WITH FREDERICK GRAHAM

NEWS-PRESS SPORTS EDITOR

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TODAY WE TURN the column over to Henry McLemore of the United Press who will give you a resume of the Olympic money muddle.  It is very informative and not without implied pathos.

I OFFER IT TO YOU for its enlightening qualities and with your permission will read over your shoulder.  Here goes:

When the S. S. Manhattan pulls out into the harbor and heads for Hamburg on the morrow she will carry an American Olympic team which is the largest numerically, strongest athletically and stoniest broke financially, in history.

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THERE WILL BE upwards of 384 athletes on board -- some fifty more than made the trip to Amsterdam in 1928, when the depression still was way around the corner and money grew on bushes.  But they will be on board only after one of the maddest financial scrambles in history.  Of the twenty-two teams which will sail, the members of only eight of them will walk up the gangplank with tickets which did not cost them something out of their own pockets.  These fortunate teams are men's swimming, men's track and field, basketball, boxing, equestrian, modern pentathlon, rowing and soccer.

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THE MEMBERS OF the other teams were told by the poverty-harassed Olympic committee, at the close of its final accounting meeting yesterday that they simply would have to make up the deficits in their budgets themselves, or shear their personnel to the bone.

This announcement was greeted first by wails of anguish, and then by a desperate drive for funds.  The managers, coaches and members of the "crippled" teams sent telegrams by the dozen, made telephone calls by the score, and reached deep into their already thin wallets.

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EARLY TODAY IT WAS LEARNED that the frantic appeals had been successful in most cases, and that only three teams -- women's swimming, women's track and field, and field hockey -- were in danger of having to prune their lists.

The women swimmers must raise $3500 by noon today (the deadline) or else be reduced from eighteen to ten.  Instead of the first three girls in each event, and three extra relay girls, there will be just the first two in each test and no extras.  Practically all of this is promised and is expected to be on hand.

THE WOMEN'S TRACK AND FIELD TEAM, which was originally cut to four but which was raised to sixteen on the provision that their money would be ready, must secure $3328.  It is believed that the cash will be laid on the line and a full complement carried.

The field hockey squad, which was given but $500 by the committee because it is only a step above the exhibition class, is in fairly dire straits.  The boys are short $3223 and the committee has refused to take their notes.  Playing Manager, Leonard O'Brien, however, was still hopeful that the deficit could be made up.

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ALL OTHER SPORTS were in fairly solvent condition.  The men's swimming team raised its $10,000 without much trouble, $4000 coming from the water polo and diving tryouts in Chicago, and $5000 from the swimming trials.  Henry Penn Burke, Chairman of the rowing committee, had the $5000 his sport lacked ready to turn over to Treasurer, Gustavus Kirby.  Men's track and field had a deficit of $11,198, but only because the $25,000 it earned at Randall's island in the final tryouts Saturday and Sunday has yet to be turned over by the New York City parks commission.

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THE MEN AND WOMEN gymnastic teams were "over the top," as were the weight-lifting, baseball, field handball, wrestling and pistol teams, but only because the members reached into their pockets and paid most of their own expenses.  The same was true of the canoeists, cyclists and fencers.  The latter, it is known, were assessed $200 each for the honor of parrying and thrusting for the world's wealthiest nation.

The women gymnasts paid $375 each and some of them are 5-and 10-cent store girls.

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KIRBY, IN ANNOUNCING the inability of the committee to finance a full team said it was nothing short of disgraceful that this country had forced the athletes who will carry its colors against the world to pay their own way.

"One thing is certain," Kirby said, "and that is no one can ever question the sportsmanship of the athletes themselves.  The very fact that we sail with a full strength team proves that quality of the sportsmanship of our boys and girls.  Why right now in the hotel where they are quartered there are dozens of athletes without so much as a 25-cent piece in their pockets.  They took every cent they could lay their hands on and turned it over for transportation.  And on its return from Berlin the Olympic committee will do everything in its power to raise enough money to reimburse those who sacrificed their savings to make the trip."

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KIRBY SAID THE PRESENT CASH deficit for the sports budget was $57,709.  To this must be added an additional $50,000 needed to pay for the operating expenses of the Olympic administrative committee for the next four years and to pay back a $25,000 debt.

The only other American Olympic team which was beset with financial troubles was the 1920 edition, which sailed on the S. S. Princess Matoika with a $25,000 deficit.  It was later made up.

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THE TRACK AND FIELD TEAM which will go to Berlin is the strongest ever to represent America.  Included in the squad will be fifteen men who either hold world records or are waiting to have world record performances accepted.  They are Jesse Owens, Ralph Metcalfe, Frank Wykoff, Archie Williams, Glenn Cunningham, Don Lash, Harold Manning, Forest Towns, Roy Staley, Glenn Hardin, Cornelius Johnson, Dave Albritton, Ken Carpenter, Jack Torrance and Glenn Morris.  The records range from the 100-meter dash to the decathlon.

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now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country now is