Increasing Popularity of Professional Football

Growth of the Game Is Closely Linked With the Story of Dr. Harry A. March, Who Brought It Into the East With the Backing of Tim Mara

IN the office of Tim Mara, owner of the New York Giants professional football team, there hangs a framed photostatic enlargement of an editorial that appeared in the New York Herald Tribune: “An enthusiastic supporter of intercollegiate football could not watch a game between the Green Bay Packers and the New York Giants without coming away with the feeling that he had been witness of the game in its most highly developed form, an exposition of all those things which undergraduates sweat for, strive for, and are never quite able to attain. Here was football at its peak. Here were all the elements which go to make it a game that low temperatures, the worst of bad weather and everything else fail to discourage and dishearten.”

The story of professional football is closely linked with the story of Dr. Harry A. March. You can see him any Sunday bouncing up and down the side-lines, following the play of the Giants in the Polo Grounds in New York City. Dr. March might be called “an alumnus of post-graduate football,” who lives for Sunday afternoons like any old captain who ever sat on the Yale Fence lives for Saturday afternoons.

Back in 1924, a mail-carrier named Findley complained to Dr. March: “Working-men like me can’t get off on Saturday afternoons to see college football even if we had the money and the pull to get the tickets.” Out in Ohio, where Dr. March came from, they had been playing professional football on Sunday afternoons for a long time. Why not in the East? thought Dr. March. With the idea thoroughly worked out in his own mind, Dr. March went looking for a backer. As Tim Mara puts it, “Doc March was looking for an angel, and I was it.” So well did Dr. March do his work that Mr. Mara had invested $25,000 in the idea before he ever saw a professional game.

More on Professional Football here

HOW VINCENT RICHARDS BECAME THE FIRST PRO TENNIS “CHAMP” 

… Kinsey, as I said, is a much improved player over the player who won his way to the finals at Wimbledon several years ago. He is forcing more, adding speed to his shots, and playing ever with that guile and deception for which he is famous. Against Richards he adopted just the right tactics to worry the blond volleyer; nor did he fail to do so. Knowing well Richards’s tendency to come in on a second service, he invariably got his first ball in, and even tho it was a softer serve than usual, Richards rarely moved forward on it.

Kinsey also kept him away from his favorite position in forecourt by some lobbing that was as near perfect as lobbing can be. I wish every young player in the country could have been there yesterday to have seen how perfect lobbing will slow down and nullify a volleying attack.

Time after time Richards would come in, only to be obliged to retrace his steps for a lob so accurately timed that he was able only to pop it back weakly. This and a fast cross-court dipping drive when Richards was entrenched at the net won Kinsey many points.

But Richards in a year has not stood still either. If you expected a fat, undertrained, uncertain Richards, you were much surprized. The Vincent Richards of 1927 is a keen, well-trained athlete without an ounce of extra flesh upon his body. He was overtennised last year at Forest Hills in the national singles tournament; yesterday he had that subtle sense of touch which makes him the greatest volleyer in the world. Nor do I except either Borotra or Cochet, those two volleying geniuses from across the sea. As he played yesterday with the volleys rising from his shoe-tops to stab first one corner and then another, he would have defeated any one who played at Forest Hills early this month except Lacoste. And a match between the two would be a battle worth going a long way to see.

The match itself was virtually won in the first set when after a 3—0 and 5—3 lead against him Richards evened the score and finally won a long deuce set at 11—9, relates Mr. Tunis, adding:

Kinsey made some astonishing gets of impossible shots; he played Richards correctly and he made the winner hustle all the way.

Even in the last set, when Richards at five games to two and two sets down relaxed an instant, Kinsey came to the net, stowed away a volley at a critical moment and just failed taking the set to games all. But it would have taken even a better player than the improved Howard Kinsey to have defeated Vincent Richards as he played yesterday afternoon.

Read the Full Pro Tennis Story here

WHY ARE WE KEEN ABOUT MARS?

WHY SHOULD MARS ATTRACT so much interest as it does? “asks Dr. Robert G. Aitken, associate director of the Lick Observatory, in a recent leaflet issued by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (San Francisco). It is by no means the largest of the planets; on the contrary, it is next to the smallest. It has only two tiny moons, as compared with the nine each that revolve about Jupiter and Saturn. It is not even the planet that is nearest the earth, for at its least distance it is 35,000,000 miles away, whereas Venus comes within 26,000,000 miles of us every other year. Dr. Aitken goes on:

“So far as astronomers are concerned many answers could be given, but in my opinion the chief, if not the only, reason for the great popular interest in Mars is that, more than any other planet, it has become associated in our minds with the question of the possibility that life may exist on other worlds than on our little Earth.

“What evidence have astronomers secured on this question, and, in particular, what gain in knowledge has resulted from their study of the planet at the opposition of August, 1924, when it was nearer to the earth than it had been for over a century or than it will be for a century to come?

“Briefly, we know that the Martian day is practically equal to our own; that on Mars the seasons—spring, summer, autumn and winter—closely resemble our own, except that they are nearly twice as long because the Martian year equals 22 1/2 of our months. These facts are beyond dispute. Astronomers almost unanimously agree also: that there is an atmosphere on the planet which contains water vapor; that the polar caps, which grow as the Martian winter deepens and shrink as the summer comes on, are frozen water in some form; that a large number of the markings seen on the planet are permanent and, therefore, on the actual surface; but that there are no permanent bodies of water on Mars resembling our oceans or even our great lakes. Here agreement ends. There has been great diversity of opinion as to the extent and character of the atmosphere, as to the temperature and range of temperature, and, above all, as to the nature and interpretation of the surface markings. This difference of opinion is not surprizing, for the image of Mars even in a powerful telescope is hardly larger than the disk of the moon as seen with the naked eye; and the very largest direct photographs that I have seen (before enlargement in the dark room) are much smaller than a silver dime. Further, our own turbulent atmosphere, as well as whatever atmosphere exists on Mars, interferes sadly with all our views of the planet’s surface.

“The question of life on Mars turns upon the points in dispute; for the facts on which all are agreed (except the non-existence of oceans and lakes) are all favorable to the view that life may exist there. The recent observations have done something to clear up the situation.

Read more on Mars in 1925 here

COAL’S COST IN HUMAN LIFE

TWICE IN A DECADE have coal-miners of Dawson, New Mexico, been trapt and entombed by mine explosions which snuffed out a total of 383 lives. And in both instances the mines were owned by the same corporation. In ten years, declares the New York Evening Post, “we have killed approximately 24,000 miners.”  Quite properly, then, the Denver Rocky Mountain News asks: “Are we utilizing everything that science can devise to make mines safe? Or do we hold human life cheaper than the cost of proper precautions that might cost a few cents more per ton to mine the coal?” In the latest disaster at Mine No. 1 of the Phelps-Dodge Corporation, only two miners out of 122 entombed Were saved. These had wrapt wet garments about their faces, and stretched full length in the shaft until the fatal gases cleared. Some of the others were burned almost beyond recognition.

On the same day, by a strange coincidence, an explosion occurred in Mine No. 4 of the Canadian Collieries, at Cumberland, B. C., in which 33 men lost their lives. Little hope is held out for the twenty or more who remain entrapt, say Associated Press dispatches. The origin of the explosion, according to a telegram from the company, is unknown. Hence the query by The Rocky Mountain News, which is published less than three hundred miles from the New Mexico tragedy. Continues this paper:

“True, the Federal and the State Governments have taken in hand the question of mine safety, and experienced men are employed at strategical points as mine rescuers. Still the question remains of whether everything is being done that can be done to make coal-mines safe.

“That familiarity breeds contempt for danger is true in the mine among certain classes of employees, but all the same it is the first duty of owners of properties to do everything possible to save the innocent from the criminally careless and to use precaution against conditions known to exist.”

Coals Cost in Human Life continued…

HOW GENERAL MOTORS WILL MAKE ITS EXECUTIVES PARTNERS

THE General Motors Corporation, which is controlled by the Du Ponts, has evolved a plan for making “special partners” of its leading executives. President Alfred G. Sloan, of the Corporation, explains that “in a great structure such as the General Motors Corporation, where problems and operation are so diversified, where capital must be employed and plants operated in the best interests of the corporation as a whole, where new capital injected should be supplied where it will do the most good, it is important to find, develop and retain men to occupy important managerial positions, who are capable of assuming great authority and responsibilities that make these positions important.” The General Motors plan, explains the New York Tribune, involves a complicated piece of corporation financing. The Wall Street Journal notes that the scheme includes the formation of a subsidiary corporation to be known as the Managers Security Corporation, by means of which the important managers of the company will be able to purchase General Motors common stock at a very low price, and will be able to share in the motor company’s profits in excess of a specified minimum rate. The details are too involved for repetition here.

The chief features of the plan are listed here

CHINESE AS A BUSINESS NECESSITY

THE NEED OF KNOWLEDGE of the Chinese language in order to do business in China is said to be overlooked by some American firms, and this fact is much regretted by an American weekly of Shanghai. Three or four years ago American business men in that city, we are told, showed a keen interest in the study of the Chinese language, and a large number of young men from various American firms enrolled in the Chinese courses offered in the British Chamber of Commerce language school. But, says The China Weekly Review, American firms in Shanghai have apparently ceased to care to study the Chinese language, and while there are a number of American young men studying the language privately, it thinks the fact unfortunate that more are not taking the advantage for better and more efficient study offered by the school maintained by the British Chamber of Commerce which was opened to American students in 1918.

Read more about Learning Chinese here

MORE BILLIONS FOR INSURANCE

SOME insurance readers of these columns were surprized some weeks ago to find a writer trying to impress his readers with the magnitude of the insurance business, and then citing figures which failed to show the full extent of that business—by a great deal. In fact, an insurance weekly, The Insurance Field of Louisville, Kentucky, finds the writer we quoted, Mr. J. C. Royle of the Consolidated Press, some $400,000,000,000 short in his estimates.

Mr. Royle was quoted as putting total insurance coverage at $100,000,000,000. The Insurance Field points out that this mark was reached some years ago.

It says that life insurance alone totaled $100,122,000,000 away back last August. And adding to that figures presented by Gen. Frank S. Dickson of the National Board of Fire Underwriters, putting coverage under fire, marine, and allied lines at more than $228,000,000,000—why, “that gives a total coverage of over $328,000,000,000 without counting casualty, surety, and miscellaneous lines, in which the liability is contingent to such a degree as to make any definite statement of ‘coverage’ inaccurate if not impossible.”

The Insurance Weekly goes on to quote more figures. But it first makes the incidental remark that “there is no such word as ‘coverage,’ altho the term is gaining recognition, and some day may call for attention from the ‘Lexicographer’s Easy Chair.’” And right here we can cite a definition for the benefit of The Insurance Field. The latest edition of the Funk and Wagnalls STANDARD DICTIONARY defines the word “coverage” as “the sum of the risks which an insurance policy covers.”

Insurance Coverage continued here

A TALE OF TWO INCOME TAXES

THE heavy burden of the British tax-payer is a matter of general knowledge.

But it is interesting to find a careful comparison, between the income tax paid by the Britisher and that paid by the American of the same financial standing. Such a comparison is made by the British journalist, P. W. Wilson, in the New York Times.

Of course, the tax schedules have their complications on both sides of the Atlantic, and there are various detailed adjustments to be made. But Mr. Wilson finds it possible to make certain broad comparisons. Take first the question of exemptions:

In the United States the limit of tax is $1,500 for single persons and $3,500 for a head of a family. It is a high limit and very favorable to the small man.

In Great Britain the limit of exemption for an unmarried man is $675 and for married persons $1,125. The married man may also claim exemption up to one-sixth of his earned income, but not exceeding $1,250. For a married man with a salary of 13,500, at which figure he is exempt in the United States, the exemption in Great Britain would be $1,125 added to $583 or $1,708, and he would pay on income amounting to $1,792.

Turning to the number of taxpayers, Mr. Wilson points out that in Great Britain about 4,600,000, or one in ten of the population, pay income tax; in the United States about 2,500,000 pay, or about one in forty-four. On the average in the last fiscal year the average rate of tax paid on British incomes worked out at about one-eighth or about 12 1/2 per cent. of income return. In the United States the average rate has been about one-twentieth, or 5 per cent. of income.

Allowing for the increases recently announced by Philip Snowden in his new budget, “Britain, with two-fifths of the population of the United States, pays three times the income tax.” Or, to put it on a basis of per capita population, “the United States pays $10 in income tax, and Great Britain, with a lower wealth per capita, pays about $35.”

Read complete Tax article here

THE FIVE FAT YEARS

THE subject is thrift. It happens to be a favorite topic with columnist W.G. Sibley of the Chicago Journal of Commerce.

He advances the idea that in almost every normal man’s life there are five years in which it is easy to make money, and those five years, whether they come soon or late, should be taken full advantage of.

A Chicago correspondent, who withholds his name, starts the discussion by writing a letter to Mr. Sibley, in which he says:

It has been my observation, based on what I have seen in the past generation, that between thirty and forty, or fifty, almost any one can make a reasonable amount of money.

And this brings out the “five-fat-years idea” from Mr. Sibley himself. As he puts it:

Our professor in mathematics at college told our class one day that in every normal man’s life there come five years in which he is able to make money easily and rapidly.

Sometimes these years come late; sometimes early.

We are now in a period when they seem to come early. Wo to the young man favored by early prosperity who squanders it! His last days shall not be his best days.

There is but one safe thing to do when the easy-money years come, and that is to save it—to save till it hurts, to the end that accumulation may protect him and his family when earning power declines, as it surely will if he lives.

Thrift is the great provider of future comfort. A young man who scorns it when saving is easy is letting himself in for unhappy years, while those who practise it will have no serious competition from the spenders when they begin to slip.

Source: The Literary Digest May 24, 1930

ABOLISHING COLLEGE EXAMS

A NEW TERROR may await the fearsome student instead of the bed of roses that the removal of the examination test promises. Just what the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania may propose as a substitute for the “mid-years” and “finals” that they have announced abolished will be awaited with interest by academic authorities all over the country. “Examinations were introduced, not for the purpose of instruction,” says the Boston Daily Globe, “but to drive the worst laggards out of town,” and “the device has attained a certain moderate success.” Thus:

“Biennially a batch of exceptionally stupid youths is ejected from the lower classes. But it is amazing to what an extent the examinations have failed to get rid of many who have no intellectual right to share in the benefits of educational foundations.

“The system inevitably tends to encourage the student to give back to the examiner what the examiner wants. The word is passed around that a certain professor is ‘hipped’ on this or that point, and the student in his hour of trial frames his answers to suit the man who reads the papers.

“Oral instruction is a poor way in which to impart facts, for facts may be acquired much better from books. The lecturer, when successful, stimulates the minds of those who sit in front of him. But if students are worrying at an impending examination, instead of thinking about the subject, it is difficult for any teacher, however brilliant, to set their minds in motion.

“The examination system has no more friends than has a detective bureau. That is what it really is, a device to entrap the unworthy. To those students who hunger and thirst after knowledge it contributes nothing.

“A very large proportion of the academic authorities are ready to drop the examination, if only they can be shown some means by which the college can be protected from permanent occupation by the barbarians. There is rejoicing on professors’ row at the bold step taken by the Wharton School. At the same time there is much curiosity as to what a faculty does after it slams the door on examinations.”

It is a patent fact that for a number of years the worth of examinations has been “doubted by many educational specialists, by parents, and by students who are in a position to understand just how little an examiner can tell concerning the attainments of the examined.” Historically considered, the argument in favor of examinations has its weaknesses, as this writer proceeds to show:

“The intellectual life managed to carry on for many centuries before examinations were invented.   Teaching was highly successful in ancient Greece, altho the instructors simply lectured to such searchers after knowledge as appeared. If a student found the course beyond his depth he stopt attending and went home. The Greeks had also a certain advantage in that their centers of education were not obliged to attempt to make scholars out of students who were there for non-scholarly reasons.

“The Greek cities saved their learned men a lot of complications by taking over the conduct of athletics. The runner in the Marathon competed, not for the famous school which met under the shadow of the Acropolis, but for his city. And in Greece a university education was not considered of importance for a bond salesman.”

Source: The Literary Digest for December 3, 1921