Toscanini to conduct at Bayreuth, the sports issue
brought matters to a head with a vengeance. It
is not difficult to guess the powerful elements in
Germany who would profit by a large influx of
tourists this summer and in 1936 and who protested
these threats to their profits. They have apparently
forced a complete right-about-face on the part of
■the Hitler government in so far as the Olympic
games are concerned, and the hope grows that the
musical sky may also be cleared of racial prejudice.
The threat of General Sherrill to take the
games from Berlin, like the decision of Mr. Tos
canini, rested upon no question of a boycott, always
a dubious and dangerous weapon. It rested upon
a fundamental truth of sportsmanship. There can
be no genuinely representative contest in a sport
so long as any race is excluded. True sportsman
ship rests upon this democratic base, and to hold
Olympic games by any other rule would be absurd.
Similarly with music. Neither national nor racial
boundaries have a place in any of the arts. To ex
clude any race from participation in a great music
festival not only inevitably lowers the quality of
its achievement but does violence to the whole
spirit of beauty and the creative imagination.
