Evening star., 1942-05-02


class developer OF the will to win..
and that the competitive spirit
kindled on the gridiron, diamond.
and court is tremendous help to
man when he starts playing the
bigger game OF war.
All very true. I'm In complete
sympathy with such views, but in
making an argument for sports in
time Of war why do those who want
to see It's continuation confne their
arguments solely to the good that
sports do for the athlete? Why not
make as a major point Of the de-
fense. the good that games do the
spectator? After all, the men who
play games constitute a minority
when placed alongside the men who
watch them.
England has long maintained that
its wars were won on the playing
field of Eton. This country might
not be wrong in maintaining that a
good share of the credit for its sue
cess in battle be paid to the hard
ships suffered by citizens attending
sport sevents.
Take the men and women who are
here in Louisville for the Derby, for
example. I am not absure enough to
compare their sufferings with that
Of men on the battlefront, but do
say that what they are going
through is good, sound training for
any rigors they may face in the fu-
ture.
A soldier must be able to 60 with
out sleep. Louisville during Derby
Week offers a sound course In this
knack. A man might just as well
try to sleep in the testing room of a
trap drum factory as here. Even
the hardest cats give up their maps
as thousands of Derby visitors yowl
and howl throughout the night.
A soldier must be able to get along
without much food. What a train
ing ground Louisville is for this
during Derby Week. For two rea-
sons:
The rush Of folks to the eating
! places is one. From the time you
sit down in restaurant until the
time waitress appears to take your
order. Halley's Comet has come and
gone, there have been two eclipses
of the sun, and the local news
papers, under the heading, Twenty
five Years Ago Today" include this
item: Tom Jones, Derby visitor.
started waiting for his order of veal
| outlets, string beans and iced tea"
The other reason Is the price. The
restaurant owners evidently figure
that If they don't get the visitors
money the race track will, and that
there is nothing wrong in charging
pari-mutuel prices for steaks, des-
serts, bread, butter and the like.
You can't have your cake here and
bet it too.
! There is no better way to develop
the fighting instinct in a man than
to turn him loose in the Derby Day
crowd and let him try to get to
where he wants to go. Even Her
cules would have to use elbows,
knees. shoulders and hips to make
2 yards an hour.
The Derby is just one of the many
sports events that have helped
harden Americans to the rigors OF
/ warfare.
The Yale Bowl, the Rose Bowl. the
Yankee Stadium, the Poughkeepsie
Regatta-all Of these have helped
ready our citizens for any hardship.
We have developed stomachs that
automatically turn on super gastric
juices when a cold hot dog or a
stale peanut reaches it. We have
developed dispositions that enable
us to take an elbow in the eye or a
poke In the stomach or a whack
d(1O OoS G11C Will q ldukI1s we
have learned to stay up night after
night, and to brag about how ter
rible we feel. We have made a
sport of taking it and liking 1t.
That's good thing. At least 7
think So this Saturday morning as
I stagger out to Churchill Downs, so
worn out that can feel the white
corpuscles chasing the lone red
corpuscle left in my system. II I
and thousands of others can make it
through this day without rigor
mortis setting in. we will have taken
a major step toward hardening our
selves for whatever may come.
Distributed by McNaught Syndicate. IncJ