THE QUESTION: Belgium has joined a group of European nations in a drive to outlaw boxing. Do you think boxing will eventually be banned everywhere?
NOBUSUKE KISHI
Premier of Japan
No, not in the United States nor in Europe. There is so much interest in boxing by strong groups that it will be impossible to repress it. At first I thought boxing was brutal and I did not like it, but since I have seen some strong matches I have become intensely interested in the sport.
JACK COFFEY
Fordham University graduate manager of athletics
Yes, but it will take many years. In Italy, many bishops and archbishops oppose boxing. In England, where the Marquess of Queensberry dignified the sport, Dr. Edith Summerskill, former Minister of Labor, is sponsoring a bill to ban boxing because she says it is morally reprehensible.
CHRIS DUNDEE
Miami Beach fight promoter
No. There always will be boxing, as long as men are on earth, because life itself is a battle and we are the fighters. There isn't too much difference in the competition between two bitter business rivals and two boxers in the ring. In each case, the object is a knockout.
MAJOR SELMA HERBERT
U.S. Army
Practically every college has banned boxing. If the trend continues, boxing could be barred in the U.S. But I hope not. I used to spar with Philadelphia Jack O'Brien and got many a black eye. Boxing gave me my trim figure, and I love the sport. I'd like to see the WAC taught boxing.
2ND LIEUT. MICHAEL McTIGHE
U.S. Marine Corps
No. Boxing was a major event in the first Greek Olympics, and it is still an Olympic event. In our own civilization, boxing is one of the few sporting events which stresses combat between two men. As such, it has great appeal. Many persons in all walks of life like boxing.
DOROTHY SKAAR HANSEN
Dallas department store executive
Not in the foreseeable future. College officials who abolished the sport were too squeamish. Boxing is the best antidote to the psychiatrist. If you go to see stirring boxing bouts or, better still, do some boxing yourself, you will never need the services of a psychiatrist.
MATT PATTERSON
President, Dodge Division, Chrysler Corporation
No. The question is not whether boxing is a dangerous or somehow unworthy sport, but whether occasional flagrant abuses have so corrupted the professional version that it is now past redemption. Properly controlled boxing can go on to recapture its reputation as the sport of the man's man.
ANDREW J. VIGLIETTA
Washington bureau manager of Newhouse Newspapers
Boxing eventually may be regulated by federal statute and it may be banned in some countries, but not in the U.S. With TV, it's too profitable a business. I think that boxing is one of the best sports. More effort should be made to develop talent.
HOWARD H. JONES
Vice-president, F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Co.
Boxing will die a natural death because of public indifference. Before TV, the newspapers and radio developed a false impression of excitement. TV proves that boxing, mostly, is boring to watch. In addition, the fact that boxers are the puppets of cunning operators has soured the public.
CHARLES L. PATTERSON
Chairman, New York City Transit Authority
When I see the way boxers waltz and stall, I think boxing should be outlawed unless the sport is improved, even though I think that boxing is the greatest sport a boy can take up. I took lessons from Spider Kelly from 1916 to 1922 at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey.
ELEVEN PHOTOS