The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-04-07
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
 "Should the women be encouraged to take part in competitive athletics and sports? ?' Dr. Luther H. Gulick, president of the American Physical Education as- sociation and head of the department of physical education in the public schools of New York, repeated the question thoughtfully.
 "There is a woman's problem in eX- ercise as there is in many other things he went on. "Fortunarely. with reference to exercise the differences between men and women are more tangible ana we know the facts upon which those dlfter- ences rest better than we know those in connection with political organization, for example.
 Wears ago when I was beginning this work l believed that the difference be- tween men and women was caused by the difference in their training. l no longer have any such idea. I know that the physique of men and of women alHereo in the beginning-man to be the nghter' the protector. woman for motherhood,
 ',rhe time formerly spent by a girl as an assistant in the home is new spent in school. She goes from school to college, to business. to the factory, to the office, to many different occupations, mostly se- dantary.
 This has decreased her physical ac- tivities and increased her mental and nervous activities; it has delayed or de- stroyed her from marriage, and her home today. if she has one, is an added drain on her mental and nervous rather than upon her muscular system.
 Physical training should assist in ad- justing women to their new environ ment. Business life and independence in women tend to develop certain masculine .a1i f,, f1aor training should not accentuate these qualities, but rather should help to make girls and wo- men healthier and better able to bear the burdens of womanhood and mother hood It should develop their feminine characteristics, grace in speech, dress and carriage.
 Physical directors should bear in mind the physiological difference between men and women and between boys and girls.
 -.t birth boys as a rule are taller and heavier than girls. From the eleventh to the sixteenth year the girls are the taller and from the twelfth to the seventeenth year they are the heavier. From then pn to maturity the boys forge ahead in weight, height and strength.
 That men are bigger and heavier than women is obvious. But are they stronger, weight for weight?
 '"fhe returns from examinations insti- tuted in our colleges for men and women give a conclusive answer. Bulk for bulk, weight for weight, men are muscularly stronger than women.
 But this is only the beginning of the argument. Women are shaped differently from men. At an equal height and weight, mans shoulders are broader than womanS. So then in every form of gymnastics or athletics which depends on leverage and strength of shoulders the men will excel, even if he is not muscularly stronger than the woman.
 "A further handicap is placed on wo- man in the size of her hips. Her trunk also is longer. Therefore in all gym nastic work in which the weight of the body is held by the arms, such as work on the parallel and horizontal bars, woman has to support the bulk of her weight further from the bar than does a man. Her center of gravity is lower.
 'These physical facts do not dfferen- tiate all men from all women, because there are exceptional men who have shoulders and hips such as are usually seen on women; and vice versa, we occa- sionally find women who are muscularly stronger than most men, women whose bones have the leverage that belongs to men. But I am speaking of the average.
 ''When we come to severe tests of en- durance we find that woman is not less handicapped. In proportion she has de- cidedly smaller lungs. The red corpuscles in her blood are also smaller than those of the man. so their carrying capacity of oxygen is less.
 "The weight of a woman's body in pro portion to her breathing power is much greater than that of a mans. For this reason she cannot compete with him in running, any more than she can compete with him in feats of muscular strength.
 "A woman's legs are much shorter than a mans. and for that reason she cannot compete with him in running and jump ing. If a woman does muscular exer- else which is entirely related to her power, she will be doing what she could do, but she will not be doing work equalling that done by man. As far as exercise relates to the capacity of the individual the kind of work done by wo- men should be far more moderate than that done by men.
 But there is another side of the prob lem of exercise for women that is his- torical
 From the beginning man has been the hunter and fighter. Woman has predom- inately been the home keeper and the in dustrial worker.
 During these years when we are ex- plotting woman, she is developing our