The morning journal-courier., 1908-01-06
FOR OLYMPIC CREW Julian w. Curtiss and James Pilkington to Select. One
 for America.
HENLEY RULES TO PREVAIL
New York and Philadelphia Centers from Which Men Will be Chosen
 to Compose it.

Within two weeks President James Pilkington of the National Association of Amateur Oarsmen and Julian W. Curtiss of Yale, the American commit tee on rowing, will begin to work on the problem of selecting an eight-oared crew to represent the United States in the Olympic games regatta at London next July. While no plans regarding the selection of the crew have been officially announced, Messrs. Pilkington and Curtiss have formally discussed the matter and generally agree upon its details.
 The necessity of bringing the selected oarsmen to some central point will pre- sent a difficult problem for solution. It will be necessary to boat the men and keep them working together some time before leaving for England, and it may prove a difficult matter to secure the best oarsmen on this account. Tn view of this it is expected that the en- tire affair will revolve around New York and Philadelphia which centers contain good enough oarsmen to supply such crew
 It has been stated that college oars men will make up the majority of the American contingent, but this is denied by President Pilkington, who says the selection will be made irrespective of the social position of the candidates. A false impression has been created that only few amateur oarsmen in Ameri- ca are eligible to row in England un- der the Henley rules. which will gov ern all rowing races at the Olympic games. This is erroneous. With very few exceptions every oarsman belong ing to a National association club in New York, Philadelphia and other cen ters is eligible. The rules at Henley bar a mechanic or laborer, but there are very few of these rowing in Amer lea; the rowing element is largely and almost entirely made up of clerks and young business men, both of whom are in the Henley eligible class.
 It is probable that the selection will be made after a series of trial races that is, if any entries are made in the singles or doubles-but the eight-oared and four-oared crews which the com nittee of selection is to send over can not be selected by any trying-out pro- cess because of the difficulty in ar ranging the personnel of the crews for any accurate trial of speed. It is not at all unlikely that the entry will be limited to <an eight, which, however may contain a four, double, or single. It Is known that whatever plans the committee decides to adopt the su- preme effort will be in the eight-oared event. This is always the most impor- tant event at any regatta, and Presi- dent Pilkington has always declared that a properly selected all-Americar crew would have little difficulty in win ming from any European eight.
 The American committee will be handicapped owing to the fact that the entries close eight weeks before the date set for the regatta, An effort will be made to shorten the time and thus allow the Americans to secure the best possible crew to compete. Some dis. appointment is also expressed over the adoption of the Henley rules. These are very severe, and while they may meet the requirements of English boa racing, the conditions in America ant other countries are not adapted tt these rules. It is felt that if the law. governing rowing in all countries out side of England had been used for the purpose of drawing up general sci of rules and regulations and adopted by the Olympic games committee i would not only have been more satis factory, but placed all crews on a bet. ter footing of equality.