Science in Public Affairs 



the evil is to be found. We can see at Oxford 

 and Cambridge the undergraduate who reads too 

 closely and injures his health thereby, and much 

 more frequently the man who spends his hours 

 of recreation in reading " sporting news/' and 

 cheering on his University or College eleven or 

 eight, but who never plays himself. It is these 

 sallow-faced lazy young men who need to be com- 

 pelled to throw away their cigarettes, and, if they 

 will not play, at least be put through a strict 

 military training. And it is this mere looking-on 

 at others playing, this striving for excitement rather 

 than exercise, which brings together Saturday after 

 Saturday, in each of the great centres of pro- 

 fessional football, 20,000 to 40,000 men, of whom 

 perhaps one-half ought to be either themselves 

 playing the game, or as cadets or volunteers be 

 developing health and strength, and at the same 

 time rendering successful invasion impossible and 

 compulsory conscription unnecessary. 



In the Higher Class Scottish Schools the Com- 

 missioners report that opportunities for games are 

 generally considerable, but urge that games and 

 physical exercises should be treated as essential 

 parts of the school course. 



So too with the Elementary Schools, where it 

 is hoped that improvement in physical training 

 will follow from "a more intelligent conception 

 of the proper aim of education ; and larger pro- 

 vision of playgrounds and of exercise halls is 

 necessary, and can in many cases be found with- 

 out increased expense." In schools of this class 



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