TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8651, 28 November 1893, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Accobdisg to a writer Professionalism in The Times, profesin sionalism in football in • Football. England is approaching a crisis. The "pro." is something like a prima donna —his terms are getting more and more exorbitant until the load ou the managers' shoulders is approaching the breaking-down point. It is on record, we ars told, that a Scotch halfback Was lured into England on a twoyears' lease for £500, for which he was expected to play matches, of course, only during sixteen months. Assuming his station in life was that of a mechanic, as our contemporary remarks, he did pretty well for himself. Only the other day a member of the Blackburn Rovers broke off with his old team, beiDg offered higher terms elsewhere, and now he plays for Ever ton for the substantial emolument .f £250 down and £5 per week. A Scotchman of repute • wished to join the Sunderland team. Asked as to his terms, he replied, £150 down, £150 a year, and a situation of £70 a year. The Vice-President of tbe Football League, Mr Bentley, stated that the system has grown enormously in a very short time. Nob more than four years ago a club with which he was intimately connected paid less than £75 for the whole summer iv what were then considered retaining fees, about 10s per month. To show the alteration which competition among the Clubs has brought about, he mentions that the sum now paid by the same Club during the summer months amounts to at least £550. After reading Btories like these, the British paterfamilias must feel impelled forthwith to make footballers of his boys. The boys themselves could hardly object. To the delight of playing an exhilarating game is added the attraction of handsome pay and unbounded popularity with the public. There are signs, however, that it cannot last. The strain is getting too great for the Clubs to stand. Those that lose the " crack " players find their popularity decline, and the gate money fall off; while those who outbid them often find they have a dear bargain at the price they are compelled to pay. To crown all, we hear the professionals are nob even yet satisfied, bub are talking of "strikes," and we know not what. It is probable they will find themselves anticipated by the Clubs. Certainly football would be all the better and healthier for a wholesale purgation of the professional element. Tue purchase of Suez A Profitable Canal shares on behalf of Speculation. England by Lord Beaconsfield was not only a greae political coup, but has turned out one of the [ most brilliant financial strokes on record. The money paid for tbe shares in 1875, including a commission of close on £100,000 to Messrs N. .de Rothschild and Co., was j £4,076,622. The shares are estimated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to be now worth £17,750,000. The dividends paid by the Canal Company for the last I three years were—l 7 per cent, in 1890, 21 | per cent, in 1691, and 18 per cent, in 1892. Thepurchase money was raised by Exchequer bonds, bearing interest at 3£ per cent, per annum, and by 31st March next the whole of this amount will have been repaid by means of the sinking fund, bo that the nation will then hold them free of all cost. There is another point to be considered. Hitherto England has not r ..eivod tho

handsome dividends whicli have been declared. These had been mortgaged, before Lord Beaconsfield bought them up, to 1894. The mortgagees have received tho dividends, and the English Government has received 5 per cent, interest on the purchase money, guaranteed by the Khedive. The result has been that the net cost to the nation when the accounts are finally olosed on ths 31st of March next, will only have been about, £2,500,000 sterling for shares which are now worth £17,750,000 sterling. Simultaneously with Britain's redemption of the last of the Exchequer bonds issued in payment, of the shares, the Khedive will make his fiuai payment of iuterest ou the purchase money ; henceforth, instead of the British Government drawing the Khedivial 5 per ceut., it will get the Canal Company's dividend of 17 or 21 per ceut. This Mr Goscheu has already applied as a sinking fund for tbe fortification of our coaling stations throughout the Empire, and for the formation of an auxiliary fleet for the defence of our colonies. These interesting details are mainly extracted from an interesting letter addressed by Professor John Scott to The Times. If all share investments turned out as profitable, we should not hear so much abuse of joint stock companies. It ought not to be forgotten that, although Lord Beaconsfield is usually credited with this lucky coup, it was a journalist who first suggested it. Its real author was Mr Frederick Greenwood, then editor of the Pall Mall Gazette.