Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-04
ASPECTS
IN SPORTS DECR|ED
University President De-
nounceS "Commercialism"
in College Athletics.

bS0IiSSO Oiu'tSi ~'SS
in College Athletics.
BY JOHN F. SINCLAIR.
Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, February 4.-Thomas
S. Gates, who resigned a partnership
in j. P. Morgan & Co. to become pres
ident of the University of Pennsyl-
vania, strikes a hard blow at the over
commercialiSm and overemphasts OF in
tercollegiate sport in university life.
In recent years foot ball coaches
have been paid two. three and four
times as much as full college profess
scrs. I know one university which
pays its full professors $4,000 year
and the head foot ball coach $4,000
and two assistant coaches $4,000 each.
This is a typical case.
Mr. Gates thinks, as thousands OF
university alumni are beginning to
feel, that the spectacle of % athletes
pounding each other all afternoon
while thousands pack the college sta
dunn to cheer and shiver is not pro-
ductive of the best in college life; that
I've university should not be a place
where the big emphasis is on foot ball
and intercollegiate sports.
So Mr.. Gates proposes to make the
foot ball coaches members OF the fac
ulty, with compensation accordingly.
He further intends to do away with
PROSECUTING and scouting and establish
an exhaustive system of intermural
athletics, in which a large percentage
of the student body will compete.
VIII this plan work? Does it mean
the beginning of the end of the
gigantic spectacle Of stadium foot ball
in every American college? 1t I'M
doubtedly is a step in that direction.
Gates Career.
Thomas S. Gates was born near
Philadelphia So years ago. After grad
uating from the University of Pennsyl-
vania in both arts and law he entered
the law Office of John G. Johnson, the
famous Philadelphia lawyer. After IL
years of work at the bar he switched
to banking.
In 1912 he became president of the
Philadelphia Trust Co. Six years later
he entered Drexel g. Co. as a partner.
In 1921 he became partner CT j. P.
Morgan & Co. and resigned only re-
Gently to assume the presidency OF the
University of Pennsylvania.
His business experience has been very
vice. He was director of many of
Americas largest corporations, includ-
ing the Baldwin Locomotive Works,
chairman of the board of the Midyale
Co. and the Standard Steel Works Co.;
a director in such companies as the
United Corporation, John b. Stetson Co.,
Public Service Corporation of New Jer-
sey, and United Gas Improvement Co.
Many of Mr.. Gates associates and
business friends have often marveled
how he covered so much territory"
A member of 90 clubs, yet he has found
time to give approximately half his
time to various art Institutes, hospitals
and other philanthropic enterprises.
Business Structure.
Elias Racine, Minneapolis lawyer, OBJ
serving in this column the other day the
statement that Prof. Simon Leland of
Chicago University thinks that IF the
United States expects relief from tax
burdens in the future, it must simplify
our government structure" writes that
in his book Seventeen Keys to Free
dom" the theory is deliberately developed
that the present structure of business
and geographic organization must be
completely changed.
he American people in recent years
have spent billions of dollars on motor
vehicles and good roads," Mr.. Racine
says, but why should they forever con-
tlnue to pay enormous, needless money
tribute to arrangements, ways, methods
and practices based on the old-time use
OF oxen, horses, carts, wagons and bug
gieS on poor roads? Waste is waste, no
matter IN what form it appears. The
savings which will result from proper
readjustment of county boundaries and
business centeIS should go to make
happier homes and more prosperous
communities. Such centerS of business
in each State should be within easy
reach of every inhabitant, where mighty
schools and social institutions will rise
to preserve the economic and political
freedom of all the people"
Mr.. Racine sent us map Of his own
State of Minnesota, showing 43 cities,
located, in which could be
conferred excellent schools, a well or
dered social life, a Junior college, the
county seat and Simplified COVE. nmen-
tai machinery He points out that one
travels today at SO miles an hour over
smooth paved roads, alongside OF which
small towns and villages grew up in
other days, and asks why should we
maintain the outworn, expensive type
of village life, developed in the days OF
the ox-cart and the horSe?" Let's
the structure, he adds; bring
it up-to-date, concentrate on few
and make them healthy,
and vigorous. Thus keep
within the country those elements
which have always made for a healthy
national life.
Mr.. Racine may be ahead OF his
time. but the germ of great loea lies
in this suggestion.
Luck in Life.
How much does luck play in life and
business? Consider the case OF Robert
T. SWaine Al, a native of T1ngley, Iowa,
an A. B. of the University of Iowa, ana
an honor graduate of Harvard Law
School, now member of the law flrm
of Cravath, De Gersdorff, Swalne &
Wood of New York.
And yet when he graduated from
Harvard in 1910, his bent was all III
the direction of teaching law. He went
to Minneapolis in the hope OF getting
job as teacher in the University OF
Minnesota Law School. Only part
time job was open and the pay was no
more than he was offered as a clerk
in the firm of which he is now mem
ber.
He chose the humble clerkship in
New York in preference to part-tlme
teaching in Minnesota. Had he chosen
to teach, or had a full-time job been
open, he probably would still be teach
ing law, instead of acting as attorney
for such reorganization committees as
the Chicago, Milwaukee & st. Paul,
the Goodyear Tire 81 Rubber reorgani-
cation, the Brooklyn Transit, the In
terborough. the Shell Union Oil Cor
poration, the Paramount-Publix Cor
poration and the Radio Corporation OF
America.
Did luck play a part in his career?
Did he get the breaks? Is piling up
huge fees in New York City equal to
the compensation, other than financial,
received from the quiet reflections of
the university class room?
L. InciIlf of