Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1914-04-11
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By HAL SHERIDAN.
lWritten for the United Press.O

New York, April ll.-With plans for
the collection by subscription Of 800,
900 to send an American athletic team
TO tho 1915 Olympics at Berlin well
under way, Old Uncle Sam bids fair
TO walk off with another international
field and track victory, despite frantic
efforts Of England, France, Germany
and Sweden to head us off.
1t will be remembered that immedi.
ately after the 0lympics at Stockholm,
England with great hue and cry,
set about to raise steen thousand dol
lars 10 spend on manufacturing team
that would give the British lion :
chance to roar Those bally, bold, bad
Britishers were going to start whaug
off Che bat and develop bunch Of
athletes who were to garner all tbs
1915 Olympic medals, honors, records
ami ribbons in sight But already,
according to reports from the land that
has Just been startled from tea drink
ing habits by an exhibition of Yankee
baseball, which also shook the crown
from and u derby hat onto King
Georges royal plat, the Englandcr.
have begun to stall.
The wild enthusiasm which amateur
field and track lovers Of England aud
the colonies stirred up for the first
few months following the Stockholm
games has since simlnered down until
Il s as lukewarm as a pot of tea woula
get by the timo the seven hundredth
innings Chat as" belongs there) of a
cricket game rolled by. When it came
time to collect passable coin Of the
realm and actually spend it on hiring
athletic trainers who had the ability
10 develop the athletes there was IL
tie doing And it was likewise when
the suggestion was madc that England
40 out into her byways to get material
Never would it do, they argued, to have
u member of the common classes mem
bers of an athletic team that repre-
sented England. In England, you
know, Old Top-po, f man isn't a
gentleman " he can hardly be classed
as an amateur at least it's nearly
that bad. And so England appears to
be back in the same old rut.
France Different.
In France 1t has been slightly diff
ferent. Those .tempermental French
men started right off the bat to do the
same real work, and If France doesn 7
show up a whole lot better in 1915 i
win be strange The reports Of Amer.
ica's Stockholm victory WASH Z cold on
the wires until the Frenchman, backed
by the government, had gathered in
great bunch Of shekels--or francs
and they started to spend the money
in the right way They established a
government "College of Athletes" at
Rheims, and they hired some real ath.
letic trainers--from America. The
French government appropriated about
$4,000, to tho "College of Athletes. y
They went even farther. Any man, Of
ficer or enlisted man, in the army, who
shows promise of developing into an
athlate, is ordered to take up his
studies at Rheims The work is going
on there now in stern earnestncss, and
il not in 1915, then at the next 0lym-
pies France is bound to be heard from.
Work very much similar to that be.
ing done in France is today going o..
in Germany and swelen. The German
government is showing every encour-
agement, both financial and moral, TO
those who are developing athletes for
the Berlin games, and in Sweden they
are using that stadium they built for
the last 0lympics as practice ground
for developing the Swedish team.
But they have started too late for
the 1915 games. The United States has
too much of lead. Witness the re-
+ cent amateur indoor championships
held at Madison Square Garden, whore
three records were smashed and several
more were egualled. And be it remem
bered that some dozen or moro Gree.
ord Z men whose homes are in the west
and middle west, were not among those
present, and who can be counted on fc,
points in 1915.
Even at that, however, il will never
do TO sit back and count the chicks
lust yet. That 100000 isn't all sub
scribed, and 100000 is lot Of money
or course, taere are lot Of missionary
societies Who claim they need contribu
tions, but there are also a lot Of places
whore money might be worse spent.
Cheese Champs Common.
Many moons back we had some spicy
remarks to mako on the cheese figh'
champions Of today. Not one word Of
aL..-s ~.o~Ia a. ratraafad 0n ths