The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1922-02-07

mess is business, and study and cul-
ture must yield to commercial neecS-
sity.
The corrupt:n@ tendency Of COM
me1 lia!ized athletes does rot step
with the colleges and universities; It
reaches down into the secondary
schools. Boys in high schools pro
ceed to get ready for marketable use
in response to college bids for atm
letics. Thus the evil is permeaJir&
the whole educational system, pane-
trating even into some schools fer
girls.
There are many outside Of our in
sti,utions of learning who stand fer
intercollegiate athletics for reasons
tnat are as OBVIOUS as Ihey are un-
worthy.
There are spectators of certain
class who defend the games, just as
the same class of men once defended
hoyse-racing and prize fighting. When
horse-rac;ng was more general and
respectable than it is now, these men
advocated the races under the preteXt
that the turf promoted the breeding
of fine horses. Prize-fghting they
call by the euphemistic names OF
glove contests" and "te manly art.
Candid and discerning people cannot
fail to see that all such stuff is moth
ing more than the hypocritical pre-
lenses of the gamesters. They wish
the educational Institutions Of the
country to furnish them with "sports
that kill, and they wish to use college
students in place Of horses and
sluggers.
Herein is the source of the gamb-
ling which is inseparable from inter
collegiate athletics. 1t is worse than
idle, it is insincere, to try TO Disguise
CT minimize, the gambling which
gathers around the games.
A prominent business man i'll Ala
bama wrote me as follows concerning
what he saw in an Atlanta hotel when
a notable game was played a few
weeks ago. He said, "lf l had not
been already in sympathy with your
views concerning intercollegiate attn
letics. my observation at short range
of the students Of the two colleges
whose students played here yesterday
would have thoroughly convinced me
that the evil has run away with some
schools and has become the chief
thing with them. It has been long
time, if ever, that have seen such
Getting, to say nothing of the drinking
and profanity. l could not help be-
ing mixed up with the crowd in the
lobby of the hotel, and what | saw
and heard made me really sick. l
was very glad that Emory university
was not involved in any such thing,
etc.
But some will say that 'intercolleg-
late athletics promote that ;ndehn-
able thing called college spirit" Let
us ask in reply what sort Of college
spirit is there5y promoted?
Upon this point President foster'
speaks most forcibly in the article to
which reference has already been
made. He says:
"The first question is what we mean
by college spirit. A student may
throw his hat in the air, grab mega
phone, give three rahs,' so through
the gymnastics Of a cheer-leader-
putting the most ingenious mecnan}-
cal toys to shame-and yet leave
some doubt whether he has adequate
ly defined college spirit.
"What is this college spirit that
hovers over the paid coach and his
grandstand-this 'indefinable some
thing as one writer calls it, 'whicb-is
famed into bright fame by inter-
collegiate athletics? Shall we Judge
the spirit by its manifestations IN an
institution famed above all else for It's
winning teams and its college spirit!
In such an institution, not long ago.
every student was cudgeled or caJoled
into supporting the team and many
callow youth acted as though ne
thought he had reached the heights
of self-sacriice when he sat for hours
on the grandstand, watching practice
putting innumerable cigarettes and
laving up a stock Of canned enthusl-
asm for the big game. A student who
would not support his team by betting
on it was regarded as deficient in splr-
it. Every intercollegiate game was
the occasion of general neglect OF