The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-12-24
College Heads to
Aid of Football

| The retention of football in Ameri-
can colleges and universities not only
| is desirable but the elimination of
| the game would be a national calam-
ity, according to the opinions of lead
| ing instructors given in a symposium
With only a single eXception-that
of David Starr Jordan, president of
Leland Stanford, jr., university, the
university presidents strongly, favor
retention of the game. Most of them
suggest some change in the rules to
eliminate mass plays and reduce the
number of accidents.
To get the deliberate opinions of
| the college presidents the publication
addressed letter to all the leading in
situations of learning throughout the
country, asking in substance if in their
opinion the game was worth trying
refused to express himself on the sub
ject, and DR.. Hadley, of Yale, pre-
ferred not to give a direct opinion,
although in an informal interview he
strongly indorses the game and be-
lieves the accidents a small price It.
pay for a sport that saves one class OF
youth from rowdyism and another from
drinking. He says that if mass plays
| were eliminated the danger would not
be great to the players.
Says 1t Aids Morals.
Practically all the college presi-
moral than it's physical benefits. Says
President w. H. c. Faunce, of Brown
university:
"The benefit of football from my
point of view is not physical, but So
cial and moral. AS much physical
benefit, or more, can be derived from
riding or swimming or other sports.
The real benefits is in the rigorous CO.
operative training, the suDordination
of self in team work, the power to
fling ones total self into a task, the
willingness to brave sturdy opposition
for the sake of an ideal end
consequently the damage wrought
by football-at times most serious
is social and moral damage All the
football games of America do not in a
whole year involve so many fatalities
as resulted from automobiles in New
York city alone in the month OF Octo-
Der alone The number of lives lost in
skating and sailing is appalling. Yet
in these sports we do not talk of abo-
lition.
1.-The real damage is not in the ac-
cidental features of football, but in its
CELEBRATE intentions-in its brutality
it's exaltation of avoirdupols over
mind it's desire to cripple or to MAIN.
to cheat and evade, it's appeal to baser
passions in order to achieve its END
These are the evils against which VT
must sternly protest today"
"Profes sionaIisr1 worst"
Harry Pratt Judson, president of the
University of Chicago, sees far more
danger in the game drifting into pro-
fessional athletics than in the physical
danger to the players. He says the
physical dangers can be eliminated by
a modification of the rules. He says
Far more serious than these, how
ever. have been in the past evils
which l am inclined to call moral
These have been, on the part of the
teams, an excessive desire for victory
resulting in the importation Of skilled
PLAYERS and such handling of the
teams as amounted to professional
athletics instead of the clean amateu
rism which ought to prevail. Again
the excessive interest in the subject
on the part of the students has caused
decided interference with the more
serious purposes of college life.
Il am convinced that it is possible
| to save the game as q part Of the
proper recreation of student life ana
as form of genuine amateur
sport
| Is Needed, He Says.
! President John Cavanaugh, of Notre
Dame university, believe the game
should be prohibited among h1gh
| school boys, but he strongly ravors
its retention for young men in col
| leges.
Prof. Jordan, while opposed to the
game as now played in eastern col
! eyes, believes that a return TO the
English sport would be beneficial 10
all.
Col. H. L. Scott, superintendent OF
the United States military academy
and Capt ]. NJ. Bowyer, superintend-
ent of the United States naval acade-