Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-22
HOLDS ENDOWMENT.
WOULD END ABUSE.
Columbia President Would
Have Grads Contribute
to Purify Athletics.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
n YEW YORK, December o.
M Endowment of college ath-
/ letics by alumni in order
to end the influence Of
gate receipts is suggested by
Nicholas Murray Butler, president
of Columbia University, in his an
nual report, published today. He
also proposes IAN Academic League
of Nations" with jurisdiction over
college sport.
THE abuses of intercollegiate athletics
are many and various" says the report,
"and it is exceedingly difficult to bring
about their remedy. So obsessed are
many alumni with a passion for VIC
tory at all costs that they are quite
willing to shut their eyes to very dis
creditable happenings which reflect
sadly upon their own colleges in way
which no series of victories on the
athletic field can possibly overcome.
THE enormous cost of these inter-
collegiate foot ball contests and the
still more enormous revenues which are
produced by them, if team or
particular institution gains reputation
for success, are constant and Justl-
public criticism.
Strict Pay Penalty.
''Those institutions whose administra-
tive authorities stand up straight, and
even lean over backward, in the mat
ter of conditions of admission ana
standards of scholarship in colleges are
punished on the playing field when
those who represent them come in con-
test with athletic teams constituted Of
very different material from theirs.
Perhaps what is needed is an
academic League of Nations to take
jurisdiction over this entire field OF
endeavor and to preserve what is ex-
cellent while shutting out what is I'M
becoming and unworthy.
Perhaps the one satisfactory and
permanent solution of these problems
Is that athletic sports. being a we'll
recognized part of undergraduate life
and undergraduate training, should be
suitably and adequately endowed by the
alumni Were this done, 1t would then
be possible at one stroke to bring TO an
end the importance and influence Of
gate receipts and put base ball and
foot ball, for example, on the same
excellent plane that rowing has long
occupied. Until something of this sort
is done, Columbia must remain one
of those colleges which pays the penalty
If penalty it be, of insisting upon the
primacy of intellectual ideals and in
tellectual accomplishments"
Some Favor Butler Plan.
NEW YORK, December % (P).-
Views Of prominent educators with re-
gard to formation of an Athletic League
of Nations" proposed by DIR. Nicholas
Murray Butler TO provide a free gate
at College contests, were published in
the New York Times today.
DR.. Ernest M. Hopkins, president of
Dartmouth College, said the proposal
was worth considering, but expressed
doubt that alumni endowment was the
proper remedy. He added that there
was some hysteria about overemphasis
Of foot ball.
Chancellor Elmer Ellsworth Brown
of New York University said such an
organization was extremely desirable"
Thomas S. Gates, president OF the
University Of Pennsylvania. said the
suggestion was entitled to sympathetic
consideration.
DR.. Frank Aydelotte, head of Swarth-
more College, pledged his support on
the basis of a brief account of The plan,
but thought the evils of academic sports
came from spectators.
Mai. John l.. Griffith, commissioner
of athletics for the Western Confer
erce, decllned 10 De enthusiastic, saying
athletics had rules and organizations
enough.-if they were adhered to. THE
trouble Is" he added, that the pessi-
mist of the day has invaded college
ranks"
CHICAGO, December % (P).-Maj
John L. Grifith, commissioner of ath-
letics of the Western Conference, de-
clined to be enthused over the proposal
of Nicholas Murray Butler, president
of Columbia University, whose annual
report recommends the establishment
of an athletic league of nations"
I'VE have rules and organizations
enough" Maj. Griffith said. If We
would live up to present regulations
everything would be all right. I do not
think there is any need for drastic
rules as far as foot ball is concerned
In the majority of colleges conditions
are not perfect, but I don't know of
any social, economic or political insti
tuition in America which is perfect"