Page:The secret play (1915).djvu/177

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know what to say about it. As George says, everyone does it; colleges and schools everywhere. I suppose that if we look on football as a sort of athletic warfare—to coin a term—we have every right to spy on the enemy in order to learn, as in real warfare, what his condition is and what his plans may be."

"Surest thing you know!" agreed George.

"On the other hand, if we look at football as merely a—a gentleman's pastime, the spying part is hard to defend. It's rather a difficult question to answer, Chester."

"A football campaign," declared George convincedly, "is exactly like real war. We form our army, we train it, we map out a campaign, we plan strategies. If the enemy has weak spots in its—its battle-line we want to know it so we can throw the brunt of our attack there. As long as the other fellow doesn't hide behind fences and hold secret practice we've got a perfect right to go and watch him and learn what we can. It's done all the time. All the big colleges do it and I've never heard any objections made before. Why, bless you, fellows, Springdale will be over here scouting in a couple of weeks!"