Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-03
HARD PROBLEM
FOR COLLEC|ANS
Summer Base Ball a Very
Good Thing for Poor
Students.

Brown University has taken the proper
| stand anent summer base ball playing.
Why should a young man OF poor family
| who Is struggling against adversely In
| fighting for a college education be pre-
| vented from earning enough money in
| summer time following the honest occu-
patton Of a base ball player to pay for
his board, tuition and other expenses as
student in winter time? College students
are permitted to write for newspapers. to
| act as private tutors, to hire out as hotel
clerks and walters at summer hotels, or
| as park guards, motormen and conductors
and to perform any other kind Of manual
| labor which earns for them sufficient
money with which to pay for their tuition,
etc, without subjecting them to the
stigma OF being branded as professional.
but they are not allowed to employ their
base ball skill for the same good cause.
Now. isn't that simply ridiculous?
Isn't earning money by playing base ball
just as honest and honorable as TO earn
it by serving as waiter in the dining room
of a summer hotel? AS a matter OF fact,
| isn't it more eievating and decidedly less
| Illuminating for a student to play ball on
summer nine which will give him plenty
studies than to wait on people in hotel
dining rooms and carry a tray around!
| from early IN the morning until late at
night. which at best Is not only hard work
but co!ored mans job? At any rate, play
! Ing base ball Is an elevating occupation,
especially for a college man. compared
with waiting in a dining room and the
ether occupations poor students are
permitted to follow under the present
, asinine rules In vogue al colleges, main
| fotn ovid fn nf
| trying to keep athletics pure or clean.
! Why not change the rules SO that poor
! stud 2ntS who are compelled to earn money
during vacation time TO pay their way
through collas@ are allowed to play on
| mountain. Seashors and the other higher
| class OF sem professional base ball
teams? l know OF young student who
| last summer worked as waiter at q sea-
shore hotel for 50 per week plus the tips
/ be got and which at first Inundated him
/ IN accepting them. making him feel like
/ nieudicant 20 take the same. who could
! have earned $50 ger week and board play
/ ing has2 ball with high-class mountain
J reSor. sami-prOfess, onal team had II not
been for this rule. which would have
| barred him from his college foot ball
team in the fall had he accepted the offer
made him. That student had to slave
! hard in dining room from am. till
$50 IN. daily, with no time left for him
| to read or study. Had he played ball
money and worked only couple o. hours
per day, which would have allowed him
at least ten hours daily for mental i'm
provement by studying and reading.
| Il took a trunk full OF books along to
! the shore with me-" said this student to
me the other day. intending to devote
at least a couple of hours each day to
| reading and studying, but aft working
! from ) am. till $50 pm l was SO tired
| that ] was CAD to find rest in my bed
/ each night as soon as | got through in
! the dining room. and even then did not
| feel when called In the morning to get up
| that / tad enough sleep. Lad | been al
! lowed to play pase bail J woulI have re-
! turned 10 college with $40 instead OF $500
! which IS all ] could scrape together from
! my Salary and tips. and in addition
! would have had at least ten hours daily
! to ms self for study and 20 improve my
| self by reading the standard works OF a
! trunk full Of books l had borrowed and
! purchased from time 10 time my means
! allowed in secondhand book stores and
! auction houses