The Washington herald., 1913-03-10
Reprinted Without Request.

| Frank Chance. Hugh Jennings, and
| other American League stars who have
| been lending their names to syndicate
articles (which they did not writeI have
just received an order from President
! Ban Johnson which will retire them from
| either journalism or baseball. Mr.. John
son gives them their choice: obey this
order or get out.
| The National Lea que may take similar
action. and if it does so the day is coming
when the MCCraw MathewSon brand of
| fake will disappear from the newspapers
| and baseball will be described by men
! who write the stuff they sign.
Writes 10 Club Owners.
J"hnsun's decision to put an end to the
farcical syndicate system was reached
after "A lengthy correspondence with the
club owners in his organization. practi-
Cally all Of whom went record as OPP
posing the use OF their players names by
newspapers out Of all the mass Of bunk
written over these players signatures
there was not found single sentence
which actually had been written by the
athlete who posed as its author As a
matter Of fact, Billy Evans is the only
one of the crowd of baseball journalists
who writes his own stuff" The order
issued 10y President Johnson will not ap-
ply to Evans.
For long time the newspaper field has
been rich picking for the ball players.
Some of them We're employed only during
an important series. They received a big
price merely to sit in the press box and
pose as a reporter while some real
newspaper man was writing the story for
them. Others, like Mathewson and Nc
Graw. work this graft the year round. al
lowing column after column of copy they
never saw to be published weekly In their
names. Some of the players who have
posed as the authors Of able teChniClf
stories on baseball could not write an
Intelligent letter home for money. JEFF
Tesreau. who picked up large piece of
money for writing certain series.
recently told a newspaper man that ne
actually never read all the stuff he was
supposed to have composed.
Publishers Of several influential news
papers finally complained to President
Johnson. pointing out that the fake syn
diCate stories worked an injustice on
editors who were not inclined to deceive
their readers in this way. President
johnson got into communication with his
club owners. but took no definite action
until the Frank Chance articles began to
appear.
Ii Was the Last straw.
Chance was a newcomer in the syndi-
cate field. The former Cub leader is
amply able to write a newspaper article,
but unfortunately he did not write the
series that appeared under his name New
York and Chicago newspaper men at
tended 10 that little detail All it was
necessary for Chance to do was to draw
down the pay. similar situation prevail
ed in the case of Hughey Jennings, who
has been lending his .well-known name
to a typewriter operated by real fourth
estator.
President Farrell. of the New York
Americans. and President Navin. of De
trOit. were informed by Mr.. Johnson tt at
their respective managers would have 10
retire from journalism. 1t is understood
that Chance will obey the order without
further argument. Jennings may not
give up his job as reporter without a |
little correspondence with Mr.. Johnson, |
but that he will give it up eventually is |
certain. When the president of the Amer |
lean League ISSUES an order il goes
as il Laws
over in the National League which is |
producing the handsomest crop of fake |
authors in the business. conditions are |
little different. II is known that Garry
Hermann would like to put stopper on |
the taking industry, but President Lynch's |
attitude is in doubt. Lynch is not presi- !
dentinG around much as johnson docs
for very good reasons. The head of the
National League lodges trouble as enthu- /
sia stiCally as the head of the American |
welcomes it. It takes months for Lynch /
to accomplish what johnson can do in a |
week.
just a Question of Time.
But there is good reason to believe that 1
in the course of time an order will go /
out in the National League which will !,
compel McGraw. Mathewson, and the
others either to actually write their
stories or quit pretending to /
do it.
II Lynch decides to take action he
probably will get warm support from
the Baseball Writer'S Association. This |
has done great work in
clearing the press box Of a lot of debris
that used to clog it up-one actor in par
ticular was famous all over the country
as a. press-box pest-but at present the
real newspaper men are practically
barred from the world championship
games because their places are taken by
reporters.
The names of the principal offenders.
as well as the names of the newspaper
men who do the actual writing, were
published some time ago in The WASH
ington Herald. and are reprinted to-day.
President Johnson declined to make
any extended comment on the order
concerning Chance and Jennings. He
considers the case a closed
incident, since he has received assur-
ances that Chance will not figure again
as a baseball reporter. He also seems
certain that Jennings and the
others will retire from the field of jour-