Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-31
THE
BRITISH
CRISIS

| LONDON, July 20.-England spends
every year more money on sport than for
its army and navy. its religion. its schools
| or anything except its drink. An accept
ed authority on English sporting matters
has compiled statistics showing that the
forty-odd million people of Great Britain
spend 1925. 100000 annually for sport. be-
sides having invested permanently $780,
100000 in property devoted exclusively to
the uses of sportsmen.
In no other nation in the whole world
| is sport an essential factor in the life of
| the people. Americans stand patiently
before bulletin boards waiting to hear the
score of a base ball game. but few Of
them, after they become men, actually
play the game. In some parts of the
Union few men and women still ride to
! hounds, but fox hunting in the United
| States amounts to so little that the great
majority of the people know nothing
| whatever about it, Foot ball, in its
American form, is played only by school
boys and college athletes. Racing is out
lawed in nearly every community, and to
| be associated with the turf is to forfeit
| social standing in nearly all parts OF
| America. Americans still delight to shoot
| and fish, but 80 per cent Of them never
| have the opportunity to do either, except
| in the most occasional way.
In England sport seems to be, after
| food and drink. the chief end of existence.
| Everybody has a Saturday half-holiday
| and everybody devotes it to sport. A
| crowd of 10000 at professional foot ball
| game is not unusual: Americas highest
| college foot ball record attendance does
not reach this figure. An English boy is
| taught to play cricket, not by other boys,
| as the American urchin learns base ball,
but by his father, who had been in turn
taught the mysteries of the game by his
! father. This instruction is not under
| taken lightly, but is much part OF
| the serious business of life as any other
| feature of child training. Not to have
| been cricketer, or a game player OF
| some kind, is not to have fulfilled the re-
quiremerSts of a British education. Both
| Mr.. Asquith and Mr.. Balfour, the leaders
Of the two great political parties IN
| Britain, fail to appeal fully to the imagi-
| ration of their followers because neither
| of them at college took any interest in
sports. Their biographers always apol-
ogize for this shortening.
| When George assembled the throne his
people remembered with qualification that
! as Prince of Wales he
| Present King had the reputation
Sportsman. shot One of the first
things the new king did was to announce
|
established by his father, although it was
generally known that George had little
vital interest in the turf. When the kings
| horse. or the prime minister's entry wins
the Derby or some other great classic of
the English turf. the victory is an occa-
sion for national rejoicing. 1t is impossi-
BILE to imagine a President of the United
States, or even a prominent senator. at
| tending a race meeting as the proprietor
| of q stable. Sometimes even in England,
| a Puritan will object to the patronage of.
| the turf on the part of a great states
man. A Congregational minister once at
| tackled Lord Rosebery, then prime minis
| ter. because he was the owner of Derby
winner. Lord Rosebery. in reply, said, in
| effect. that 1t was none Of the minister's
| business and that Christian charity
should prevent the criticism of any mans
preferences in sport Without doubt the
great majority of Englishmen agreed
with Lord Rosebery.
| Il
| Out of a territory Of less than twenty
million acres in Scotland almost four
| million acres are
Tracts Devoted to devoted to deer for
| ests alone. Scot
Ueer tOreStS. land has a popu-
| lation about equal to that of Ohio. Can
| any American imagine one-ffth of the
| territory of Ohio devoted to deer forests?
| The licenses for shooting game bring to
| Great Britain revenue of a million dol
| lars a year. Men who shoot fish are
| compelled to rent the property for that
| purpose, whether they take it for day,
a week year. One single firm of
| land agents in London holds property
| worth more than fifty million dollars
| on its lists to be rented for shooting
and fishing. The annual expenditure
for hunting, shooting and fishing amounts
to hundred million dollars, while nearly
two hundred million dollars worth of
property is held exclusively for the pur
pose Of these particular varieties of sport.
| While all classes of the people are
sportsmen, only foot ball and cricket are
the free privileges of the lower classes.
The game preserves are guarded care
fully by armies of keepers, and poachns
is severely punished by the law. About
twenty years ago parliament gave tenant
farmers the right, by enacting the hareS
and rabbits bill, to shoot fur" on the
land which they lease and cultivate. But
in many parts of the country it is danger
Gus for a tenant to exercise this right,
lest he fall under the displeasure of the
squire Even the possession of fowl
ingpiec is sufficient to bring a tenant
farmer under suspicion OF poachng.
There is an agitation in favor of giving
the actual holders of land the right to
shoot feather, as we'll as fur, but
there is little likelihood of such radical
piece of legislation at this time. And yet
there are few in the peasant class who
ale not potential poachers. In the last
political campaign Lloyd George Mortified
the gentry and endeared himself to the
lpeasantry by confessing that he had, him.
self, violated the game laws of dark
night.
Just what sport there may be in taking
a seat on a comfortable shooting stool.
| attended by battalion of gun bearers,
and then pot-shooting perfectly tame
| pheasapts as they are driven past by All
| army of heaters and drivers may arouse
questions in an American mind. But no