PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL

As this is written the Stadium thousands are witnessing the struggle of two elevens, both high in the rating of collegiate teams, for supremacy,--two elevens who embody the spirit of two great universities who for long have been honored rivals on the gridiron and in the outside world. Whatever the outcome of the game we can feel confident that these two elevens will add to the traditions which their alma maters have established, within the shelter of the cloisters and beyond. The spectators of both colors will file out of the Stadium with mingled feelings it is true but with one thought in common: that they have seen fitly represented the spirit of hard fighting and true sportsmanship for which their universities stand.

Because football is in the last analysis an expression of the spirit of the colleges because and as such it is cleanly and fiercely played, it attracts the thousands upon thousands who swarm to the gridirons.

This fall, more noticeably than ever before, has the interest of the nation been turned to the struggle between colleges on the football field. One reason, perhaps, is that football has been able in many cases to neutralize the dismay caused by the baseball scandal.

But this increased popularity of the game is not without its drawbacks. Professional promoters, too, have been impressed by the crowds which the college games call out. Plans to organize professional teams are becoming more and more frequently broached.

Those who love football for what it in cannot view without apprehension any such movement.

Football, more than other sport be longs to the colleges; the line between hard fighting and dirty fighting is too close to contest the game to professionals.

The professionalization of the game would indubliably mean the ruin of what is now the most glorious sport of our country. It cannot be too strongly guarded against and effectively discouraged.