duty of the college to stand for intel
lectual work and intellectual excel
lence; for the manners and instincts
we attribute to the gentleman. If the
college has parasites from which it
can not free itself, If it maintains
snap courses and departments I'M
worthy of its best ideals, let it debar
the students of these departments
from the football teams. 1t may be
useful charity to maintain night law
school, open to all corners. 1t is
wrong to admit this class of students
to university privileges, and especial
ly in athletics. To do so opens the
doors to all abuses. Furthermore, the
actual standards of the college should
, exist in fact as well as in name. The
man who is gaining nothing intelec-
J tually and morally should be taken
to the edge of the campus and drop
: ped off" just as soon as that fact APP
pears. The professor who neglects
his duty to escape the execrations of
the bleachers is an accessory in fact
: in whatever the bleachers may de-
/, mand. Nine-tenths of the athletic
parasites remain through neglect on
the part of individual professors or of
scholarship committees to do their
own duty in the matter of upholding
, standards. AS the work test disposes
of the ordinary tramp, so does the
athletic tramp vanish before the test
! of scholarship.
Yet with all vigilance and all cour-
!, age, college authorities are some