Arizona republican., 1914-04-11

ihtot pdiiPCi GU etthiClit are all alike This is pessimism re- sulting from observations on the vain efforts of a mere committee to bring together the two most famous motor cycle racers who ever struck the city of Phoenix at one and the same time. The balky ball player and the phidgety prizefighter are as gentle babes compared with the unmanage- able motorcyclist and the autocratic autoist.
 This is philosophy of a supreme punkness. It is indulged in by the disgruntled. Nobody who really works ever gets so low-spirited as to lose his usefulness and be a drag on society. There may be some use however, even for fleas and mosqui toS.
 The apparent indifference of Erwin G. Baker toward a try at retrieving his defeat by a bad tire and a good rider last Sunday is due to one of two things The big Hoosier is either so dead set on his transcontinental trip that the contest with Don Johns fades into insignificance, or he is let tiong the chance go by until next fall when he and the Excelsior rider can get bigger crowds, bigger money and bigger prestige.
 But while things look dour and dumpy now, there is a rift in the clouds that promises hot sunshine It was John Hohl, Arizona official referee for the F. A. M. who con ceived and sprung the brilliant idea of a motorcycle day at the next state fair Says Hohl with reason and em- phasis:
 Give us $500 and the track one day during fair week and we can put on more entertainment to the square inch than all the ponies and autos combined. The state fair paid S1,3oo for the 50 mile auto race last falr Teddy Tetzlaff the winner so easily outclassed the junk heaps that op- posed him that it was no race. He ran around there in mile minute time and worse and ground off his fifty laps without any more effort or excitement than Bill Tremalne irving out a new brand of a carbure- tor. If Tetzlaff did better than mile-a- minute on any lap l am go- ing to kick a bale of hay out of the man who sold me my stop watch.
 Now take the motorcycle races. No lap in any of our races, Whlch we put on nearly gratis at the same meet. went over a minute. We came nearer averaging 55 seconds than the autos did a minute and five seconds Except for Barney Oldfields credit able time trials there was nothing worth while in the track races.
 Hohl naturally classes such men as OIdfield, Tetzlaff. Magone. yer beck. etc. with the haz wuzzes. He does not take into consideration the willingness of the public to pay big just to see men with famous names flirt in a nonchalant manner ana seven seasons old automobile Wlth that sensational death, so often as sociated with the racing game. lie did not remember that the standard of track racing here was set by such men as Hanshue, Dingley and others of the first days since The Republ- can Gun race started. Neither did he accord to that supreme motor racer his due and proven right to come to Phoenix year after year, cut a second or two off the track record he had set the year before and collect therefor such sums as he is able to work out of the fair commission.
 If this be treason against the auto racing game, hand the blame to John Hohrs headache. There is NO other reason for it-(sarcastic aside).
 Baker is Leaving
 Baker is leaving shortly for trial trip into the White mountains. He will inspect both the routes possible to follow between here and Albuquer- que. One lies over and around the White Mountains. He has been over this route once, and will verify his memories of that sky path before risking his neck and his road riding reputation on it. He will ride that same old "23" with which he did not win last years San Diego to Phoe- nix race, and with which he did the 10000 mile Panama trip, and with which he scored perfects in two val ley runs here.
 The transcontinental record which MT. Baker will attack was that un- official mark established by Nolney Davis on d two-speed N. s. L. four years ago. Davis went from San Francisco to New York in 20 days, l hour and 49 minutes. His dis