istrants and give them a fine program of physical training.
The college should take the initiative in this, get these reg-
istrants in and build up the hollow-chested fellows of whom
I have seen so many. We should give them a social chance
to have some fun out of it by playing games with the others;
but most of all we should correct the weakness of America
before it is too late, because it is a glaring weakness.

How will you do that, you say. You may have seniors who
are majoring in physical education. Put them at this task
of training these outside groups, using the gymnasium when
you are not using it in your regular program and the swim-
ming pool and the fieldhouse and the other facilities. That
is a great challenge. You say, “Oh, we are terribly busy in
our athletic department.” Well, men, in a democratic form
of government, national defense shouldn’t be merely the re-
sponsibility and the privilege of the boys of the nation, those
boys who haven’t a vote as to whether they should go to war
or not. In a democracy everyone should make his sacrifice
for national unity and national strength. There is your job
and there is my job.

Think of it! Nearly one thousand colleges in the United
States whose gymnasia are not used all the time. Think of
the tens of thousands of high schools, of the athletic plants
of athletic clubs, and you have the answer to the question of
physical fitness, if you have a devoted citizenry among the
men who are the leaders of the athletics.

I am here this morning to appeal to you to carry the col-
lege athletic program off the campus into the community,
not for Old Siwash, or whatever institution you are con-
nected with, but for the United States of America at a time
of great need.

I watched from my office in Harrisburg what hap-
pened on the 16th of October. Hitler was watching; Mus-
solini was watching; Stalin was watching—and they hoped
that day there would be draft riots as there were at the time
of the Civil War; they hoped that there would be grumbling
about it as there had been on other similar occasions. There
wasn’t anything of that kind. A hundred and thirty million
people gave the finest that they had—the youth of this coun-
try—to aid America in her defense through the medium of
registration. Unity was never more needed; unity was never
more shown than on that day.

But, men, today we have a much more serious problem
than mere registration. You heard the President last night,
and you know that war may be nearer than we think,
although we still hope to avoid it. But whether that is true
or not, we have an opportunity of training today the youth
of America as we haven’t had the opportunity in the life of

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