The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-03-30

One of the odd freaks of this war is the boost it has given sport. But at first, when Uncle Sam decided to swat the Kaiser, every sport manager and sporting goods manufacturer was ready to give up the ghost. The game was off. Mighty few sport managers or sporting goods manufacturers were far-sighted enough, or, as one might say, near-sighted enough to look into what is the immediate present. h. stead, most of them became excited and panicy and prepared to shut up shop. It was next to impossible for a manufacturers agent to sell sup ply of the usual needed fall equip ment for delivery in a few months. Everybody feared pledging them selves. The manufacturers were un- able to estimate.
 Then the avalanche came. Suddenly manufacturers found themselves en- gulfed and flooded with orders. It was mighty nigh impossible to fill them. Shipments were slow. And /. with the demand the price arose. It has been soaring ever since. Orders for athletic equipment of all kinds have exceeded anything ever dreamed of. The strange part of the whole situation was the fact that sport, as we knew it, was on the decrease. Big sporting events of peace times were called off. Championships were can celled. Fewer athletes tried for col lege teams. Why then all the rush about sporting goods?
 This rush was brought about by the wholesale demand for athletic goods in the service. The army and the navy went in for sport on scale never before heard of in this country. It was backed by every military and naval authority and boosted in about all possible ways. Not only did sport prove to have a physical value in the service, but it went far beyond that. For one thing it afforded recreation, for another it was a sure means of keeping the "blues'' well in the back ground of the new soldiers life. It also built up company and regimental and division spirit. But it did more than all these things combined in that it kept the men in service from com ing face to face with those vices which have played such havoc with many armies in the past. In short, sport improved service morale-the one word which best describes it's all around function.
 The actual and real value of sport to a nation, which this war has most clearly established as a fact, was the cause of all this rush of business in athletic goods, type of business that is by no means unnecessary, as some have thoughtlessly suggested. In deed, so great is the need for sporting goods that raw materials to make them are somewhat difficult to obtain As the war situation, an unstable on' { at best, has the manufacturers guess ing as never before, they are making every possible effort to remove tht guess-work by attempting to get { line on future requirements; but tC no avail. While the service athlete! are eating up equipment there is nc known way of estimating how lonl the present demand will keep up Neither is there any precedent tC follow. Only one point is certain ant that is that every dollars worth ant every piece of athletic equipmen which enters the service is doing it bit in no small way towards gettinl our men fit to swat the Kaiser.
 As a result of this wholesale spor in the various branches of the service athletics are undergoing certai changes in this country. Tn the mai we are. learning their real value an the Haz is giving every evidence c