Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-12-23

The advocates OF big-bustness ath-
ietics won. They maintained that, as
the advertising department OF the
college, foot ball was OF supreme i'm
portance and that no college could
hope to compete against other schools
for students without a successful
football team. They insisted that
the real strength Of a university lay
In superior student body and that
the stragglers in athletics got only
second-rate men-and fewer of them.
The coach not only stayed on the pay
roll, but he has since received a rise
In salary.
Who In Responsiblef
1t seems to me that It settles down
to the question Of what the youth OF
America really believe in, why they
want to go to college, what they want
to do in college and how they expect
to articulate their college experiences
with their later life. This may sound
a bit vague, but I believe 1t goes to
the heart of the problem.
People. collectively, get what they
want and believe in. There are laws
on the statute books of certain New
England towns against witchcraft
They passed into disuse because no.
body believed in them. The transition
from any dark era into a more en-
tiehtSHcu OHe always mas Deen Dy q
wider diffusion of ligence and by
the building up of higher standards
never by any forms of legalism
Youth in America today reflects adult
standards, and adult standards exalt
the ''go-getter" and belittle the hu-
manist.
Faculties. rules committees and all
the other mentors OF foot ball can go
on forever building bulwarks against
professionalism and alumni and under
graduates will continue to get what
they want-as long as they continue
to want II. With the present COM
petittve motivation Of foot ball, they
ant, above all, winning teams, and
5 long as this obtains they will find
avs to gloss over the business of
ring men and making it look re-
pectable.
Within the Law.
As foot ball scout, have always
worked within the established sane
lions of the business. have never
passed money to a boy. but ] have
helped to rig virtually fake scholar
ships, l have dug up ornamental jobs
which carried no real work, I have
arranged loans for football players,
knowing very we'll that the boy was
not expected to repay the money
Amy one of these transactions, chal-
lenged In a public controversy, could
have been convincingly defended. But
know, and / would be dishonest II
did not admit, that these players
were hired. just as IL agreed badly
to pay them so much a year and had
written them a check for the amount.
i have written about the desire of
the average American youth to join
snowy fraternity. 1t Is this which
makes them swallow the bait which
we dangle before them. 1t IL not
In this respect alone that they fall
short In their standards. In my 10
years of scouting have learned con-
siderable about the high school grad
uate. Ny general conclusion Is that.
on the whole. they have a most eIab-
crate indifference to the old ideol-
ogies which we used to associate
with education. These boys are out
for success and glory and they are
fully alive to the Importance Of ath-
ietic and social leadership.
Can We not trace a good deal of
the responsibility to the secondary
schools? 1t seems to me that. having
these boys for four years, these edu-
Gators ought to be able to implant in
them som ething better than the
shoddy standards which many of
them seem to adopt. II the average
youth had conception of education
ranging beyond the narrow voca-
tional aspects which 1t is now as
suming. If he had any genuine re-
spect for the great--and incidentiy.
Observation-Disclosures who abound in
American colleges, IL he sought a
goal somewhere beyond the portals
of a snob fraternity or soft job
well, I would lose my job. They
wouldn't take our bait.
No Chance for Plato.
Let US suppose a university faculty
including Socrates, Aristotle, Plato,
st. Augustine. Erasmus, Sir Francis
Bacon, Voltaire, Huxley, Pasteur and
John Dewey. Let US suppose that
the Government gives them the Yep
peiin hang at Lakehurst for q class
-oe,r, and they announce the openjur