New-York tribune., 1908-08-09
THE EXPLOITATION OF SPORTS.

A somewhat austere and doubtless to many
an unwelcome recessional from the Olympic
games has been sounded by DR.. Edmond Ware,
the veteran Etonian. In his college and uni
versity days he was himself champion athlete,
a member of the Oxford varsity crew for three
years, and for year president Of the Ok
ford University Boat Club; ever since he has
retained q fondness for sports. and during his
forty-five years at Eton-twenty-four as assist
ant master and twenty-one head MASTER
that college amply sustained its ancient fame
for athletic prowess. He must be regarded,
therefore, as by no means unsympathetic tow
ard legitimate sports, and his criticisms of
present practice, however severe, must be re-
ceived as those of a candid friend.
The Olympic agony as he calls the recent
performances at Shepherds Bush, is to his
mind typical of the spirit of the age, when
hungers after display. advertisement and eX-
hibition Even exhibitions are becoming in
trinsfcally competitive within themselves, and
the epoch is feversh with record making and
record breaking. Play has become hard work
and pleasure toll. Sports and pastmes are
with few exceptions no longer joyous recrea>
tions but a serious business, largely permeated
with professionalism and exploited into great
public spectacles. Games are played not so
much for the pleasure OF them as for self
advertisement and personal distinction, if not
titudes who witness them centres not so much
on the skill of the players and the goodness
of the games as on the money which is waSered
on the issue Such exploitation Of sport and
such perversion " it from its true intent he
looks upon with apprehension. as likely to be
neither wholesome nor elavatng in their effect,
socially or indiyidually, upon the national life.
These views Of Dr.. Warre accord closely
with those which have been on various occa-
a.-Tf. rIarI in
connection with the football controversy Of
connie of wears ago. We have applied them.
however. chiefly. if not entirely, to collegiate
and university sports and it seems probable
that DR.. Warre also, either consciously OF
unconsciousy, had that application IN mimi
There can be no doubt that he is right In at
tributing the over-explotation of sports to the
spirit of the age, and far it is produc-
tive of abuse must regret the prevalence OF
that spirit, though we are not prepared to ad-
nit that it is altogether evil or undesirable, or
that II is at all confined TO the present age.
The size of ancient amphtheatres Of which
ruins remain indicates that contests, whether
cruel or humane, were witnessed by enormous
throngs, and of these by means the least
were the multitudes which behed the Olympic
games of classic days in Ellis
The spectacular element in college games is
to be deprecated, because In the very nature of
the case tEoSe games 0lner radically from those
outside Of academic life 1t Is to be deprecated
in other games and sports, so far as it I'M
pairs legitimate interest in the sports for
their own sake or tends to lessen fairness of
competition and judgment and cordial good
fellowship among the contestants and their par
fisans But we should not wish to have a
yacht race sailed ON an otherwise deserted sea
or past untenanted Shores or to have a match
at baseball or cricket played in vast solitude
save for the players themselves and their Off
cial attendants. The presence Of sympathetic
aud appreciatxe spectators is indeed substan-
italy essential 10 the best development, TO the
fall enjoyment and to the highest ethical profit
Of sports, and the real question in the reform