Evening journal., 1915-01-18
BASEBALL ALONE
DIGS UP OWN MEN
Seeks TO AdvanceYOungSterS
as Does No Other Form
of Business
OPPORTUNITY
is NOT LACKING

DETROIT. June 1911 the Fed
eral League intended to get organ
ized balls goat by filing its anti
trust suit. It has succeeded. Not that
the powers of organized ball are bad
~ frightened. They are not, but they
arc guessing. They can't find the
Ethiopian in the fuel pipe.
On the face Of it all, the Feds have
so little to gain and so much to lose,
either way their suit is decided, that
it cannot be seriously believed that
mere decision on the points OF law
that they have raised is what they
are after The charges, which they
brought in their afIidayits, we're so
weak that they cannot but be con-
sidered serious blunders, If the suit
gees to trial on their merits That
either the Feds have gotten in over
their heads in a legal ENHANCEMENT
that cannot fail to act as boomerang,
or the whole thing is masking
trump card that has not been doped
out is the belief of organized base
ball.
That Is why the o. Rs are guessing.
They can't comprehend business men
OF known ability getting mixed up in
suit that will as surely ruin their
future, If decided as they plea, as II
will handicap the present system Of
baseball control. Neither can they
find the Joker. II is certainly an in
teresting situation.
With every desire to be fair to the
Feds, il is hard TO dope out their hope
of success by claiming in court that
l.4 for
players to seek Opportunities for adj
vancement and increased compensa-
ton" This was the complaint they
took into court
Baseball, as a business, Is almost
alone in the world in the manner in
which its men rise. In every profess
sion and business, ability tends to he
promoted. hut in baseball it is drag
ged to the top. Manufacturers, law
yers. doctors and all the vast army
of employers of this and that sort Of
labor wait for talent to come to them,
or. at best, catch il on the rise. Base
ball, by a costly system of scouts and
/ purchase. digs for its men.
Thanks to the scout system and the
| intricate net work of allied interests
with which organized ball has cover
ed tho country, baseball players may
reach the top of their profession be-
fore they are %, and many are in
the big leagues before they are old
enough to vote.
Men in other sorts of endeavor are
\ lucky to be well started before they
are 80.
i Ty Cobb was dragged TO Detroit
I from a little southern bush league
4 Walter Johnson went to Washington
J., from a semi-prO team in Montana
Iajoie went directly to the bis
league from a little New England
. circuit. And so runs the history o
!, hundreds of other stars. And eacl
promotion. gained by a speed un
equaled in any profession. means an
+ increase in salary more than proper.
tionate to the jump.
And yet the Federals go into court
with the plant that organized bal
does not offer players "opportunitie'
for advancement and increased com
> pensatiOn." Among the practices
[, complained of by the Feds In theii
, atiidavits are the farming Of players
ana abuse of the waiver
If a player is farmed out it mean'
that he has had his chance TO MAKE
! good and has failed. Almost invari
. ably. however, he is farmed out L
the best job he ever had in his life
Abuse of the waiver is one of thu
risldest propositions i'm baseball.
a man is worth his keep in the maiO
= league he is seldom bothered by
= trade made without his consent.
he isn't that good, he is still certain
Of something better than he had whei
G buried in the bushes. unnoticed b,
{ the trust" that denies its young EN-
y ployes opportunities for promotion
u and increased compensation"
{ II the Feds are merely covering
q up their game by apparent blunders
their suit is proving strategica
. achievement If they are in earnest
a we shall have to accede to their re
n quest to cease calling them outlaw,
l. and dub they the one and only genu
N inc, born in the jungle. Ivory leagu,