Personally, I think we might learn much from the West in regard to sports.
They certainly increase the physical and mental faculties,
and for this reason, if for no other, deserve to be warmly supported.
China suffers because her youths have never been trained to team-work.
We should be a more united people if as boys and young men
we learned to take part in games which took the form of a contest,
in which, while each contestant does his best for his own side,
the winning or losing of the game is not considered so important
as the pleasure of the exercise. I think a great deal
of the manliness which I have admired in the West must be attributed
to the natural love of healthy sport for sport's sake.
Games honestly and fairly played inculcate the virtues of honor, candidness,
and chivalry, of which America has produced many worthy specimens.
When one side is defeated the winner does not exult over
his defeated opponents but attributes his victory to an accident;
I have seen the defeated crew in a boat race applauding
their winning opponents. It is a noble example for the defeated contestants
to give credit to and to applaud the winner, an example which
I hope will be followed by my countrymen.
As an ardent believer in the natural, healthy and compassionate life
I was interested to find in the Encyclopaedia Britannica
how frequently vegetarians have been winners in athletic sports.*
They won the Berlin to Dresden walking match, a distance of 125 miles,
the Carwardine Cup (100 miles) and Dibble Shield (6 hours)
cycling races (1901-02), the amateur championship of England
in tennis (four successive years up to 1902) and racquets (1902),
the cycling championship of India (three years), half-mile running
championship of Scotland (1896), world's amateur cycle records
for all times from four hours to thirteen hours (1902),
100 miles championship Yorkshire Road Club (1899, 1901),
tennis gold medal (five times).
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