The Olympic Games and the Duke of Westminster's Appeal

THE OLYMPIC GAMES. 25 ~---- - -------- ------------ any fund required for central training ground and quarters, or for the transport of British represen– tatives to and from Berlin and for their accommo– dation while there. Several schemes have yet to be submitted. (e) That in addition sev ral sports governing bodies were anxious to $0 beyond the mere dis– covery and training of a limited number of athletes and to make provision for placing t he athletic training of our youths on a permanent a ncl satis– factory footing. In such a manner that a fter the Olympic Games of 1016, whether the nation decided to continue the Olympic Games or not, provision would have been made for steady progress m physical efficiency. The Committee reported accordingly, and the appeal for £100,000 was issued. The appeal having been issued over the signatures of those whom the nation honours and trusts the decision rests with the people of Great Britain. The money is not needed and will not bo used to secure a "team of gladiators." It will be used to create an organization which h as hitherto not existed -to support the amateur sports associations in organizing and extending their respective sports on scientific lines ; to enable them to secure the best men possible to represent the country at Berlin, and t o make the necessary arrangements at Berlin for Great Britain's representatives. ·whether more first prizes will be gained at Berlin or not is another matter and will depend on the ability of the men sent--Palmam qui meruit ferat. If our country is represented by its best men and those men are afforded every facility to do their best for their country, however unpleasant defeat might be, it would not be humiliating. I have tried as concisely, clearly, and temperately as I could to give the point of view of the Special Committee and have only to add that the Special Committee and its chairman will gladly give way to those more competent should the subscribers to the fund consider that the work would be better done by others. ·whatever is done must be done quickly, for time is an essential factor of the situa– tion. " PROFESSIONALISllI." The bogey of " professionalism " (for a bogey it undoubtedly is) was raised by a number of correspondents in the course of the controversy, and The Timea dealt with the subject in a leading article on September 13 as follows :- It is plain, we hope, to those who have followed the correspondence on the Olympic Games Fund in our columns that the fears expressed by some e.s to its possible employment in turning amateur athletes into professionals a.re groundless. There is no more risk of that happening than there is in the case of the members of next year's Oxford boat or Eton eleven, on both of which e. considerable sum of money will be spent before they e.ppee.r e.t Putney or Lord's. The maintenance of the Univer– sity Barge, the wages of boatmen and other servants of the O.U.B.C., the cost of e. new light ship for the race, the hire of launches, and e. whole host of other incidental expenses will be provided for, e.s they have been for the le.at 70 years or so, out of funds to which the e.ctue.1 members of the Oxford crew will contribute a relatively insignifice.nt proportion. In the same we.y e.t Eton, only a modest fraction of the money spent on the mowing and rolling of Upper Club and Agar's Plough, the se.le.ries of the ate.ff of professional coaches, and all the other odds and ends that are pa.rt of the recognized scheme of Eton cricket, will come out of the pockets of the boys who eventually get their Eleven. Yet no one will dream of accusing ·either of these bodies of young athletes of being tainted with professionalism, because they do not themselves defray the whole of the expenses connected with the sports in which they represent their university or school. They will be rowing and playing cricket on strictly amateur lines, incurring t he same kind of expenses, and meeting them in exactly the same way, 1f Mr. Nowell Smith will forgive us for saying so, as at Winchester e.nd Sherborne a nd - ew College, and all the other schools and colleges, and all the amateur rowing e.nd swimming and cricket and football and lawn tennis e.nd archery and fencing and athletic clubs of the United Kingdom. There is no need, however, to labour this point, except to add t hat there is every reason to believe that l\lr. J. E. K. Studd, of the Eton and Cambri~e E levens, and the Select Committee for the Olympic Games of which he is chairman, are not the sort of men to be blind to the urgent importance of so administering any funds with which they me.y be entrusted in accordance with the best ti:.e.ditions of British sport. Foc the present we wish rather to turn to an aspect of professional sport which we a.re too apt to forget. ll:len are apt to speak of " the taint of professionalism" as though professione.Iism were one of t he deadly sins. Yet if we think for a moment of the professionals that we know-in golf, cricket, rackets, tennis, and practically every other form of sport--we realize at once that they are deservedly one of the most respected classes in the community. Varden and R ay and Braid and Taylor and the other professi9f'\al &Olfers are, as most of us know from perso~ i<xper1ence, all men who play the game with absolute fairness and honour, even though they play it for money. It is the same thing with Hirst and Hobbs and Woolley e.nd Blythe, and the whole profession of paid county players. They are good fellows and good sportsmen to e. man. Unless they were, is it likely that they would be chosen t o stand as umpires in first-class cricket ? But there is no need to insist upon the point. Every– body knows it. Every amateur numbers not only among his acquaintances but among his friends professionals of one sort or another for whose idea.ls of sport and sportsmanshie he has the highest respect. When llfr. Frederic Harr1Son expresses e. wish that county elevens should consist of ten amateurs and one professional, he forgets that in the good old days of simple old-fashioned cricket there were probably just as many professionals in the county tee.ms as there a.re to-day. In saying this we must not be taken to imply that we underrate the importance of the amateur element in first-class cricket. But it is e.s well to face facts as they are, and not to sigh for an idea.I state of things-if it is ideal-which has never existed. As a matter of fact it never can exist. The supply of young amateurs with sufficient means and leisure to play regular county cricket is necesse.rily limited, though there are probe.bi:, quite as many in the country as is good for it or for them. From one point of view it is not highly desirable that e. large number of well-educated young men should spend too many of the best summers of their lives in playing e. ~e-how· ever fine e. game--for the delecte.t1on of the multitude. With the professione.ls it is different. For them cricket is the business of part of their working life, and though we may talk of the taint of professionalism, we honour them for the way in which they. conduct that buainesa. But perhaps what we really mean when we use the phrase is the taint of veiled professione.liam. That