Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-08-18

FElttERE are many good people IHIo"lHS VI
4 their hands in appropriate horror over the
exposure of certain aids not exactly ethical
by which some of our future navy officers
pass the examinations which Uncle Sam
prescrbes for them at Annapolis. Every one
will approve, in theory at least, the assump-
ton that these young men whom the Govern
ment is educating at great cost ought to be
above such reprehensible practices as to
cheat in examinations, whether their dis
honesty takes the form of stealing advance
sheets of examination questions or unfair as
sistnnce rendered to midshipmen who happen
to be athletes
That part of the courts report which
criticises the practice of helping the midship-
men athletes finds general approval. 1t isn't
n sin to be an athlete, even at Annapolis, but
that the athlete should be singled out for spe-
cial consideration, simply because he has
been cast in heroic mold, is untenable in
theory though unfortunately not always in
practice.
But what a commotion there would be If
some court of inquiry with power to sub
poena witnesses could sit in judgment on
the system of intercollegiate athletics in this
country! Realizing their own vulnerability,
therefore, 1t won't do for our universities to
cast stones at the Naval Academy. AS far
as their athletics are concerned, they have
too big a beam in their own eye to be of
much assistance in extracting the mote from
the eye of the Naval Academy
The Descent From Olympus
Most laymen will need some help to under
stand .he terms "gouge" and dope" which
figured so prominently in the midshipmen's
preparations for examinations. ITO gouge"
means to secure possession of advance copies
of examination questions while dope" as
the middies know it, Is collection of exam
inaton papers of previous years. and is val
liable the suppostion that these papers
will contain a majority of the questions to be
asked in any particular examination.
The wish to smooth the way of the athlete
is as old as athletics itself. When the ath-
letes of Greece assembled on the plains of
Olympus and thereby started the Olympic
games, they competed primarily for the pure
love of competition, and they were satisfied
to receive no prize other than a laurel
wreath. But their friends the gallery were
their undong. Carried away with their en-
thusiasm they bestowed special favors on
their victorious representatives. remtted
taxes and did other things equivalent to
financial remuneration and which university
and amateur athletic authorities try to re-
press.
Helping a college student because he is an
athlete, therefore, has plenty of precedent:
and although circumstances alter the meth
DDS, there is quite as much unfair aid given
to university students who happen to be ath
letes as there is to mdshipmen who repre-
sent the navy in athletics. The lack Of the
close supervision which exists at the Naval
Academy makes 1t easier for the colegians.
According to Code
Here is the situation which exists at most
universities. Eligibility codes are pretty
much standards a student to represent his
university must attain certain grade of
scholarship. There are all kinds of student
athletes, good bad and indifferent Many are
good students and always stand high in their
classes; but others are Indifferent or law
and constantly in need of assistance to meet
classroom requirements Suppose a man Is a
football player, aceumulates too many eondi-
tions and is declared ineligible to represent
his university on the gridiron He Is needed
in a particular game. What can be done?
II a special examination can be secured for
him a tutor is placed at his disposal and
with the tutors knowledge OF what questions
are likely TO be asked the student athlete 10
restored to good standing.
But who pays the bills? For. unfort,
nately, tutors not inspired with amateur
ideals, They work for SO much an hour ~
rare instances an athlete finances the tutor
ing unaided Usually there is a fund h the
treasury OF the Athletic Association for inst
such emergencies When there isn't lo,,s1
graduates come TO the rescue But no one
has ever been known 70 endow q universltv
win taaa e render this sort 81 assistance