Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-11-01
Intellectual Reformations Show
the Need of Absolute Extnpation
By Bishop Warren A. Gambler

| game of football so that all It's Drutal
features have been eliminated. and just
| as regularly the public discovers that
/ the game is just as bad as ever. 1t has
! been scarcely more than a fortnight
| since proclamation went forth through
the press of the country that the new
rules of this year had most certainly
| and surely reformed the barbarous sport;
/ but last week there was killing at
| game IN St Louis, and now comes the
news of the death of L. B. Paine, captain
of the football team of Cornell Univer-
sity.
| Commenting upon this bad beginning
| OF the season under the new rules"
| President Nicholas Murray Butler of
I, Columbia University denounces the game
/ as "the poorest sport in existence" He
! goes on to say. II heartily approved of
| the action of the University coun-
| ell of Columbia in abolishing foot
| ball To revive the game at Co.
| Iumbia would be a step back into the
| middle ages and a surrender of the
/ repllte which came TO us through our de-
| cisive action in the matter. Hundreds
! of letters, mailed all over the country,
/ have come TO Columbia, praising her for
It, and lately even those students and
1 alumni who were at first most loud IN
| their denunciation of the councils act
! ion, have come over to its way OF
| thinking.
1 Some twenty years ago Emory College
I'm our own state abolished all inter-colle-
! giate games, including football, and for
time the institution stood alone among
| American colleges for this reform. Many
| criticized the college authorities for their
1 n a
as In the case of Columbia. many who
| were loudest In their condemnation OF
\ Emory's policy have come to approve II
| most warmly. The institution has pros
| pered: it's patronage has suffered no de-
/ crease and it's material resources in en-
| dowments and buildings have steadily
Increased The action taken was right,
| and right is always safe. Many other
| institutions have in recent years taken
! the same course and there are reasons
/ to hope that soon many more will do
| likewise There never was sound rea-
! son offered for the continuance OF these
| deadly and demoraliZing sports, ana
1 no lust cause has been brought forward
| to show the unwisdom of their aboli-
/ ton.
| If this game of football. upon which
many hundreds OF young lives have been
| sacrificed, is as harmless as some nave
| contended, why has ii needed reforma-
/ ton so often and why do the reforma-
/ lions of it prove futile so uniformity
1 The bottom truth in the matter Is that
| the element of brutality, at which so
| MANY "new rules have been aimed, Is
/ one of its chief attractions, and real
! elimination of this element would mean
4 the destruction of the game. There are
/ some things which can not be reformed
| without the death of them because the
| very heart of their life is evil. This is
the case of football 1t is inherently
| and incurabIy bad. AS DIR. Butler points
| ont. II is a barbarism of the sort which
| belonged to the middle ages. No specious
/ reasoning whatsoever can conceal this
| fact from a candid mind, and no new
rules can remove its righteousness.
| It is not to the credit of the public
/ mind that II has revolted from foot
ball on the ground Of It's danger TO the
body alone. The game does Involve
| periis 10 both life and limb, but this
is not the worst OF the case. This would
he suficient to condemn 1t, to be sure.
| More bright young lives have been
| sacrificed upon this sport than degen-
crate Israel offered in sacrifice to Mo-
| loch during the bad reign OF Ahab and
/ his contemporaries. Yet We. express
Horror at that ancient cult, and praise
| this modern paganism.
| Rut the worst feature OF this game
among the colleges is the moral evils
| which, in common with other intercol-
legiate games, 1t involves. For these
II deserves reprobation even more than
| for its destruction OF precious lives.
| Around these intercollegiate games
gather a Gordon of gamblers. who come
| from within and without the student
| bodies engaged, and they corrupt by
their presence and practices the very
| fountains OF life in our institutions or
higher learning. This contagion has
| spread to the secondary schools also'
and boys in knee pants are exposed
/ thereby to the communicating influence
of gamblers and gambling. 1t Is no
| wonder that we have gambling ma
MIA in our country. After quarter or
a. century of such schools OF gambling
| as intercollegiate games supply, we
might have expected that we would
have a generation of gamblers. We
have sowed in the most fertile soil
the seeds of this sin and we are reap
| ing most naturally an abundant har-
vest. Our statute books are hlled with
| enactrnents aimed at the suppression
| Of gambling on elections, gambling on
| farm products, gambling with cards,
| gambling in public and gambling in
| private But the evil goes on with
| undiminished volume, and 1T will go on
until we cease sowing the SEEDS from
which it springs. 1t is idle for NUM-
| cipal councils, state legislatures and
| the federal congress to seek 10 sup
| press by law what we encourage by
| custom. 1t is time to begin to strike
/ at the root of the trouble.
Again, these intercollegiate sports
| involve a great waste of time and mon
| ey in which students should not be en-
| couraged. Our college terms, in the
interest OF poor boys, should be made
/ as short as possible and the vacations
as long as possible Thereby the cost
of a college course would be reduced
and time would be afforded for a strug-
| Cling boy to make during vacations
| some of the money required for his coll
/ lesiate expenses. But the terms cam
not be shortened If any considerable
number of students are allowed to go
galloping and screaming through the
| land in intercollegiate sports for weeks
| and weeks during the academic year.
! Inc excitement preceding the games,
| the absence during the games and the
| excitement and wounds after the games,
| all defeat habits of study and delay
| scholastic progress. 1t is idle to say
| in reply to this that the crack play