The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-04-03
ing several hundreds of automobiles
nnschnll "SlaYe Trnden

ing several hundreds of automobiles.
baseball "Slave Trade"
| But let us revert to the question OF
salaries and contracts, and consider for
| a. moment quite new problem abb
| sorbing the attention OF the profes-
sional players. In-the California SEN
| ate sits one Hartman. San Fran
ciscan and ex-baseball player. He has
lately been hghting for reelection and
one of his campaign issues has been
anti baseball slavery. lie has been
| promising, If reelected to introduce
| into tho Legislature n bill based upon
| the thirteenth amendment of the Fed
eral Constitution, prohibiting slavery
and Involuntary servttude.
The bill Will declare it misdemeanor
for any one to compel a baseball play
er to play with any club unless he
wants to and before the expiration of
his original contract. Recognizing
that If this bill were passed and up
held by the Federal courts. this agita.
ton will spread all over the country,
the sporting journals have already
tasen up the problem and some are ad-
ve4tising for their coming issues feat
ure articles on the subject.
Now even the casual reader with no
pretensons toward being fan Is
familiar with the terms bought and
sold" as appearing almost daily up
on the sporting page. Thus he read
some time ago that the Cleveland team
had "bought" Cy Young from the Bos-
tons for sl1,5oo.
| In Washington there used to be a
house painter with skull Of tremen-
| dous diameter He wore something
| like No. 10 hat AT any rate, an en-
terprising doctor came along and
bought his skull for $l,oOO-so the
story goes, at least. Under the con-
| tract the mans heirs Were TO receive
this sum on turning the skull over ~
j the doctor after the funeral But pc
fore the man died the doctor SOLO MS
1 rights to the skull to another doctor
u,bi,e this second one sold 1t to a
/ third medical genius. and so the poor
1 painter's head got upon the market
where its price is said to have risen
u m az 900. This is the alleged price
Maid for it by the ultimate purchaser
4 a1though the mans heirs only got
$1,000
IT is the same way with Cy Young
and the rest of the baseball stars WIZ
Il get upon the market, except that tneii
i limbs and bodies are sold along VIII
their heads. and the trading is done
while the life is still In them ~,
though the great players salary nNeo
4 by contract may be only $4,000 an
j o,her club may offer $1,000 for the
turning of the contract over 10 It
II And the contracts are so drawn tha'
u n1ayers can be transferred, IKE So
i. much stock. and without being con
i suited Some players. complal ~ y, :
, of this condition. maintain that they
). nre always in danger or peihs sei,
70 work amid dIstasteful SURROUND
inrs, perhaps thousand miles aWhs
that they are, in fact niue peete'
Off than the ante-bellum negro.
, Some OF the magnates, on VIZ 49,
, hand have replied that the proiess'on'
81 nlayer has a happy life OF only sls
nonths' work out Of the year ana fou'
timcs tho salary that he could carr
o,herwise: that his work is play. ahS
that he is a pampered and petted IN
diyidual, who rides IN fuiimahs aiu
I put up at the best hotels,
Cost. Us over So,000,o00 a Year.
some one has estimated that we arr
having s5,5oo.000 year for profession
nj baseball, and the estimate Is base'
mon the sale of 25,o0o.ooo tickets
venr. This is probably an underesu
mate. AT any rate there may DC nou
ed hundreds of thousands OF uol.ar
maid for baseball literature, beslue
score cards, programs and guide pooks
there IS an enormous sale in the LAM
az journals devoted to the sport, no
10 mention tho baseball extras
the evening papers, Every daily pa
per, morning and evening, employs
war correspondent to sit In the pres
box and report the game wheneNe
there Is contest upon the home f'elc
No class of men are more thoroughi
f.! "wrtten up than the baseball stars
! and in recent years moro columns hay
|, been devoted to the problem as4to WI
| wrote "Casey at the Bat" than TO III
controversies over the authorship 9
lShaksspeares pley.s. tha pselara TIC