Show T t h he BRITISH IU CRISIS CRI I 0 1 SPORTS AND SPORTSMEN i I By FREDERIC J T HASKIN LONDON I O ON July Jul 30 England spends every eyer year ear more money monc on sport than for Ita army and navy nay Its religion Its schools or anything except Its drink An accepted authority on English 1 sporting matters has lias compiled sta statistics statistics showing that the e million mil mU million lion Hon people of or Great Britain spend spond annually for sport bo he sides sidus having h invested permanently pelm 23 In property devoted d ex cx exclusively clush lY to tho the uses of sportsmen In no other nation In the tho whole world IB is sport an essential cs factor In Inthe inthe the life of tho the people Americans stand patiently before bulletin boards waiting wafting to hear tho score of o a base baseball baseball ball game but tow few of or them after attar they the become men actually play pIa the game S In some somo parts of O the Union a few men men and arid women still ride to hounds but foxhunting in the tho United States amounts to so little that the great groat majority of at the people know nothing whatever about It Football in Its ILc American form is played only by b school boys and college athletes Rue Ruc Ing lug Is outlawed In nearly every oyer com coin community and to bo be associated with tho the turf Is to forfeit social standing In Innear nearly near all parts ports of o America Amerl cans still sUH delight to shoot and fish fisli but butO 90 00 O per por cent of thorn never noer have tho to do either cither except in tho the most occasional way a aIn In England sport seems to he be after acter food and drink the chief end of ex existence existence Everybody has a I Saturday hulf holiday and everybody devotes It to sport aport A crowd of or to OO at a pro professional football game gamo is not unusual Americas highest college collese football rec record record ord attendance dons does not reach rench this figure An English boy is taught to i play pIa cricket not by bj other boys bOs as I Ithe I the American urchin learns baseball i but by n his father who had been In turn taught the tho mysteries m of or the tho th game by his father This Instruction Is not undertaken lightly but hut is as itS hs I much a part of tho the serious business el df life liCe as any an other feature of child i training Not to have haG been a t crick cricketer cricketer I eter cler or a gamo game player of or some s me kind kindIs Is not to have bao fulfilled the require requirements requirements I ments of a British education e Both Mr Asquith and Mr Balfour the lead leaders leaders ers of the two great political parties I In Britain tail fail to appeal fully to the tho Imaginations of their followers be he because because cause neither of at them at college collego tools took any an interest In sports Their Theil biographers biographers pliers always alwa s apologize for this shortcoming short shOtt shortcoming coming When George V ascended the throne Ills his people remembered with gratin gratification cation that as PrInce of Wales Vales ho he had tho the reputation of ot being boing a splendid did shot One of or o the tho first things tho the new king did was Wag to announce that ho he lh a would continue continuo tho the racing stables es established established by h Ills his father tathel although It was generally known that George had little BlUe vital vHal Interest in the tho turf When the kings horse or the thc prime win min ministers entry wins Ins the Derby or 01 some other great classic of the tho English turf lurf the victory victor Is an occasion for national rejoicing It Is impossible Im to Imagine a president of or tho the United States or even a prominent senator attending a arace arace arace race meeting as the tho proprietor of a stable Sometimes even en In n England I a Puritan will object to the patronage patron patronage patronage age of or the thc turf curt on the part of a great groat statesman A Congregational minis ter once attacked Lord then Prime Minister because be lie was tho owner of or a Derby winner Lord Roseberry in reply said In effect that It was none nono of the ministers business and that thaL Christian charity Should hould pre prevent prevent vent ent tho the criticism of oC any an mans preferences preferences C in sport Without doubt the great majority of oC Englishmen agreed with Lord Roseberry Out of a It territory of less than ty million acres in Scotland almost four million acres acre are arc devoted to deer forests alone Scotland has a tion about equal to that of Ohio Can any American Imagine of the territory of or Ohio devoted to deer for forests forests forests ests Tho The licenses for shooting game bring to Jo Great GI at Britain a revenue of a n million dollars a year Men len who shoot or fish are compelled to rout rent the prop erty for that purpose whether they take tako it for Cor a day a week or 01 a rear jear ear One single firm finn of land agents in Lou Lon don holds property worth more than fifty million dollars on its lists fists to be ho rented Tented for far shooting and flailing fishing The annual expenditure for hunting shoot ing lug and fishing amounts to n a hundred million dollars while nearly two tree hun dred million dollars worth of prop erty ert is held exclusively for the tIle pur poses of or these particular varieties of sport While all classes of the tho people are arC sportsmen only football and cricket fire are the free privileges of oC tho the lower louver classes The game preserves are arc guarded carefully by b armies of keep ers els and poaching is h severely punish ed by b the law About twenty years rears 1 ago ngo Parliament gave savo tenant farmers the tho right by b enacting acting on the tho Hares and I Rabbits bill Jill to shoot tar fur on tho the land laud I which they Ule lease and cultivate But in many parts of tho the country It is dangerous for a tenant to eer this right lest ho he fall under the ure are of the squire Even the pos pOSe session of a piece Is hi sufficient to bring a tenant farmer under sus of or poaching There Is an agi tation lation In favor layor of giving tho the actual holders holder o of land the right to shoot feather as s well as QS fur but there Is little likelihood of such a radical piece of or legislation at al this tune time And yet rot et there are aro few In tho the peasant class WT who aro are not Potential poachers In the last lust political campaign Lloyd George Georgo horrified the gentry and en cleared himself to the peasantry by confessing that he had himself vio fated the fire game laws of oC a n dark l rk night Just what sport there nay be lie In lq taking a seat scat on a n comfortable shoot ing stool by a battalion of I and then pot perfectly tame tamo pheasants aa IS they ther are I driven past by an army arm of Waters heaters and drivers may questions In I nn an American mind But no man may mav ma deny dony that fox Cox ox hunting Is real spurt port and every overy or cr tuna man must acknowledge ge that tho the English arc nm the Ule best hest hunters I In the tho world Every Ever pack of hounds In England IB is as ns well known all over I the tho th nation na as tho the baseball clubs of oC i tho the major leagued league are arc known all over OI r I America There Thore Is no position with in the reach of j I an nn American rotors man which carries with It oven even a u hint of the tup th honor of oC attaching to the of I fice of master of oC a famous county hunt The English hunters men and j I women are sturdy out I themselves all that In IR cleanest t and ami best besL In the tho notions of or I British sportsmanship It Jl IP is I in the tho realm of ff sport that thc tho Englishman demonstrates his I traditional love lovo 10 of oC fair play pla English crowds do not nol cry out for tho the umpires blood when ho he b gives gle a i close decision against the th home t team arn nor do tin they thoy I accept In approving silence a i pal palpably rant decision when then It Is to their ther advantage nd if a n baseball uw um umpire give pire In America were given glen by bj the Ule rules of ot the game as ns much leeway as is Js the umpire of an English cricket match there would be he riot with o 0 Or Ory cry er cr y game me But the Brit Briton Briton Briton on without dissent the judg judgment judgment ment moot of o tho the official One ODe reason for this difference may mCl the foe tho the fact that cricket Is nothing noth nothing nothIng ing like as swift a game as baseball and It does docs not so powerfully appeal to tho tha emotions of spectators spec even cen supposing the spectators were pos possessed se of oC the emotions Baseball has hasI I been tried In England cricket has I been tried in the United States Both were acre dismal failures Baseball is a agamo game fame demanding alert keen i wit roil rapid thought and versatile ahll abil j I Ity all of oC which are arc more moro or less American characteristics while eric ket Iet demands steadiness coolness cal calculating c Judgment deliberate earn cam campaigning p and monumental all of which are more marc or less Brit British British British ish characteristics Tho The entire British Empire may mn bo be bet boI t I waiting wafting on the tiptoe of or expectancy I 1 for tho the final score from rom an nn I 1 Inter j national cricket match mat li and yet ol the i cricketers will stop in the middle of oC I j the game for a cup Clip of o tea ten Nobody Is impatient nobody is flustered no na nobody body bod complains Imagine the post PO t series major league baseball cham championship championship game with the score scorn 1 tot tol In the seventh Inning suspended to toI permit the players and their lady I friends to bubble babble bab le over oer a cup of Sir Thomas homas T best brow brew bro broThe The probably Is that Am Americans Americans play piny nines games for the sake of oC winning inning w considering the tho sport In It Itself self seH s elf an nn incident while the English I play for 01 the tho sake sale of or the sport and I consider victory Jetor or defeat merely merel an I incident to the tho main business In hand American trained athletes often orten may ma defeat British competitors In trials of oC skill but hut that i Is a n virtue of the American Am American habit of specialization Take Tako Taken any an a n hundred Englishmen at random and any an hundred Americans and tho file chances are rire that tho the Americans would w not bo br able to lo compete suc sue successfully In athletics Certain It is that thal tho English be beHove I Hove lIoe that the tho vast ast amount of money mono they expend every year ye r fur for sport Is Ii IiI I well spent Wellington said that tho the battle o of or Waterloo was won on tho the thoI cricket fields o of oC Eton and most Eng I believe that all tho rho battles of o the future futuro will bo be won won v n in like man manner manor ner nOI n or The Tho English arc arc r n a nation of or o sportsmen s And An d as a n rule they aro are I sportsmen In politics I Tomorrow The Tho British Crisis I Political Campaigning |