Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-08
RUMORS OF PEACE
PROVE PREMATURE
Bubble" Is Seen as Desire
of Chicago to Stage
Classic Game.
BY LAWRENCE PERRY.

n 7 EW YORK, May 9.-The bubble
N about an Army Navy game las
VI iattened to nothing. 1t
4 originated in Chicago, appar
emily born Of a desire to stage
another service foot ball game there.
At least SO it looks. So far as any am
bition which Chicagoans may have 10
hold that classic event on the shore of
Lake Michigan, the writer is all for II:
There never was a service game held
under drawer or more spectacular aus
pices than that between the Cadets and
the Midshipmen in the Soldier Stadium,
in Chicago, three years ago. Certain
" the Improvement over the conditions
that obtain in a New York ball park
when the Army and Navy play was
striking.
And IL Chicago can reunite the two
institutions in athletic contest more
power to her. In other words, this is
a game that should be played. Grid
iron contests with classic flavor are
too few to warrant the disappearance
of a traditional gridiron battle such as
that between the Army and the Navy.
Going through the country, the writer
notes a public reaction that is not
favorable to the existing state Of al
fairs. The tendency is to look askaIce
at this break-to say that If the two
service branches cannot get along har-
moniously in peace time on the field of
sport what disagreeable situation might
be expected in the event Of war.
An eminent naval officer suggests that
the Secretary of the Navy and the Sec
rotary of War order the superintendent
of the two academies to enter room
in Washington with orders not to come
out until they had arrived at an agree
ment under which the institutions
would resume athletic relations.
And personally he does not care
whether or not the rules OF eligibility
at Annapolis and West Point coincide.
The great thing, he believes, is to have
the game.
It is, of course, inevitable, that soon
er or later the Army and Navy will get
together, Just as 1t is inevitable that
Harvard and Princeton will. II there
is anything in tradition-and there is
a lot-any enduring continuance OF the
present deadlock would be a downright
reflection upon amateur sport. Indeed,
it is just that already.
All the under-current naneuverings,
the whisperings, the manipulating,
make a joke of things that should be
sacred, Yet, at times, the element of
humor creeps in. As, for instance,
that Western conference last December
when the Big Ten proposed to make
stand as to the sort Of eligibility which
would be demanded Of opponents. Two
or more WITHDRAWING Army officers
were there possibly Of their own iniSla-
tive. and possibly otherwise. At any
rate, when the eligibility conditions
they were strict-were finally adopted
this sentence was added, with the eX-
ception Of the Army and Navy.
Now the Navy appears to have been
quite surprised, inasmuch as she had
not asked for leniency with regard to
eligibility and, in view of the fact OF
her own strict eligibility rule, did not
want it. The position was, and is,
rather embarrassing.
But no more so than for the Army,
when Knute Rockne was jockeyed into
writing his famous eligibility inquiry to
the Army, which later he explained
satisfactorily to his West Point COM
rades.
Let the Army and Navy play foot bali.
The Array eligibility conditions are sat-
isfactory to her and are necessary II
Cadet teams are to be worthy. II the
Navy can get along-as she seems 70 re
able to do--under different CONDITIONS,
why that Is all right, too. But play
bali. That is the main thing.