Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-07-24


tracks that ptilessly condemned the COM
pet!tor guilty of "foulinR7''
. Inc Sportsman describes the affair as
one or the most disgraceful exhibitions
vi 1oui play ever witnessed. 80 slur
Is cast upon American sportsmanship in
the eyes of all Europe which can not be
eradicated. There can be no excuse.
.he thing was open. unabashed. shame
less II must be repudiated or defended"
The Americans Disguised.
Matthew P. Halpin. the manager of the
american team. who was in the arena
at the time of the race, Immediately en-
tered protest. claiming the race for Car
penter. who had done the distance. ac
cording to unofficial watches. in the re-
nnaIkaoie time of .4S % seconds some
watches making it even less.
James r. Sullivan. the American COM
missioner to the games. and Barlow S.
weeks. j. B. McCabe. Gustavus T. kir-
oy. Everett c. Brown and Alonzo Stag.
members of the American committee. sat
IN room in their local hotel last even
ing. the most disguised lot Of Americans
ever gathered together in England. COM
missioner Sullivan was the spokesman,
and the others upheld what he said.
sEet us In the first place. said Mr..
sullivan discuss the arrangement OF
Tn, ,he track. 1t was unfair. especially to
laNlor. and apparently the arranging was
c. ne by man who did not want all the
contestants to get a fair start. Taylor
position caused him to give away YARDS
winch he could never regain.
As the Race Was Run.
Now for the race. Carpenter DIT tie
crack of the pistol took the lead. and did
the only thing he could do and win. and
that was to take all the running out OF
Halswelle in the first 300 yards AS a re-
suit, he gave the spectators the fastest
:NO yards ever seen on the stadium The
go yards he covered in q seconds and at
800 yards he had Halswelle out Carmen
ter had the pole but he did not run close
to 1t. He ran we'll out at the first bend,
ana coming to the second bend leading to
the straightaway he ran wide. as he had
perfect right to do. Halswelle. instead.
or taking advantage of this chance and
cutting into the post. remained in his
old position. At that point. probably TIC
yards from home. Carpenter turned his
head to see who was there. and then,
swinging up the stretch. gave the English
public a 10 yards they had not seen
equaled this week Halswelle was all
out before the stretch was reached and
America had found in Carpentn ~ wonder
at this distance
Never in my life and I have been at
tending athletic meetings for thirty one
years. have 1 witnessed a scene that
struck me as being so unsportsmanlike
and unfair as that in which the OFF, als
participated. When Carpenter started
to leave Halswelle behind the officials
cried foul in unison, and raised their
hands and hats, while the announcer ran
around also yelling foul Furthermore,
they did the unsportsmanlike act of rum
ming up the track in an endeavor to stop
Carpenter coming through. and delib-
rately and meanly broke the tape so as
not to give him the honor.
They practically declared 1t no race
without authority There was but one
man in the arena who had authority to
do that. and he was the referee. The
referee did not do so. but lot OF ex-
cited officials ran about screaming
foul and no race and it was their de-
ciSion that was announced.
Decision Of the Americans.
The formal announcement of the
American committee Is follows:
I'VE have decided to protest the de-
cision as unfair and because the Of
ficials declared no race without con-
SideratiOn.'
The American committee further an
nounced that although Carpenter and
Robbins would not get the Olympic
medals, they would receive medals from
the American committee, and they would
be credited with their win in America.
Committeeman McCabe said that the
breaking of the tape was done under the
influence of 10000 people who filled the
stands and who were 'inf1amed by the
games officials and newspapers.
1T is no surprise to me-" he said, I'm
view of the statements in the morning
papers that Halswelle had been pocketed
at Athens and that todays race would. be
watched by the people. 1t is fair to as
sumo. therefore. that the audience was
ready to denounce an American victory
in the 4OO-meter race. and that the Of
ficials were Influenced by this fact
What Carpenter Says.
Carpenter. who. his teammates say would
be the last one to resort to fouling to
win medals thus described the race:
LAS we approached the last bend Rob-
bins had the pole and was leading by a
yard. / made my effort there, and 1 GER
tainly ran wide. as l have done every
time / have been on the track. Halls
welle had lots of room to pass me on
either side.
1T is ridiculous to talk of q team
boring or pocketing as good man as
Halswelle is in a quarter-mile race. No
team could do it. We had nothing of
the kind in view we just raced him of
his feet and he couldn't stand the pace"