WHITHER ARE WE DRIFTING? 



a big gate, inclusive of many men of supposed intel- 

 ligence and standing, could go out on the ringside 

 seats and watch five thousand men in gloves do a 

 battle royal, then boxing might be of some use to 

 America. But all these sports are organized on a 

 commercial basis, appealing to certain instincts of 

 the human heart, yet not exercising any of the func- 

 tions of the human body. And they are coming to 

 stand for sport as we know it on the sporting pages 

 and in the daily life of our country. 



Let us say that we have a hundred million people 

 in America who go to see the baseball games or 

 did go before baseball got into such legal messes as 

 showed its seamy side of commercialism. Out of 

 the hundred million people we may classify some 

 five million as men who also care for the sports of 

 rod and gun, of the field, the stream, the forest. I 

 presume that we could add to that five million out- 

 door men, another five million of Americans who 

 really care for their bodily welfare to the extent of 

 taking some form of regular physical exercise for 

 the purpose of keeping physically fit. That is to 

 say, we might claim ten per cent of our citizenry 

 ten million out of, say, a hundred million as fur- 

 nishing the best material for the recruiting of an 

 army. Those men, individual sportsmen who fol- 

 low sport for its individual benefit and for the exer- 



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