Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 43, Number 160, 17 May 1918 — Page 9

THE BICHMOND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELEGRAM. FftlDAY, MAY 17, 1&1S

PAGE .NINE

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ed. The first one developed is play and it is possible to keep it in the foreground. Give him an opportunity to engage in sports, to take part in football and baseball, to play healthy, robust, vigorous games, and this instinct stays in the ascendency and he will stay at the camp on Saturday and Sunday rather than go to places of vice. Furthermore, he knows that he must be moral if he desires to be at his best physically and therefore is unwilling to lessen his chances of success by dissipation. In the football season we have very little trouble on this score with tl candidates for positions on the team. Every bo hopes to make good. When it is explained to him that he cannot reach supreme physical excellence if he is immoral, you won't need to tell him that he 'mustn't. It won't be nec-

: By WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD. RAWFORD, write a story about the imfl portance of athletics in the National I X- Army and the necessity of thorough co- ' operation of all the agencies engaged in this work in order to secure the best results," said the Editor. i This was a poser for me, as I belong to the constitutionally lazy group who spend most of their time in libraries rather than on the athletic field. I cudgeled my brain that night for the answer when suddenly I had an inspiration. "My old friend Walter Camp knows more about athletics than anybody else. I know, to m; sorrow, that he knows how to train men for athletic sports for I have lost several hats and other things betting against ,Yale ; I will go to him for Information." A long distance call secured me an appointment to see him at his office in New Haven. I found him with eyes as bright, shoulders as erect and body as alert as they have been these past tweny-five years. He is a living example of the advantages to be gained by rational exercise, properly directed. I "Mr. Camp," I began, "I have to write a story upon the importance of athletics to the soldier boys and I have come to you as a fountain head of all such information." "You don't want mc to talk on the subject any more than I want to tell the American people about it, my heart is so full of it. It is so important and so few people appreciate its necessity. We, need the co-operation of all the magazines and newspapers to help us whoop up athletic training. "War has changed. It is no longer a question of just being a gallant soldier, always marching with colors flying to the'battle front to win a gloriou victory or die for your country. Modern warfare has made it one-quarter . soldiering and threequarters working. Trenches have to be dug, food and munitions transported, road beds made; there ore an endless number of absolutely essential tasks that require strong physical manhood. War is now a survival of the fittest, it is an enduranee test, and the efficiency of any military establishment is in direct ratio to the physical fitness of its individual units. The army whose men possess the greatest ability to withstand hardships and to endure, will be the victorious one. What we need now is men who are able to fight all day. Men who can pick up their equipment, run forward a couple of hundred yards and then be ready to fight again. "There are many reasons why athletic training is important to the National Army: "IT INCREASES ITS RESISTENCE. More men die in the army from diseases than from enemy bullets. The casuality reports of any body of troops will show this to be true. The man who is physically fit has greater powers of resistance to disease. The lurking germs are thrown off by his vigorous system, as water is from a duck's back, whereas the man whose resistance is low, whose vitality is impaired, will be attacked by disease and will succumb to it. "REDUCES HIS DANGER IN COMBAT. It is a safe guard at the supreme moment of impact M-ith the enemy. There has been much hand to hand fighting in this war and there will be much more before it is finished. At such moments the properly trained athlete will have the edge. The fcoft handed, flabby muscled, untrained man who formerly shunned athletics, will find himself "IMPAR CONGRESSUS ACIIILLE" (unequally matched with Achilles.) For athletic training not only strengthens his muscular power, increases his agility but brings about co-ordination between the mind and the body, that enables him to determine quickly his course and act upon it instantly. The trained man will be more than a match for his untrained adversary. "IT BUILDS UP HIS COURAGE. Cournge largely is a matter of habit. The boy who has faced "the foe" on the football field and in the basket ball court, where he risked his life and limbs for glory only, more readily faces the dingers of war. It has been said that the English army is made on the cricket fields at Eton. This N true. Good soldiers are strong soldiers, strong "Mdicrs are brave soldiers. You may be sure that in all charges on the battle field, the boy who is physically fit, properly trained and accustomed to take part in athletic contests Mill be in the forefront. He will lead the wav. "IT CURES HOMESICKNESS. A large number of the boys have never before been far from home. They are suddenly transported a thousand miles from all their former friends and associates. They are among a world of strange peoples. Their homesickness makes them dissatisfied and discontented. Little as it may seem, this js a serious menace to the discipline and training of the army. The remedy? Give the boy something to do that he likes. Let him engage in some sport, take part in some contests, let the training of his body be along lines that will interest, him. Let him be made to feel that by proper care he can excell the other fellow, and he will become so much enthused over his physical prowess and over the pamc itself, that he Mill forget to be homesick. He won't have time. "IT ACTS AS A DETERRENT TO VICE. The youngster has two normal instincts, play and sex. It is a safe proposition that his mind is al

ways either engaged in one or the other. Both are shoulders and huge muscles, apparently a physical pcrf;cUynatural, and need to be properly direct- giant, puffing under Usk that more active, vrify

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man would hardly notice. Remarkable physical strength does not make a man the best soldier. We need the active man, the well-balanced man, physically. We want to develop his undeveloped muscles, to increase his weight, to build up his endurance and strengthen his heart. We want suppleness, chest expansion, resistive force and these do not come from great bulging knots of muscles nor from the ability to do extraordinary feats of- strength. The boy is not capable of selecting his course of training. Each one must be assigned to such exercise as is suited to him individually. Men es-

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essary. It doesn't do any good to preach purity to a boy at this age, he is either not listening to you or he is wondering where the old guy got that funny collar, but he will listen if it affects his chance of making the team. "IT QUICKENS HIS TRAINING. It is urgently important that our soldiers get to France as soon as possible. They are needed now. Athletics will accomplish this. Their physical condition is improved more rapidly, their hardening for the strenuous life ahead is less difficult, and their learning of discipline is quicker as a result of this athletic training. Recognized military authorities say that the trained athlete will be prepared for service several months earlier 'than the boy who takes no active interest in sports. "IT DEVELOPS ALL THE MEN. Properly directed athletics will develop all of the men rather than making physical giants of th few. It isn't like the selection of a football team. We are not trying to pick a team out of a squad of twohundred men, but to build them ALL up so that we may get at least one-hundred seventy-five able bodied men out of the two-hundred. It is not a question of selecting only the best men physically for the war, but improving the man power and vitality of all so as to render a larger number suitable for service and to increase the military value of each individual man. To do this it is necessary that the proper scientific methods be utilized. A large part of the exercise that the boy usually takes is not of the proper kind. Much has a tendency to build up great arm and leg muscles. The arms and legs get enough exercise normally. When you rise from a chair, M-hat is the first thing that you do? You grasp it with your hands and push yourself up. Why? Because you know that your arms have the best trained muscles of the body, and therefore can be called on to assist your body muscles in getting up. We do not need to increase the strength of the organs already sufficiently developed. We need good lungs, good hearts and proper co-ordination of the muscles and the mind. The engine must be properly oiled and kept in proper trim. Frequently we see some lad in the service with great broad

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Our problem Is to. provide. athletics f or theVm In order to duplicate as nearly as possible the home'enVironment; produce physical fitness v,lth highvitality, and in' this w have had the most generous and whole-souled cooperation from' the Y. M. C. A., the Knights of Columbus, the War Camp" Community Service, and all the agencies that arc established in and about the camps. , The results have been remarkable and 'convincing.

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pecially qualified for this purpose must do it for him and they are doing it. "Several agencies have been established for this particular purpose. An army athletic officer is assigned to each regiment, the Committee of Training Camp Activities has a representative and the Y. M. C. A. has an athletic secretary in every camp and an individual athletic director in each Y. M. C. A. hut. The Knights of Columbus and the Y. M. H. A. also assist in this work. The work is so important that it is absolutely essential for these

There should be

"I am pleased to say that judging from the reports I have had, some of them coming directly from my son, who is actively engaged in this work in the Southern camps, there is complete co-operation. The athletic committee appointed by the Camp Commandant and usually composed of the Y. M. C. A. athletic secretary and the camp athletic officer, arrange schedules for games, organize baseball series, stage boxing bouts, wrestling matches, etc. Every piece of ground large enough is utilized by this committee for. outdoor sports, and they use the Y. M. C. A. Auditorium and huts for indoor games. ' "It is attempted to so manage that every boy will have an opportunity to take a definite amount of physical excercise. Boys take kindly to this, they like to play, therefore the influence of the athletic directors with the boys is great and their tasks enormous, so great that it is absolutely necessary that the work be apportioned among these various agencies. , . "In conclusion let me say, in this life-grapple with the Hun, the army needs every available man,

and every man who can be made available, and

bodies to act in perfect unison

no petty quarrels, no little misunderstandings but that every soldier , be brought up to his highest they must work in complete co-operation and every efficiency. Every man must be physically fit. The

man must do his share.

so big, that every agency engaged in this work must put forth its best efforts, and, without regard to any special credit, submerging self-interest and personal glory, work in complete uniscn in the wonderful task of making TJbcle Sam's soldiers, the finest body of physical manhood that ever faced a despicable foe." I told you I would make Walter Camp write the story for me. Did I do it? Well, almost there is j ust one other thing that the reader should know. The Y. M. C. A. is equally impressed with the importance of athletics and is giving the wholehearted co-operation that Mr. Camp suggests.' Read what Dr. Fisher, the General Athletic Director of the War Work Council of the Y. M. C. A. say about it : "A French General has said that the war will be won by the side having the be;t nerves. Morale is a great force in winning the war. Nothing can contribute mere to these two factors than play and recreation. No country has ever equalled the prevent record of the American Army and Nary in the provision of athletic sports and wholesome recreation by civilian organizations in which all the

agencies thus contributing, including toe x. M. C. A., the K. of C, the War Community Service and others have co-operated most heartily and hanoani-

Uskof physically upbuilding millions of men ia ously for the national welfare"