The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-01-08
Olympic Games
 Causing Friction,
 Says Walter Camp
By WALTER CAN'T
Special Correspondent Of The Age-Herald Copyright, 1891. by The Age Herald.)

 New York, January 7.-Before world peace. for which the statesmen assembled at Washington are striv- i ing, Is achieved. it may be found
 necessary to abolish the Olympic games. There has hardly ever been
 held set of games without friction
 of some kind and some times it has
 been so extreme as really to affect
 the national feeling.
 A very pretty quarrel appears to
 be brewing over the recent report of
 the American Olympic committee
 which Baron de Coubertin, president of the international committee, says | contains some "willfully misleading
 insinuations." The report treated upon the 1920 Olympic games at Ant werp and the Olympic conference at Lausanne last summer, complaining
 that the American proposal to hold the 1924 or the 1928 Olympics at Los Angeles had not been treated with the respect and courtesy due such an invitation. Baron de Coubertin has gone so far as to request the ap- pointment of an international sub committee to go over the report and
 to rectify the alleged errors in it. Without going into the merits of the report and the baron's action, it ! is worth while to consider some of
 the broader phases of such schism as this. Viewed in the light of the purpose of the resurrection of these | Olympic games. the quarrels that have emanated from them would make cynic laugh. In the original Greek Olympic games, peace was a great factor. In fact. general
 armistice was declared throughout
 Greece by all warning factions and parties previous to and during the
 Olympic games. In the barons own
 plans for the revival of the Olympic games, the chief and main statement
 was to the effect that they were to
 promote friendship between the na- l tions.
 This aim certainly never can be accomplished with friction nor are
 the results otherwise satisfactory if
 the games produce enmities. The
 mass feelings of race or a nation are strange things to deal with. as
 the pages of history indicate, and
 not always tho great political events
 that bulk largest in the feeling of
 the individuals in mass and many
 times the apparently less significant undercurrents are the ones which ! govern,
 Whatever may be the merits of the present controversy. there is one
 thing that Americans must face.
 That is that they are not in control, nor likely to be in control of the international Olympic committee and
 hence what they secure from the
 committee in the way of concessions
 must be through the medium of per ,suasion. This brings us to the point i of wondering just what all the other
 nations think of us. Diplomacy, the
 world believes, is more highly de- iveloped among the continental na- tions than in the United States and vixen one does not control in voting numbers. diplomacy Is necessary, as
 everybody knows. Perhaps a good illustration of this is the fact that the 1924 games were awarded by the international committee to Paris and lthe 1928 games to Amsterdam. in spite of the American representa- lives proposal to hold the 1924 games in Los Angeles should Paris not be available, or in case the 1924
 games went to Paris, that the 1928
 games should be held in Los An
 geles.