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als. Tennis, however, remained steadfastly amateur for decades, although even before World War II some of the best players turned professional while still in their prime and made large sums playing exhibitions. The upper-class character of tennis and golf eroded during the 1920s and 1930s as public facilities for these sports multiplied, and large crowds attended their national championships.
In the 1960s and after, several trends combined to increase popular participation in sports. People had more leisure time and in a service economy were more in need of exercise. Awareness of the health benefits of athletics produced millions of new bicyclists, joggers, and power walkers, all activities that could be performed at any time and required little special equipment. Even that ultimate test of fitness, the marathon, attracted runners by the thousands  the annual New York race regularly drew twenty thousand or more. The number of women participants in sports of all kinds also increased greatly, partly because of the concern for physical fitness, partly because of feminists' insistence on equal opportunity in all fields.
Finally there was the pervasive impact of television. Spectator sports, of course, were revolutionized by the medium. But it is important to remember that most spectator sports also involved mass participation. Golf and tennis were played by more people than any other game, but millions participated avidly in all the major spectator sports except boxing. If so many people had not, they would not have troubled to watch these sports so often, in stadiums or on television.
John R. Betts, America's Sporting Heritage, 18501950 (1974).
JOHN A. GARRATY
See also Spectator Sports.
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act, passed by Parliament in March 1765, was designed to help defray the costs of maintaining British troops in the American colonies by requiring tax stamps for an extensive range of public documents, including newspapers, customs documents, legal papers, and licenses. The Seven Years' War had left Britain with a large national debt, and the government felt that since the colonies had benefited from the war  most notably from the expulsion of France from Canada  they should contribute to imperial expenses. The colonies, however, responded with outrage. They pointed to the expenses they had already incurred in the war and predicted that the new tax would exhaust their meager supply of hard money; their objections particularly focused on the constitutional issue. Few denied Parliament's right to regulate the colonies' external trade, but with the Stamp Act  as with the previous year's Sugar Act  Parliament was trespassing on the domain the colonial legislatures had long claimed as their own: the power to tax.
Throughout the summer of 1765 waves of protest swept the colonies, involving everyone from street mobs to civic leaders, often organized by secret organizations called the Sons of Liberty. Pressure  and sometimes violence  centered on the men selected as stamp agents; by fall, all had resigned their posts and the new law was being almost universally defied. In October, a Stamp Act Congress held in New York City (representing nine colonies) petitioned Parliament for repeal and reiterated the colonists' right to be taxed only by their own elected representatives. Merchants agreed not to import British goods until the law was repealed, and soon Parliament was bombarded by petitions from English merchants suffering the effects of nonimportation. Simultaneously, the colonies' London agents as well as many English political leaders were arguing that the law  whether just or unjust  was unenforceable.
Finally in March 1766, with the king's support, the Stamp Act was repealed. The news of repeal was jubilantly received in America, but the colonies had been close to armed rebellion, and the protest had given life to ideas and methods of organization that resurfaced in later clashes between Britain and the colonies.
See also Revolution.
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady
(18151902), women's rights leader. Born in Johnstown, New York, Elizabeth Cady received
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