the old trident." prived of opportunities of meeting the masters of the game through the rigid application, of the ban which forbids play with profes-signals, He instanced half a dozen youngsters who should meet men ike Cochet, Vines and Perry. if ever comparable championship form is to be attained.
This is probably the strongest argument in the professional side of the controversy, although It} is not entirely unassailable "from the amateur point of view. Tennis is a game of high tradition and although the lover of the game pre fers to watch it played without the: taint of the pecuniary advantages: which divides the two classes of players yet there are many other sports, of equally high tradition, the character of which has not been weakened on this score. The great! difference is the new brand of pro fessionalism introduced into tennis since the commercial possibilities were realized through the widening appeal to a public willing to pay highly for secing it. Not only in this but in other sports, up to recent years an amateur who acquired outstanding ability could capitalize on it by becoming professional, but ambition never went further than becoming a club instructor at, few hundred pounds a year or! opening an athletic goods shop where a name ranking high in sport would prove an asset in business The new professionalism is a highly organized business with large sums of money involved. Against the few pounds of the old "pro," Perry starts his tour with a guaranteed £5,000 and the possibility of earn ing £25,000 or £30,000 in a very short time, although' Tilden is reported to.have said that when he: fained the syndicate he would be: "murdered" by other players who reached the championship stage before him and then joined the professional. With such rewards in prospect is it too bold to say that' some form of ce-operation between amateurs and professionals might. develop the game even beyond the hhelghts already reached? Economic and other conditions to-day make the way of the amateur Increasingly dimeult, and resounding as may be the glory of being crowned King of the Court the years of effort involved are beyond the reach anybody without independent financial means, If deterioration of] the game is to be the result of the drift towards professionalism which is causing a thinning of the champions ranks thus depriving, younger players of competition op-Portunities, surely a compensating, factor could be found in the prosport that championship"honours might bring subsequent financial teward and might quicken the tempo of the efforts towards championship. Other sports have been developed without too inflexible an insistence on the purity, of amateur status. Therefore, Tilden's ples ought not to fall on unreceptive ears. It should be: Possible to reronelle the conflicting viewpoints without surrendering the high tradition. of amateur play.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.