The speech of Mr. Green which is printed in another column brings out one point which can not be too strongly insisted on. The rules of football can not be held to blame for the abuses which are the chief cause of outcry against the game today, and the final remedy for these abuses is accordingly not to be sought in any amendment of the rules. This does not mean that no such amendment should be attempted: far from it. Much may unquestionably be done by a strict enforcement of more severe rules, to prevent the recurrence of the most objectionable features of ungentlemanly football. The fear of penalties will prevent overt acts; it will not affect in the least the spirit which inspires the acts, and which must be killed if football is to live in the esteem which the game deserves.

There is nothing in the game of football itself to offend any but the most sensitive persons. The rough handling to which those who play expose themselves, is not too extreme for strong men engaged in manly sport; and for the weak the game was never intended. But the violence of the game offers peculiar opportunities for abuse to those who seek them. There is much dirty play which can be done in defiance of any rules, however stringent. Such play can only be discouraged by absolute intolerance on the part of players and spectators alike. In the intensity of the desire to win and in the fierce excitement of a game, there is often tolerated a great deal that is indirect violation of the spirit of gentlemanly sport. When the whole attention is directed to the end the means which attain it are often by that very fact thought justified. This should not be so. The true sportsmanlike spirit, so often referred to yet so often forgotten, should be present at all times and under all circumstances, unflinchingly condemning the slightest deviation from gentlemanly play. Where rules must always fail, the cultivation of this spirit will raise football to its proper plane as probably the finest of athletic games.