The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1921-12-11
DIR. w. M. RIGGS, OF CLEMSON,
ADDRESSESS.I. A. A. CONVENTION

garding the need OF the poor boy to
earn money during the summer on
which to continue his education. that
summer baseball is as logical and
proper method of earning money
as laying brick or selling magazines;
that existing laws were making liars
of little angels. etc, ad nfinitum ad
nauseum. And then would come
along my good friend, President
Denny, of the University of Alabama.
to argue for 15-unit standard of
admission as an athletic qualifica
ton at time when most of the col
leges in the association were having
a hard time to get 10 or 70; and then
would come President Matheson of
Georgia Tech and DIR. Phillips of Sc
vance with their Utopian idea of To-
cal control on a high and honorable
basis. To hear them one would won
der at the need for any association
at all. ~
And then would come along Tom
Bragg of Auburn and the writer to
get off the same old arguments for
the one-year RULE and the three-year
limit that they had been inflictinG
upon these audiences for 10 or 15
years previous: urging these limo.
vations as a cure for all those ills
then would appear that pet abomi-
nation the new delegates from any
old college, with enthusiasm in in
verse proportion to experience to
thrash old straw over and over again.
TO weary the self-appoinped wise
acres OF the association with falla-
cies which had long ago been tried
out and long ago discarded
! wonder IL you have such meet
ings and experiences still, or whether
some wise guy" has invented this
address business to take up all the
time and in that way limit the an
annual threshing of old straw.
Intolerable Condition
And while the association has ar
gued and compromised and tried to
please it's 81 different varieties of
members. an athletic condition has
grown UP which is well-night intol-
cradle. The surrender of the princi-
pie of amateurism in summer base
ball weakened the whole structure
of college athletics which the 8. l..
A. A. was intended to support. With
the increasing emphasis put upon
football, enthusiastic alumni and per-
nicious gamblers have gone into tbs
business of loaning or giving monsy
10 promising athletes TO no to col
Il,
whose password is money, through
which can stalk the grossest irregu-
iarities, and behind them is the spec
ter of complete athletic anarchy.
What college In this association can
be sure that II has no paid nlagers
or It's team? What is there in our
ws. or can be put there. to pro-
hibit loan to the worthy and needy
athlete" who, like the poor, indeed
Is always with us? And what pre-
vents the shrug or wink, the high
sign to the athlete borrower that II
he makes a good halfbacl, or can
punt 60 yards, his financial debts
viii all be forgiven him? What can
We, as college faculties, do TO safe
guard ourselves against this insid-
ieus evil sapping at the very feunda-
tiea7 Little or nothing, SO faF AZ
this Eubsidixing process gess, ARd
yet, how can we retain OuF ssjf-fe-
spsst as faculties how protect euF
colleges against the misdifs=lsd Icy :
atty of alumni and thee betting pro
ciivities of GAMBLERS How can we
insure against the outrage OF hav-
iHg the college careers of some of
our studeats predicated Oh lie?
Southern Conferences
tt ia because o. this situation, and
because the s. L. A. A, has persistent
" refused to take adequate steps fer
its own protection, purifisatien, and
peTpstuafieR that there has arisen tbs
Southern Intercollegiate conference,
whose shadow threatens the prestige,
il rot the very life, Of the s: T. A. 4:
Just ~ tbs Iaad Grant college arose
as q protest against the eoassrvatisu
81 ths old classical colleges aad uai-
vsTsitiss, Just as tbs 7. M. c. A. sPraag
M as az Rautteyed protest against
tie oasarvatism Of the church, SO
this pew arganiztaion has arisen l9
protest Of the conservat ism of the >.