THE LAST MILE

Fame and glory which follow close upon the flying heels of the successful athlete are often accompanied by jealous criticism. Such is the fate of Paavo Nurmi who comes to the Stadium on Friday for his last great race in America. Although he has been absolved technically from the recent charges made against him, his name is still under the shadow of abuse. The cry of graft cannot be stilled as instantly as it was raised.

When Nurmi first came to this country, it was hoped that he might promoto a closer harmony and a deeper mutual appreciation between the United States and Finland. Unquestionably he was at least partially successful in achieving that end during the first few months of his visit. His running was phenomenal. It brought forth a wave of enthusiastic applause never before extended to a track athlete. Then suddenly Nurmi became too popular. Audiences grew colder, newspapers less polite, and finally the petty track officials of the middle West tried to bar him from amateur competition.

To a stranger, very much alone in a strange land, this must have seemed like a singularly unsportsmanlike proceeding. First to be reprimanded for every scheduled race in which sickness kept him from competing, and then to have his travelling accounts ransacked for petty graft must have been insufferable treatment even for the quiet and undemonstrative Nurmi.

The injustice done to Paavo Nurmi has recently bear emphasized by the demand of one Irving Small, an, "amateur" hockey player and member of the American Olympic team, for his past salary, amounting to the sum of one thousand dollars. Amateur hockey has slipped so far in America that it puts any accusation of professionalism, directed against an individual foreigner, in almost a ludicrous light. Nurmi can scarcely fail to realize this.

Harvard has opened her stadium to the Phantom Finn for his last American appearance. It is naturally to be hoped for his sake and the sake of the thousands who will watch him that he will set up a new and lasting record in the mile. But it is of even greater importance that he will be treated with a courtesy and a hospitality equal to the occasion.