Evening journal., 1914-10-01
winter MAY END
THE BASEBALL WAR
Men Higher Up Make the
Prediction, But Don't
Know Conditions
FEDS MAY QUIT
WITH A DEFICIT
BY HAL. SHERIDAN.
for the United Press }

NEW YORK, Oct. 1.-Will this win
ter see the end Of the baseball war?
Many men high in baseball-men close
to the ones who dictate in both the
American and National leagues-say
that it will.
Just how the windup of this conflict
will be brought about, though, is a
much mooted question. Out of the
many opinions advanced by the ones
/ supposed to know, one fact stands out
very prominently. That Is that
when the time for settlement comes
when organized baseball opens its
arms and takes the young Federal
| league into them with kiss OF for
! giveness-a person by the name of
James Gilmore won't be among those
( present.
This Gilmore person who has really
made the Federal league, has incurred
/ the everlasting enmity of the powers
/ that be in the organized baseball fold.
/ These persons have made it emphati-
cally plain that if they ever do con-
sent to a peace parley with the Fed
erals that Gilmore will not be admit
| ted to it. And their one demand that
/ they will insist upon TO the end-the
( bitter end-will be the elimination of
/ Gilmore from the spotlight.
To one in the bleachers this doesn't
! look very good. II the Federal league
club owners stand for this they won't
be showing much of a sportsmanlike
/ spirit And, judging by past perform
ances, they are liable to give Gilmore
the gate if by so doing they can land
in the select circle themselves.
To Illustrate, we will recite the
case Of one James Powers-the real
father of the Federal league lie was
dropped out OF sight completely, it
seems, and still it was only by his dill
, igent work that the league really op-
/ ened its first season. And he was
/ handed his passports before the end
of that season.
The league directors excused their
action in decorating him with the An
cient Order of the Tin Can by saying
that they had discovered that he was
not a good executive. He was too
much of a dreamer, they said.
Grant all this, and yet Powers
wasn't treated with fairness. In recog-
milton of what '.e had done for the
league, the league should have taken
care of him in some manner.
Powers long had the bug" of or
ganizing a third major league. His
maiden effort in that line was pulled
in 1912, when he tried to put the Co
lumbia League over. That lasted-in
a way-almOst "a season. 1t was a very
sorry spectacle while it lasted, as an
imitation of a major league, but Il
.Inr cd
germ of a third major league In the
minds of several wealthy men.
The next year found Powers on the
job again. and by that time he had
lined up a representative set of men
as hackers. At indianapolis, in the
spring of 1913, Powers put through
the organization of the Federal Base
ball League of the United States. That
was the birth of the Federal League
today.
This has all been recited Just to
show what Powers did for the Federal
League. We told you what the Fed
eral League did to Powers-lost him
In the shuttle. And now we wonder
will they do Jim Gilmore the same way
If Organized Baseball insists upon it
as one OF the terms of settlement?
The Federal League will have to ef-
feet some kind of settlement if it
hopes to stay out of the bankruptcy
, courts. The main reason for this is
that the league is carrying enough
ball players-or men and boys posing
r as such-to supply three or four
leagues.
Not having any minor Federal league
where it can send players that il
doesn't need, the Federal League has
10 keep on its payroll all youngsters
who fail to make good, or old timers
who are slipping. The reason they
don't dare to let any Of these go out
right is plain. II they had did this
they would scare away stars whom
they had hoped to lure from the Amer
ican and National Leagues. Athletes
wouldn't hop to the Feds if they feared
they would be set free with nowhere
to go If they started to go badly.
Each team in the Fed league has
from thirty to forty players. AS
twenty-five is the maximum carried
by any club during its regular playing
season il can be seen easily that the
Feds are toting an enormous expense
account
The Feds have taken in at the gate
enough money to break even under
ordinary conditions. But with the
: added expense of a vast number OF
players not needed the league proba-
bly, will have a good sized deficit as a
| | whole