Fifty Years of Progress 1880-1930

FIFTY YEARS OF PROGRESS BY H.F. PASH Hon. Editor "FIFTY YEARS OF PRoGRESs." It is an inspiring title, an inspmng thought. Just as a runner, coming out for an important race, say a Championship of the Amateur Athletic Association at Stamford Bridge, glances round the ground at the officials and the crowd, I find myself sur– veying, as it were, the men to whom the Association owes its foundation and its progress. It is a wonderful" crowd " ; every profession, every trade and industry is represented in its ranks. Many famous men, now, alas, no longer with us, have played their part in the early days of the Association; others of equal fame are carrying on their work, but there is room for every one. We welcome any one, whatever his position in life, to our sport, to our highest offices, if he is prepared to " play the game" and to carry out the objects for which the Association was founded. Readers will remember that at athletic meetings a competitor not infre– quently indulges in a few preliminary sprints, to loosen his muscles, to accustom himself to his surroundings. Similarly, I propose, metaphori– cally, to "run up and down" before settling down into the steady stride which one expects to find in a long distance runner, or, at times, in an Editor. I say "long distance runner," because, by reason of its title, this article will be longer than any other in this publication. From time to time I have succeeded in supplying one of the shorter contributions in a publication, or one of the shorter speeches on some public occasion, but now I find myself changed, from force of circumstances, into a " Mara– thon" writer. I am doubtful whether I shall justify my selection for this distance, because a writer, like a runner, cannot easily change his style. This article, for many reasons, might well have been written by a younger and abler member of the governing body, and, indeed, it might have been an entertaining contrast if it could have been followed, or preceded by an article on " Fifty Years of Progress " by some one born in the twentieth, instead of in the nineteenth century ! We should then have seen the proverbial difference in "the point of view." Much depends upon the angle from which events are viewed. If it were other– wise, we should not find in an account of an important race the amazing contrast in the description by the two leading sporting newspapers of that 31