The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-09-10
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS
Play the game"

why the English speaking people are bound to come out victorious in the great world war.
 The Anglo-Saxon has been trained through centuries not only to play the game" but to play fair. Strange as 1t may seem. the root difference between the English and the German can be traced back to the latter's inability to be a good sport
 have always loved outdoor sports, and have never raised my voice against, golf, tennis. baseball. football or any of the other athletic games, because their value is not merely physical but moral. This Is not my opinion alone, others of wide reputation have noted the fact.
 The English are known as good sports men. and none has better stated what want to get before the readers of this column than has titled Englishman who says: Now it is not only for the purpose of physical culture. the strength ening of the body and the relaxation of the mind that our games and pastimes affect our national life and character; 1t is not even for the development of manliness and courage which are re- quired to face as fast bowler or pitcher in the cricket or baseball field, to rush at a powerful opponent In football, or to negotiate a stiff fence In the hunting held,ff but for their moral outcome. that we value them as great national as- set"
 To play the game" young men are i taught the subordination of their own desires to a collective end and purpose, the suppression of all fear and all forms 1 of self indulgence General Wood and others nigh in military and gov i ernmental world are quite right in urg- 1 ing that baseball and football be not done away with on account of the war; and I am glad that already number of the leading colleges and universities have given notice that the pigskins will be much kicked this fall.
 | It is an old story that Waterloo was won on the fields of Eton, and the tale | of Marshal Canroberts' visit to the play ling fields of Eton after the Crimean war is thoroughly illustrative of the idea Of the moral result of sportsmanship and | therefore at the risk of telling an old one am going to use it, for 1t sets forth the thing I want to get Into the minds of those parents who object to sending their sons to schools where foot ball and baseball are featured.
 | At a cricket match between Eton and l a rival school, one of the visitors men was hurt and there was no one on his side to take his place, and an Eton boy was asked to fill 1t You are not going to persuade me that the Eton boy will do his best to defeat his own side?" said the marshal It was an illuminating ques- ton and showed the astonishment of the great Frenchman that any people had advanced far enough to play the game' and play it fair.' even though It went against them.
 But since this incident occurred the French have realized the value of na- tional sports and pastimes, and they have a society to encourage athletic sports that has been in existence for more than score of years and no one who has watched the stand made again and again by the French army in the Hast few years against the onrush of the German hordes doubts for one minute that they know how to play the game, play 1t fair and play it hard" The men of France have won the right to be looked on as true sportsmen.
 Sir Charles Waldstein goes so far as to say that ''the Germans have failed in
 fair play" in the conduct of the war, as compared with the English speaking people because of the absence of that early and continuous training from child hood upwards which Is afforded by na- tional games and pastimes.s He goes on to tell of his only meeting with Count Zeppelin In London. when he was on his way to Germany from trip around the world having visited the German colonies.
 \ I give it because it further shows that games requiring a sense of fair play, Igames that call for the sinking of fn- dividuality for the good of the whole,
 games that require skill and courage
 have a moral worth which transcends any mere physical improvement, how ever worth while. It seems strange that
 the inventor of the Zeppelins. which day after day. are showering death on in nocent men, women and children, should
 have acknowledged to an Englishman
 that the Germans would never be 9
 successful colonizing nation until they adopted the British spirit of sportsman
 ship.
 A nation that carries on submarine warfare that sends to the bottom of the
 sea neutral ships carrying helpless pas.
 sengers, and drops death out of the : clouds on unfortifed towns, need not
 worry about trying to introduce Englisl ! sports into her colonies, for when this present war Is over the German natior : will awake to find that her dependencies have been gagged by England and that } Englishmen will have the job of carry. ling cricket, golf and football to tn } backward peoples.
 I never was prouder than I am toda, !, that I am an. American, for Presiden !. Wilson has given to the world an ex hibition of what it means to be a tru
 sport and to play the game, and pla. lit fair, even under great provocatlon