Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-23
THE PLAYERS REPLY.
Ward, Ewing and Andrews Tackle
the Magnates.
THE LEAGUES FALSE POSITION
Explained in Another Spirited Address to
the Public.
TIM KEEFE SAYS A FEW WORDS
BE Says That All Brotherhood Deserten Will be
EpjOined.

Messrs. Ward, Ewing and Andrews have
issued a public reply to the League mag
nates' address. 1t argues that the League
has made many misstatements. Tim Keefe
also says few interesting things.
CINCINNATI, November "a special
committee of the Brotherhood OF Baseball
Players, Messrs. Ward, Ewing and An
drews, after an all-day session at the Grand
Hotel issued The following address:
To the Public:
If anything further were necessary to show
the desperate state of mind into which the old
| League magnates have fallen, this last appeal
| to the public has furnished it. In its state
| ments of facts, it is the weakest, and in its
Measurements, the strongest of any yet issued
After claiming credit for things with which
| they individually have had absolutely nothing
| to do, they launch forth on a sea of assertions,
| compared to which the so-called "glittering
| generalities" of the Brotherhood are a mere
mill pond.
THE LEAGUE PLAYED OUT.
Without questioning the services rendered
| by the old League, or stopping to inquire how
far its course has been prompted by selfish in
terests the players still believe that its days of
usefulness have gone; that it has fallen into the
hands of men who look more to their personal
| interests than to the good of the game. When
they attempted to make money at the sacrifice
Of the dignity Of the game and at the expense
of the players rights as man. they went too
far. A system which contemplates the sale of
| players future services is too iniquitous and
| un-American to stand, however dear to the
hearts of the magnates. The League commit
tee has taken pains to point out how much the
players owe to the League, but omitted to men,
ton how much they themselves owe to the
players. The ease with which they skim over
the origin and intention of the Reserve Rule"
| and its supposed present necessity would be re-
| freshing were it not so evidently intended to
| mislead They ask: What made that rule
necessary? Was it not the
UNsCRUPULoUs VANDALISM
of the players themselves and their unwill-
| ingness to trust one another2" AS its author,
A. G. Mills, has said, it was intended to take
the robber manager by the throat and make
him keep his hands off the players in an
| associate club. The power this rule gave, was
| used in the most mercenary way and the
assertion by the committee that no player has
! ever been transferred without his consent, is
| brazenly false.
Do they call it consent when player must
submit or get out of baseball? Did Buffnton
and Wise sold and the fact published before
| either was spoken to or knew anything about
| 1t? Did Rowe and White 60 willingly to Pitts
burg? Or Sutcliffe to Cleveland? Or Getzein or
this same precious trio, Glasscock, Denny and
| Boyle to Indianapolis? No. They did every
| thing to escape and only consented" when the
alternative was presented of being shut out of
a livelihood in baseball.
SOME FALsEHooDs NAILED.
The assertion that the new League proposes
to transfer players without their consent is
either mistake or a wilful misstatement, and
when the terms of his contract has expired, he
is at perfect liberty again to go where he will.
and nothing in the constitution of the new
| League or in his contract attempts to deprive
| him of this right. We have no reserve rule"
no arbitrary S2000-limit rule, only one con-
tract and the full salary written in it, nothing
| which encroaches upon the players natural
rights, and when he goes from one club to
| another his consent" is not forced and no
| price is passed. The statement that the con-
tract in use since 1887 has never been violated
| by the League in letter or spirit, IS another
characteristic piece of effrontery. The under
| standing between clubs and players was vio-
lated when the League failed (by Its own con-
| nivance, as has been charged) to secure the re-
| peal of the salary limit rule; the
SPIRIT OF THE CONTRACT
was violated when they refused to insert in
the contract the players full salary; it was out
rageously violated again when the classifica-
in every case where players salary was re-
duced by the operation of that law. We re-
| fused to meet the League this fall because the
time for such meeting had long since passed.
| 1t is true the League has enacted some things
the Brotherhood would have asked, and in SO
doing has not only stultified itself and acknowl-
| edged the injustice OF its former position, but
admitted the Justice of our claims
But is anyone conversant with League
| methods simple enough to believe they would
ever have done this had necessity not forced it
| upon them? They have not paid back the diff
| ference in salaries to the classified players
and their pretension to have abolished the
sales system is a weak attempt to deceive the
public. In future the player must buy his re-
| lease instead of the club. but the money will
| come just the same from the purchasing club.
A DIFFICULT TASK.
1t is no simple task to organize new league
nor is 1t the work of week. We could not
postpone action until fall when we would all be
separated and powerless to act together, be-
cause in such a condition the League would
| have laughed at US. In order to, interest men
with capital to expend time and money in such
a project, it was necessary to give some guar
| antee of. good faith. We tried to meet the
League. but they refused, whereupon, and not
| till then we decided to look elsewhere for en-
ployment. If anyone thinks we should have
| made our plans public from the beginning let
| him look at the obstacles the League is now
throwing IN our way anu VIC HiS SILouo IL 10 en-
ploying to defeat us. Had we had these to en-
counter at first our failure would have been
| certain and our position in consequence worse
| than ever AS for the effect of this movement
! upon the game the public need have no fear.
| The players interested are the very ones most
| vitality concerned in the games future, and they
will do nothing to injure it in any way. On the
contrary they will do everything to preserve its
purity and integrity, to elevate it above mere
speculative enterprise. to place it on the level
| which our national game should occupy.
| WILLIAM EWING,
| GEORGE EDWARD ANDREWS
| JOHN Nj. WARD.