Omaha daily bee., 1917-11-18
SPORT TO RESUME
NORMAL LEVEL IN
ANOTHER SEASON
Panicky Feeling Which Fol-
lowed Declaration of War
Expected to Be Relieved
Within the Year.
BY JACK VEIOCK.

New York, Nov. H.-After a year
of war, if peace does not come before
that time, the United States should
drift back to its normal level as a
lover of sports.
This is the opinion of a good many
men we'll up in different branches of
sports, particularly base ball.
When the realization of what war
really meant dawned on the people
of these great United States of ours
there was tendency toward that
panicky feeling which comes with
the knowledge of big undertaking
and its cost. .-----,-,-,--
People everywhere were inclined to
lean toward retrenchments up and
down the line. Manipulators boosted
prices in nearly every direction ana
good many folks predicted that
sports, particularly professional
sports, were doomed to take an in
definite rest.
But a returned confidence is al
ready felt up and down the sports
Rialto. Base ball men in the major
leagues have agreed that a discontin-
uance of the great national pastime
is not demanded, and they are plan
ming to go ahead just as they have
for the last IS or 20 years, govern
ing their activities according to the
conditions under which they will have
to operate.
Majors Must Continue.
Base ball in the major leagues must
be kept alive, they say, and since
government officials, from Presiden,
Wilson down, have recommended a
continuance in the various branches
of sports, they feel that they have
the government behind them.
An instance which illustrates the
panicky condition. brought about
when war was declared can be found
in the action of many colleges in
calling off foot ball schedules and de-
Gliding to discontinue all varsity
sports. Yet the colleges came back to
foot ball this fall, and they are going
to carry on sports, only along a
greater line than ever before. 1t is
sports for all now, instead of sports
for highly developed few.
In Canada, shortly after England
the war in 1914, sports suf-
tered for a time. But within a year
they came back as strong as ever,
and Toronto furnishes several illus
.rations of this fact.
Toronto was the best paying town
n the International league this year,
md sports writer from the big
Canadian city recently offered the in
:ormation that sports are just as live
y in all branches now as they were
before the war commenced and this
iespite the fact that between $4,000
and $4,000 of the flower of Toronto's
Joung manhood has crossed the water
% fight with the English and thou
sands of other Canadians in France.
Sports in all branches stand out dis
inctly along three lines:
First of all, they offer heaithful
'ecreation for those who indulge in
hem.
Second, they are the natural outlet
or pent-up energy, and last, but not
east, they afford amusement and en-
ertainment for millions of people,
,oung and old.
The nation cannot sit down and |
,rood, day in and day out, over the
var or its horrors. 1t must continue
m a constructive plan and along nor
nal lines, and sports count most |
leavily in this direction.
Canada. came back to her own in
ports after a single year of depres-
sion. The United States can and |
hould do the same.