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Title
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Another Hornets' Nest
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Date
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December 1938
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volume
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3
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issue
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9
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pages
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3, 6, 7
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content
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en
ANOTHER HORNETS' NEST
The editors of any magazine or newspaper often find themselves in a hornets' nest as the result of some article or letter published in their pages. Let us say they inadvertently publish a letter by Mrs. Amy Zilch complaining about a neighbor who raises and races pigeons and how cruel it all is. Immediately some 6,000 pigeon racers write in to give the editors and Mrs. Zilch a piece of their minds. Subscriptions cease by the hundreds and everyone hears about it but the pigeons. A few issues later some 112,000 stamp collectors jump upon the editors for a disparaging remark published against philatelists. And so it goes. The wise editor avoids being drawn into such controversies and gets out of it all by apologizing as gracefully as possible at the earliest convenient moment.
Not so with the Bulletin Index, a magazine similar to Time published in Pittsburgh. In May, 1938, it published an article on fencing in its Sport Section. No duels have yet been fought over the article. The A. F. L. A., the A. A. U., and the American Olympic Committee have all thus far retained their calms. Nevertheless, the usual succession of letters has resulted, and the Bulletin Index, instead of wisely withdrawing from the controversy, has foolishly defended its misinformed Sports Editor and added coals of fire by damning with faint praise. We reprint the sequence of exchanges. It may cause a slight tightening of the skin along the back of the neck. You may feel the blood rise as you reach for your Atlas to tear Pittsburgh from its pages. To arouse you, however, was not the purpose of this reprint. We submit it rather to show how far off even a Sports Editor of a reputable News Magazine can go in any article pertaining to a sport as old and international as fencing. Last but not least, we print Mr. Santelli's letter to show what he, a naturalized American, has come to feel about American fencers. Any fencer in this country may well be proud of the accomplishments of the American fencers he names and praises.
Quoting from the Bulletin Index we reprint approximately two-thirds of the article which stirred the hornets' nest:
"Fencing: Pittsburgh's Swordsmen Emerge From Longtime Obfuscation With A Tournament and Exhibition"
"Unlike New York, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, Washington and Dallas, Pittsburgh is still an outpost in fencing's backwoods. Disjointed, spasmodic, boasting no officers, no clubhouse, collecting no dues, the Pittsburgh Fencers Club nevertheless bears the lone semblance to a backbone behind Pittsburgh sword addicts. Started up a decade ago by five rabid local fencers (Capt. Shoemaker, Engineer Walter Beyer, Teacher Konvolinka, Dr. Hance, Custodian Montgomery), P.F.C. one night last week saw a glimmer of hope for the future of fencing in Pittsburgh when 40 collegians and secondary schoolers signed up, competed at Mt. Lebanon High School in the 2nd Annual Tournament under P.F.C. auspices, a gain of 26 over last year's entry list.
U. S. fencers are notoriously the world's worst. Pittsburghers are perhaps the worst in the U. S. Because the quality of P. F. C. Tourney competition was in solid keeping with U. S. tradition, older P. F. C. members afterwards treated spectators to an exhibition of Pittsburgh's best foil and sabre work."
In the next issue of the Bulletin Index, there appeared a letter which indicated very clearly that the hornets' nest had been disturbed by the article. We quote the letter in full.
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To the Editors:
In the years that I have read the Bulletin Index, I have found very little to criticize. I wish, however, to take exception to your description of the fencing tournament sponsored by the Pittsburgh Fencing Club last week in Mt. Lebanon High School. Your report of this event seemed to stunt rather than to stimulate interest in a sport that is everywhere in the world justly popular. I regret that you chose to use this event as a peg on which to hang an indictment of United States fencing as a whole rather than as an opportunity to trace the good work that has been done by the Pittsburgh Fencing Club in persisting in the face of difficulties and succeeding in increasing interest in this sport.
It is significant that in this tournament was a gain of twenty-six entries over the previous year.
I am certain that any tournament in which Capt. Shoemaker and Messrs. Montgomery, Konvolinka, Hance, and Neely took part would prove that Pittsburghers rate a far higher appraisal than you give them as "the worst in the United States."
Farmers Bank Bldg.
Justin D. Lees
Pittsburgh, Pa.
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The Bulletin Index comment on this letter was as follows:
"Intending no slur, and pleased by the efforts of the Pittsburgh Fencing Club and its members to boom a worthy sport, the Bulletin Index must continue to believe Pittsburgh fencing, like that of most U.S. cities outside Manhattan, is less than good, pointing to the fact that no local fencer is rated more than a novice by the august American Fencers League. No U.S. fencer was expert enough to win his way past the Olympic semi-finals in 1936. Said famed European champion Aldo Nadi, who a year ago met and defeated all the top U.S. fencers hands down: 'There is little wrong with American fencing other than downright incompetence.'—The Editors."
The next chapter in the sequence was a letter from Capt. Shoemaker to Mr. George Santelli, American Olympic Sabre Coach in 1928, 1932, and 1936. Capt. Shoemaker had been a member of the Fencers Club in New York several years ago and had participated in a fencing exhibition with Santelli at the St. George Hotel at that time.
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Dear Prof. Santelli:
I am enclosing clippings from a local magazine on fencing. As you will see, they are decidedly sarcastic over the type of American fencing, quoting Aldo Nadi to the effect that it is downright incompetent.
I would greatly appreciate a letter from you, which I will have printed in this magazine, on the subject. We have a substantial group of young fencers in the high schools and colleges who would be interested in your opinions on fencing.
As to the ranking of Pittsburgh fencers, the article carries a misstatement. Both Dr. Hance and myself were runners-up in the sabre intercollegiate fencing meets during 1921-22. Furthermore, several of our members of the Pittsburgh Athletic Association placed in the A. F. L. A. tourney held here in 1931 in foil junior and senior ranks.
I won the senior foil; John H. Neely won the junior and Walter O. Beyer won the novice foil. In the later tri-state meet, I won the senior sabre and John H. Neely won the junior sabre titles.
Trusting you are enjoying good health and that your school is thriving, I am,
Yours very sincerely,
Philip S. Shoemaker
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We now print Santelli’s final letter which itemizes the achievements of American fencers most clearly and is a record of which all our fencers may be justly proud. It puts the glib and uninformed writer of the article and comments in the Bulletin Index to the proof of showing a source for any of his broad, incorrect statements. It does not claim that American fencers are the best in the world, and they are not, but they have come far in a sport which is not an American sport basically such as baseball, basketball, and lacrosse. It claims a respect for the achievement of Americans in a sport which was founded in Europe and has there today only a lessening claim of decided superiority. We quote in full.
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Dear Mr. Shoemaker:
I have read the clippings you sent me from The Bulletin Index with great interest and no less amusement. The person who wrote the article evidently had no sense of proportion. He evidenced a very common complex which is typically American, that anything in this country has to be either the greatest, the best, the most stupendous in the world or else it is the worst. Because the American fencers have not as yet won any World or Olympic Championship, the writer nominated the Americans as the world's worst, and further nominated the fencers of Pittsburgh as the worst in America. This would naturally leave the Pittsburghers as less than nothing. I don't blame you for feeling very indignant about it. I would be too if the person who wrote this amusing little masterpiece were an expert or at least a well-informed person. I assure you, however, that he knows less about American fencing than he thinks the Americans know about fencing. This again is less than nothing.
To prove this I am going to bring up a few facts which are established upon the Olympic records. In 1920, the American Foil Team took third place in the Olympics at Antwerp. This was a remarkable achievement because in those days American fencing was still in its infancy. In 1928, Lt. George Calnan of the U. S. Navy (therefore not a Manhattan fencer) tied for second place and came off third in the épée at the Amsterdam Olympics. In those same Olympics, the American Sabre Team placed fourth. In the intervening eight years, the Americans had shown enormous improvement. In the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, Joseph Levis of Boston (again not a Manhattan fencer) took second place in the Foil Individual Championship. Incidentally, this achievement bettered Aldo Nadi's best Olympic Foil showing. Again in 1932, the American Foil Team and Épée Team each placed third, and our Sabre Team took fourth, losing third place on touches. In Berlin, in 1936, the American Team had no individual honors but took 5th position out of twenty-three nations, ahead of many of the leading European fencing countries. Lt. Fritz Weber in those same Olympics took first place out of 42 contestants in the fencing event of the Modern Pentathlon.
The best recognition of American fencing by the fencing world is that our teams, regardless of weapon, were and are going to be seeded as head of a round robin pool or group along with Italy, France, Belgium, and Germany.
These are facts about American fencing in the Olympic Games. Our fencers have obtained excellent results as well in International, World, and Foreign Championships. Dr. John R. Huffman held the Danish foil and sabre championships against fencers like the world-famous Osier. Professor Miguel A. de Capriles won the Hungarian Outdoor Sabre Championship in 1936 and was acknowledged in the Hungarian papers as the first foreigner in history to win a Hungarian sabre championship, a feat that was not equaled even by the great Nedo Nadi who, before the war, took part in many sabre competitions in Hungary when he was an amateur. Lt. Thomas Sands took fifth place in épée in the 1937 World Championship held in Paris.
As for the article’s quotation of Aldo Nadi’s criticism of American fencing, it is probably a misrepresentation. This is a safe assumption for the other references to Nadi are incorrect. Nadi never met nor defeated any of the top U.S. fencers. I am not saying that he couldn’t, but the fact remains that, except for his own pupils, he has not crossed blades with any of the American amateurs nor counted touches with any amateur in exhibition. Mr. Nadi is unquestionably a very strong competitive fencer. Unfortunately, he turned professional before winning either any Olympic or World Amateur Championship. His greatest claims for supremacy were all established as a professional which obviated the necessity of entering the long, gruelling tournaments that are the real test of a champion. In a single ten-touch challenge match, he should prove supreme in foil and very high in either sabre or épée. However, such comparisons are unfair. One cannot say that France or England are the World’s worst tennis players because the American Donald Budge could defeat them all hands down.
In closing, Mr. Shoemaker, I repeat that the Bulletin Index can easily be proved to have been incorrect in its statements about our sport. Our best fencers are very good and our worst fencers are very bad. Pittsburgh does not come into either category.
Yours very truly,
George Santelli
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Editors Note: The Bulletin Index made no mention of Mr. G. W. Postgate, now at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, who won the American Individual Sabre Championship in 1908.
