American sportsmen, and we hope the American public as well, will rejoice to learn that the American Olympic team will sail for Antwerp in July with the official backing of the American Government. At a series of conferences held on Thursday in Washington, between the Olympic committee and high officials of the Government, American participation in the Olympic games received the formal endorsement of the Administration, and several high officials, including Secretaries Daniels and Baker, accepted honorary membership on the committee. It is eminently fitting that the Government should give such endorsement to the Olympic program. The two hundred or more athletes that will be chosen in the next few months to compose the team will represent abroad the honor and the fair name of the United States. They will not, it is true, invade Europe to meet, in combat of war, a foreign foe. But each will defend, in his respective branch of athletics, the lustre of American sport against the challenge of the best of the world's athletes.

To insure a worthy representation on the part of the United States will involve an extensive series of preliminary tryouts. Every athlete of ability must be given a chance to win the honor of a place on the team. No stone should be left unturned to insure that the Olympic team measure up to the highest standard of American athletic prowess. The United States has won world-wide renown by her victories in previous Olympic contests. May the United States still wear that crown of glory when the 1920 Olympiad has passed into history. --BOSTON TRANSCRIPT.