New Britain herald., 1916-11-29
PLAYERS SALARIES
 WILL BE REDUCED
Johnson Says Sweeping Changes Certain to Be Made This Winter

New York, Nov. 29.-In state cago yesterday, the chief of the Amer ican League insists that a wholesale reduction of salaries will be made by the owners of clubs in his circuit next season.
 Salaries of baseball players in the American League who were signed at high figures to retain them during our war with the Federal League must be1 sharply reduced as a protection to the club owners" said Johnson. The sports was conducted in an extrava- gant manner during the fight with ths@ Federals, and all expenses connected with the operation of the sport next season must be curtailed if club own CTS are to make any money on their enormous investm ents. AS things are at present the players are getting so much money that the profits of the
 club owner are almost nil.
 Now that the trouble Is over we will have to return to sound basis, 1 one where men who have invested i their money in the game stand
 chance of obtaining a fair return. 1 There will be no renewal of high salaried war contracts. The play l CTS must understand that. We will ! agree on a new contract at the an- nual meeting of the American League here December IA that will be fair
 to all concerned. It will be equitable
 to the player and to the club owner" l Serious Break Soon.
 1 Despite the fact that the player will
 not report for spring training for
 three months Dave Fultz's declaration that the players will refuse to sign
 contracts unless the minor league are granted various reforms is the most serious beach that has developed be- {, veloped between club owners and players since the famous Kraft case of 1914.
 l Unless the magnates back down to
 the players as they did in the Kraft case, strike is certain. Fultz Is no braggart, neither does he make any rash statements. He sums up the en- tire matters in the following words: 1 There is nothing to 1t; they (orgap- ized baseball owners) simply must agree to these requests. Otherwise ] the players will not sign"
 Viewing the side from both angles 1 it is hard to see how an open rupture
 can be avoided. There is reason to believe that Ban Johnson, who exerts
 the biggest influence on the national commission, will welcome the break Johnson is unalterably opposed to the
 fraternity and would not dodge an is-
 sue whereby he might hope to smash
 it. No one realizes this better than
 Fultz himself. For that reason he says his strike is only indirectly with the minors, but directly with the na- tional commission.
 Not a Trivial Matter.
 Persons who ridicuIe the possibilt ity of a strike over such a trivial mat ter as to whether some low salarled
 minor league players get their ex- penses to their training camp may be
 reminded that the fraternity set n
 date for a strike in 1914 over a mat ter of even less importance. It was
 whether one individual player (Kraft)
 obtained employment in a Class A,
 or Class A league.
 1 The only way to avert a strike 1 seems to be for the national commis- sion to use its influence with the na- tional association to have the frater- nity requests granted. However from present indications, the com- | mission has no such intention.