Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-07-14
NOW ROOSEVELT
TURNS ON CAME
Ex- President Declares Evils
Connected With Prize Fight
ing Condemn It.
OUGHT TO PUT A STOP TO 1T
Friend of Boxing, but Declares Pub
lie Contests for Big Purses Are
Not to BE Tolerated.

trust that public sentiment will be so
aroused and will make itself felt so
effectively as to guarantee that this is
the last prize fight to take place in the
United States; and it would be an ad-
mirable thing if some method could
Sc devised to stop the exhibition of the
moving pictures taken thereof"
The above is the concluding para
graph of an editorial to appear in the
next number of the Outlook carrying
The signature of Theodore Roosevelt
on THE Recent Prize Fight"
Friendly to Game.
IN the editorial Colonel Roosevelt
writes from the standpoint of the man
who is friendly to prize fighting but
realizes that so many debasing fea-
TUES have grown TO surround the sport
as TO make its further continuance
undesirable.
In the article Roosevelt says:
I have always been fond of boxing
and have always believed in it as
vigorous, manly pastime, one of those
pastimes which have a distinct moral
and physical value, because they en-
courage such essential virtues as cour-
control. Until within a few years l
Used to box a good deal myself. and
when l was young several times took
part in contests of a public or semi
public generally, l am bound
to say, with i'll success.
Helpful in Army and Navy.
4 think boxing is a sport which
should be encouraged among boys and
young men generally. l have been
CAD TO help it so far as l could in the
army and navy. where, l believe, it
las been an excellent thing for the
enlisted men. When l was police
commissioner I was much struck by
s. atement made to me by Jacob Riis
tC the effect that the establishment of
boxing clubs in many of the poorer
districts had resulted in good. in rather
unexpected ways; that is, it had not
only given the vigorous young fellows
who otherwise would join gangs a
legitimate outlet for their activities.
but had also markedly reduced the
number of ARRAYS in which the knife
was used. The spirit produced by the
boxing had told against knife fighting.
and discouraged unfair play
Therefore. from every standpoint,
I believe in the encouragement of box
ing as a sport. Moreover, boxing as
a profession has its good side also
Among the men whose friendship and
regard l have really valued | could
name a number of professional boxers,
Including several ring champions.
The men to whom l refer l found
square, decent men, who showed them
selves good citizens when their good
citizenship was tested. l approved of
the movement which in this state, at
tho time that l was police commits
sloner, resulted in the enactment of a
law permitting contests between pro-
fessiOnal boxers under conditions
which were meant to safeguard the
sport against brutality and the other
evils which have everywhere resulted
sooner or later in the suppression of
the prize ring. l saw several of these
public boxing contests in which the
intent of the law was carried out in
good faith
Nevertheless, even under this law.
abuses Crept in, and, finally. one or
Two fights occurred where the sur
rounding circumstances were so scan
dalous that when l was governor l
was obliged to advocate, and finally to
secure, the repeal of the law under
which the contests took place. feeling
convinced, together with the great ma
jority of the citizens of the state, that
under it almost all that made prize
fighting Objectionable and demoraliz-
ing had gradually been revived.
Sees Doom of the sport.
Now this was my experience, the
experience of a man who, so far from
being prejudiced against boxing, was
and is warm advocate of it, and who.
at the outset, had not the slightest
prejudice against professional boxing
that is, boxing for purses of money
and who has numbered among his
friends many men who were profess
SIGNALS and had fought for money
prizes. 1 am sure that what has hap
pened in New York will happen in the
nation at large, and that prize fighting
will be, as it ought to be, stopped in
every state of the union.
Since it was stopped in New York
the conditions surrounding the ring
have grown worse and not better The
money prizes fought for are enormous,
anG are potent source of demoraliza-
tion in themselves, while they are
often so arranged as either to be
premium on cTookedness or else to
reward nearly as amply the man who
fails as the man who succeeds. The
betting and gambling upon the result
are thoroughly unhealthy, and the NOV