Perth Amboy evening news., 1918-08-24
INTHE FIELD OF @ =
KING BASEBALL
BREATHING LAST
! Boys "Over There" Have Little
Use for Stars at Home
Says Paper
BY MILTON BRoNNER.
NE. A. STAFF Correspondent.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24:-Here is
big NEWS for all the millions OF
American baseball and sport fans
Pershdng's army is dead sore on big
league baseball and the healthy young
athletes who ave not gone into the.
army, setting up various and sundry
excuses as to why they are not fight
ing the Hun.
I had heard his from quite a number
to this city from lover there" but
thought the report somewhat exag-
gerated. But now here is the proof
which has just come to hand, the lat
est issue of The Stars and Stripes"
the Aoficial newspaper printed in
France for the boys of our gallant
army.
"Sport for Who's Sake?"
The paper has a scathing editorial
under the caption Sport for Who's
Sake Z" in which 1t says FIVE American
artillerymen who covered themselves
with glory at the Marine did not ask to
be allowed to wait over a battle and
come In on the next. Then it sar-
castically speaks about Ty Cobb being
quoted as saying he will enlist at the
close OF the present season, and roasts
the baseball magnates for calling pro-
fessional baseball an essential indus-
try.
But the real hard American punch
comes on what used to be the sporting
page. There is an announcement that
not until an Allied victory brings back
peace will the paper print another
sport page. Says the sporting editor;
work, Not Glory.
Sport as a spectacle, sport as an
entertainment for the sideliners, has
passed on and out. It's glamor in a
competitive way has faded. It's lead
ing stars r either in the iron harness
of war-or forgotten-until Germany
is beaten.
The Stars and Stripes appreciates
Hin full, sports abiding value and the
countlessNthousands Of trained men it
has sent into the line. But these men
have given up the glory of the sport-
ing page boost and the old action
snapshot. They are not TO be mem
toned today because their job has
taken on another hue.
There are tennis and golf cham
pions, football players galore, track
stars without number, boxers and bail
players who have traded the easy
glory they knew at home for the hard
ungloriied grind of the line, or the
bloody heritage Of the western front.
And their fame here belongs with
the mass, not with individual mention.
What then is left in the main for D
sporting page printed in France, with
in hearing of the guns7 Such head
lines as these-'Star Players Dive Tor
Shipyards or Farm to Escape Work Or
Fight Order'-Cobb Is Thinking or
Enlistlng This Fall'-Fulton and
Dempsey Haggle Owe Purse'-Willard
Refuses to Ffght-and so on through
a countless list that doesn't make any
too heroic an appeal to those living
and dying IN the mud and dirt of the
front 5000 miles away from home.
For the A. e. F.
1.-THE Stars and Stripes is printed
for the A. q. F. not to help perpetu4
ate the renown OF able-bodied stars;
who, with unusual qualifications for
war or useful work, elected to hear
only the business as usual slogan
above their contry's call for help in the
greatest war she has ever known.
There Is but one Big League today for
this paper to cover-and that league
winds Its way among the stations
scattered throughout France and ends
at the western front. Any work thar
p part Of the Big Job either in the
lines or back Of It. from Chateau
Thierry to q Francisco, is OF ut
most value. But entertaining the
people back home isn't part of the
Big JOB, nor do We believe the bulk
Of them want to be entertained in any
such way.
"When-it finally came to the point
where any number of able-bodied men
were rushing into various occupations
at the point OF the boot, when the
secretary of war was forced to produce
a ruling that would make hundreds
OF these men work or fight, as the
souabble and scurry grew day after
day. this paper felt hat It no longer
had space left for such activitiesAnor
with so many events of far greater In
terest taking place within sight and
hearing Of its working staff.
No Space for Cobb.
There is no space left for the
Cobbs. the Ruths. the Johnsons, the
Willards and the Fultons in the ease
and safety OF home when the Ryans.
the Smiths. the Iarsens, the Bern
steins and others are charging ma
chine guns and plugging along through
shrepnel or grinding out 12-hour de-
tails 200 miles in the rear. Back
home the sight=of a high fly drifting
into the late sun may still have its
t9rili for a fey. But over here the
all-absorbing factors are shrapneI,
high explosives. machine gun bullets.
trench digging, stable cleaning, nurs-
ing. training back of the lines and
1 other endless details throughout
France from the base ports TO beyond
the Marne."