Question: "Resolved, That intercollegiate football contests are beneficial to the colleges."
Brief for the Affirmative.
JOHN A. FAIRLIE and WM. B. WOLFFE.Best general references: Report on Athletics by Committee of the Faculty of Harvard University (1888); F. W. Taussig and R. W. Emmons in Harvard Graduates' Magazine, III, 305, 318 (March 1895); A. B. Hart: Studies in American Education, No. vi; N. S. Shaler in Atlantic Monthly, LXIII, 79 (Jan., 1889). E. L. Richards in Pop. Sci. Mo., XLV, 721 (Oct. 1894); Walter Camp in Century, XLVI, 204 (June, 1893); Nineteenth Century, XXXIV, 899 (Dec. 1893); Forum, XVI, 634 (Jan., 1894); Lippincott's Magazine, XXXIX, 1008 (June, 1887).
I. Athletics are essential in colleges. - (a) "Mens sana in corpore sano." - (b) Youth the time for physical development. - (c) Without athletics students do not get sufficient physical exercise. - (1) City life, use of railroads, etc. - (2) No military training for youth as in European countries.
II. Football is a beneficial form of athletics. - (a) It is acceptable to the students. - (1) Is played by a large number. - (b) It promotes bodily health. - (1) Physique. - (2) Training teaches importance of proper ventilation, food, clothing, etc. - (c) It promotes moral qualities. - (1) Self-control. - (2) Temperance. - (3) Courage.
III. Intercollegiate contests are advantageous. - (a) A stimulus to general participation. - (b) They develop college patriotism. - (c) They bring the colleges into closer relations with each other.
IV. Evils of football are not inherent. - (a) Injuries exaggerated, and will be decreased by new rules. - (b) Time given to training to be decreased. - (c) Waste of time by spectators is not excessive. - (d) Lowering of students' ideals - if a danger - can be prevented by insistence of faculties on a high grade of scholarship.
Brief for the Negative.
J. W. COOKE and V. S. THOMAS.Best general references: Pres. Eliot's Reports for 1892-93 and 1893-94; Prof. Taussig, Harvard Graduates Magazine, March, 1895; Nation, Nov. 29, Dec. 20, 1894, and Feb. 21, 1895; Boston Herald, Nov. 25 and 26, 1894.
I. The evils of intercollegiate football are ineradicable. - (a) Football, by its nature, offers great inducements to unfair and brutal playing. - (b) Intense excitement and rivalry of intercollegiate contests make such temptations irresistable.
II. Intercollegiate football is injurious to the players. - (a) Physically. - (1) Liability to overwork. - (2) Nervous strain. - (3) Liability to injuries. - (b) Intellectually. - (1) Takes excessive amount of time. - (2) Takes excessive amount of thought. - (x) Total preoccupation before the great games. - (c) Morally. - (1) Encourages extravagance. - (2) Leads to vulgar notoriety. - (3) Engenders ill feeling between colleges. - (4) Dulls the sense of honor. - (5) Dulls the feeling and has a brutalizing influence. - (6) Establishes false ideals. - (x) Physical force placed above intellectual and moral qualities.
III. Intercollegiate football is injurious to the students at large. - (a) Waste of time watching games. - (b) Injury to health watching games. - (x) Dampness and cold. - (c) Hysterical excitement at periods of the great games. - (d) Dulls sense of honor. - (x) Little meannesses condoned for the sake of victory. - (e) Dulls feelings. - (f) Establishes false ideals.
IV. Intercollegiate football is injurious to the colleges. - (a) Harmful to the students. (See II and III). - (b) Affects the proper flow of pupils to the college. - (x) Many choose a college for its athletic record rather than for its real advantages. - (c) Gives preparatory pupils a false ideal of the purpose of a college, thus encouraging the development of athletic instead of intellectual ability. - (d) Represents colleges to the community as places of leisure and training schools for athletes, instead of centres of learning.
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