Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1916-11-18
Direct and. to the Point

Some OF our testy critics say The Tribune is a
poor loser, thereby revealing an amusing notion
of what they were doing November 7. That day
was not made notable BY horse race, a prize
fight. a foot ball game or billiard match. The
election was not sporting event, except to some
Of the bettors who did not care who won 50 long
as they did not lose.
THE poor loser" is convention, and there
are many amiably conventional souls who If they
get hold of phrase, think that they have arrived
by thought at a sound conclusion. Thought
enters their habit OF life about as much as it does
a parrots conversation.
Frank Chance used to say that he did not want
any good losers on his ball team. Good losers
are poor fighters. Professional base ball is
played by men who want to win II they are to
have any chance of winning. Chance knew i
his players were reconciled to losing they had
lost before they began to play.
Even in sports, in which nothing is involved
except money or prestige or both, good loser
has his limitations: The fighter who wanted to
kiss the man who had put him out and have him
to dinner the next evening would not go TAR IN
the esteem OF men who want to see all the fight
there is in a man.
A loser must take his medicine, but he does not
have to pretend that he likes it. Certain sports
which sports generally represent. They present
a chiyarously, scientific aspect. Two tennis
players, with their egotism subdued and their
skill at its utmost, try each others game The
loser is good loser. What was sought was an
entertainment Of the relation Of one man to the
other. The loser would prefer that the result was
different, but he accepts it without Crouch. He
wants to know where he stands.
The chvalry Of sports has grown up about
games such as field games, tennis, golf and pos
sibly polo and yachting.
But what has an election to do with sporting
event? 1t is not fierce competition of muscles
nor chivalrous competition in skill 1t is a
submission Of opinion to the electorate. The
counting of the votes does not change the issues.
1t gives them merely temporary bent.
One campaign starts the moment another has
ended. II there be any sincere conviction behind
the opinions. II there were no sincere conviction.
then the advocates OF certain policies were bunk
ing the people for campaign results, II an indi-
vduaf could meet the defeat OF his ideas with the
contented remark that after all everything was
well, then he had no business to have tie ideas.
He never really had them.
The stability Of the republic, Of any demo-
cratic form of government, rests upon the willing
ness OF the losing side to accept defeat Certain
forms are provided for contention and they con-
troll But to profess contentmcnt when violent
campaign has come out all WRONG would be to
confess that there was no excuse for the violence,
that nothing really mattered after all that things
would go along one way just as well as another,
and that an election was only sporting event
intended to discover which side could cozzen
the people most successfully.
ne Tribune IS as mucn fof q nationansuc
awakening Of the American people now as it was
before the election. and If good loser has to
change his convictions, then The Tribune is the
worst loser ever caught in defeat.
We were for nationaiism, preparedness, COM
pulsory military service, restoration Of order in
Mexico, for the dignity and security Of American
life, for measures to hold the respect Of powerful
nations, for measures to intensity the Importance
OF being an American citizen, for measures to
make American life morally sound and economic
cay secure.
We are for these policies now, intend to re-
main for them, and intend to continue talking
about them,