The Washington times., 1914-05-25

being asked to accept as sincere further
statements. III the directors made
false move, let them say so as Iorclbly
as they expressed themselves in their
other statement. If they stand pat,
let them be equally as straightforward,
so the public will be able TO get some
line on the reliability of the state
ments that were spread over first pages
when Washington was SO thoroughly
and intensely alive to the Sunday base
ball situation.
Our punishment for failing to appear
as a mollycoddIe in the present crisis
may be having a scoop palmed past
us, but there is more than a sinful
satisfaction in spreading the gospel of
truthfulness, honesty, and fair dealing
with your fellowmen. even though the
propaganda may be discounted b. those
volunteer advisers whose head dimen-
slons are out of proportion TO their
brains weight.
In discussing the new famous docu-
ment of the officials. Griffith has in
sisted upon the qualification of con
sidered" by Seriously" The opposite
of seriously is 'jokingly." Wonder
if the clerk, whose working hours keep
him close to the job in tee afternoon
and who set aside Sunday - the day
to go into Virginia to arrange for ac-
COHlIuOu1llOnS lot MS IdUllly lot q va
cation during the summer and broke
the engagement Friday in order TO see
the expected game, considered the Of
ficials' statement I'm any other way but
seriously"
The bard responsible foc "Ingrati-
tude. thou are the foulest of SINS"
wrote better than he knew.
Griffith, indiscussIng the Sunday base
bali mess, asks If man can't change
his mind on A subject. Certainly he
who doesn't change his mind when he
sees ne is wrong. AS we have made
plain from the outset, We have not been
advocating Sunday baseball
1t is not case OF the right of
man or men to alter opinions. II is
simply a case of whether the Wash
ington club thinks this paper is going
to take the word Of A manager for days
that a game will be played, If certain
conditions are met-nO matter what
have other officials shoot over a state
mcnt that the subject so wodely dis
cussed and freely commented had not
even been seriously considered.
II the officials had said they had
discussed the subject and found il in
advisable to play on Sundays that would
hav" been different. But they did not.
They said that what the spokesman for
IN" club had been saying had not been
even Sc riOusly considered" All this
despite that long distance call was
put In for Chicago to Ban Johnson and
Griffith told the writer at 1:3O o'clock
on Friday that no decision would be
reached in time for either of the after
noon papers.
We will not cloud the issue by taking
up any OF the various ramifcatiOns until
we get a definite answer on who is TO
be believed between the substantiated
statements Of the manager and the sign
ed letter of the other officials But It
might be interesting to know what the
men in the club really think seriously
considered means.
What does The Times want" comes
the query. The situation is simply
this: Day after day The Times. and
incidentally the other three papers
of this city, were led into believing
there was a probability of a game
here yesterday. These statements cor
supported substantiatcd, and
backed up in their material points. came
from the one the public has been told to
rely upon without questiOn-Clark
Griffith. On Friday night. after prac-
tically every real baseball man of
every class and walk had been dis
cussing the matter. the president of
the Club : MinOr-gave out
signed statement that Sunday base
ball had never even been seriously
Now what this paper. standing alone
among the four that unintentionally
misled those who make baseball here
possible through their patronage.
wants is: First. a statement explain
ing last weeks announcements, and.
secondly, direct declaration as TO
who % 70 be believed. when he 10 10