The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1922-02-05
Revolving Licenses Regarded
as Serious Move in Some
Circles.
ENGLISH IDEA DIFFERENT
Abroad Talent of Professional
Is Considered Necessary
to Success.
BY FRANK F. DOLE.

large number OF Judging licenses in an
effort to drive out the professional and
retain only the pure amateur judge
lave tried to bring myself to see things
from the same point of view as the
officials OF the club / have not been
able to do it. 1t is the contention of
the club that the best interest of the
dog game will best be served by getting
rid of any officials who receive any sub
stantiaI returns from dealings in dogs.
regardless of the ability of these per-
sons to pass judgment In the dog show
ring.
It strikes me that the cart is being
rut before the horse by the admission
al Secretary Day that the Kennel Club
license committee decided it was best to
got rid of the professional first and set
Tic the question of competency second.
Surely there is enough incompetence
now In recent years have seen numer-
ons instances of judging which were
nothing less than first degree murder"
1t would have been better to have gone
over the list of judges and to have
weeded out the incompetent, and hav-
ing done this to have decided whether
< IL is possible to spare the professional.
have seen numerous judges who
lhad the nerve to officiate in breeds they
appeared never to have seen before and
shout which they certainly knew moth
ing. Some of them had been in the dog
game only a year or two and yet pre-
tended TO be able to pass judgment on
many breeds. The question of judging
Is too serious to be treated as it has
been. 1t is the heart of the show game.
Without Judges in whom the exhibitor
has real confidence the game cannot go
forward.
1t is fact that maVc holders of
1pCging licenses have taken improper adj
~antages of their cards. THE NEW YORK
HERALD two years ago reported an in
stance of man in Texas selling oil
stock His only selling point appeared
TO lie in the fact that he held an A. X. c.
ji'dging card. which he flashed on all
prospective suckers" There have beer;
o.tcr instances not as fragrant but never
tneless thoroughly bad.
Incompetency Ignored.
At a show in the near future a man
has been assigned to judge any number
cf breeds. Investigation of his case will
show that he knows nothing about a lot
OF the breeds which will come under him.
have long advocated that the Kennel
Cub have an inspector who knows the
game thoroughly and who is fair and
unbiased to make round of the shows
and see just what IL happening.
Judges are not always entirely to
blame for the jncoompetency which Is
thown. Show officials frequently assign
y lot of classes and breeds to one off,
e'al and IL he demonstrates that he
doesn't know the breed sufficiently well
lt..s-.
sou do. And besides there won't be many
OF those breeds" or in some other man
rci so condones incompetency that the
Judge is led to biting off more than he
knows he can chew.
Judging incompetency shows itself in
many ways. / have known judges to
ask their ring stewards what they
gave this or that dog in previous classes
This happened not long ago to man
Judging collies. The ring steward did
not want to see him get in hole and
helped him out. Yet that man went
right back to Judge collies again and
seems as much in demand as ever.
There is another type OF incompetent
Judge who when he doesn't know his
breed aasks the advice of any one near
linn. usually his ring steward, which
Cog is best. This Is a serious condition,
and there was nothing like IL in the
old days. OF course there were fewer
1,dges and fewer shows then, but only
those who thoroughly knew their dogs
were asked to judge. They judged
fairly and made their awards entirely
on the merit OF the dogs under them,
regardless of their past records or by
whom they were shown. rope the
whole matter will work out for the
best interests of the game but I can't
for the life of me see how 1t is to be
done In spite of the fact that I have
heard many explanations and cxtenua-
tions since the matter first became the
Zig topic Of discussion in the dos world
Court would Not Sustain 1t.
One man whose license was revoked
was told that there was absolutely moth
ing against him and that he was all
right, but In less than an hour after he
lad been told this the committee called
in his license prominent attorney in
talking of the matter told me he didn't
believe the committee had right thus
20 revoke licenses and believed that not
a court In the country would sustain its
action, no matter what the clubs by
laws say about II.
Tho real big question, however. to
my mind, Is how the game can get
nlong without the professional. The
real amateurs who are competent to
fudge are not going TO spend their time
handling all the shows from one end OF
the country to the other. The whole
problem recalls wildly to my mind a
talk I had with J. G.. Tinnie, the great
English fox terrier expert. 1t may be
recalled he was on the Oxford crew
that rowed Harvard in 1853. Later
whom I went to England had the
pleasure of visiting him.
After lunch our talk shifted TO the
professional in the dog game. This was
thirty years ago. but the matter was
talked about then Just as 1t Is to-day.
mentioned the names OF a number OF
leading professionals, many OF whom are
now dead. and asked Mr.. Tinnis what
he thought of them. His reply was
s'T-hose are the kind OF men we must
have. Those are the men who know
dogs because they have been associated
with them from boyhood."
with us here the situation is about
the same. Here was one OF the most
exclusive OF real amateurs In the strict
English sense OF the word, who realize
that the talent OF the professional was
necessary to the success OF the game.
No one who knows anything about the
game In England can doubt the high
calibre OF the Judging there and the pro-
fessionals there are in great demand as
Judges.