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Show All Manly Sports : Should Be Encouraged ; Bt DR. JESSE F. WILLIAMS, Columbia University Football and other manly sports involving the element t of combat and emotional ex- citement should be encour- aged as preparation for war. I From the standpoint of ' biology and ethnology, man, as Doctor Crile has said, has a "kinetic" equipment for war, developed by the innumerable centuries during which he had to fight for his own life nd the life of his mate and children. Now as civilization has more and more deprived man of the need to fight he has devoted more time and attention to the games which are substitutes for war in that they involve a. vigorous struggle and in their sublimation offer an opportunity for the formation of habits and ideals of a kind which may effectively fight for personal and social ideals. It is important, also, to remember that these games approaching war, involving a large element of personal danger, appeal most strongly to normal human instincts. There are those who see in football, even as those who see in war, only horrors and debasements. Such individuals are unable to see any values in the sacrifice of material interests for the sake of high ideals, of personal and individual elements for the good of the group. Now games and athletic contests will give the essential virtues which may be achieved by war. Doctor Cannon of the department of physiology of Harvard university has shown from the standpoint of internal secretions secre-tions and the emotions why games and athletics serve the body in the preservation of the warlike virtues. This scientific work on the physiological physio-logical side shows how insignificant gymnastic drill is, because of its lack of the necessary emotional re-enforcement. |