The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-07-22
MEMPHIS SCRIBE PICKS QUEER TEAM Bob Pigue Selects Higgins and Kitchens as Best
 Receivers

Bob Pigue, over on the Memphis News
 Scimiter, gets out an unusually natty
 sporting sheet, but in picking his all- Southern Sir Robert has made several selections that will doubtless be chal-
 ,enged by the majority of fans in this
 neck of the woods. For instance, Brother t'igue selects Bob Higgins and Frank Kitchens, two candidates for the old ladies home, as his catchers. He might
 well have included Matty Matthews, for
 Matty is only a shade ahead of the oth
 CTS in age. Bob was probably thinking
 of ar al-Southern composed of men no- subject to Bakers ruling when he chose Higgins and Kitchens.
 Among his pitchers are Hub Purdue and
 Ralph Comstock. The former did well
 with an all-star team behind him, but
 could hardly be classed with few oth- CTS that performed in this company. , As for Comstock, he wasn't in the class
 with Slapnicka this year.
 The rest of Pigues team sounds pretty good, with the exception of Fred Graf on third base and Johnny Dobbs as manager. Graf, like Eddie Mcdonald, is
 a smart player and valuable fielder, but
 hardly compares with Art Bues As for Johnny Dobbs, we have nothing but
 praise, but it must be remembered that lawn furnished the best talent in
 the way of players ever provided a pilot l in this company.
 l The palm for managerial accomplish ments undoubtedly goes to chubby Carl | ton Molesworth, who, with some of the | cheapest teams ever carried on the pay
 roll of a Dixie club, has never finished
 below third place in his nine years at the helm of the Barons.
 1 Here's Pigues selection:
 | Catchers: Bob Higgins, Chattanooga, and Frank Kitchens, New Orleans. | Right-handed pitchers: Cy Barger, Memphis; Dick Robertson, New Orleans; | Hub Perdue, New Orleans, and Ralph ! Comstock, Birmingham.
 1 Left-handed pEcher-Rube Robinson, Little Rock.
 | First base: Dick Kaufman, Nashville 1 Second base: Bob Fisher, Little Rock. | Shortstop: Walter Barbare, New Or. 1 leans.
 ! Third base: Fred Graf, Chattanooga. l Left field: Pete Compton, New Orleans. | Center field: Ira Flagstead, Chatta- 1 nooga
 | Center feld Billy Southworth, Bir- mingham.
 | l Manager: Johnny Dobbs, New Orleans | President Wilson takes over the tele | phone and telegraph companies He can, | through the direction of the subordinate whom he will appoint, as he appointe1 | Secretary McAdoo director general ot | the railroads, practically unify the tele-
 phone and telegraph service of the coun-
 try, thereby establishing the very kind of monopoly of which complaint was made a few years ago to President Vail. | Of course it will be said that this is due
 to the exigencies of the war
 A DIFFICULT PROPOSITION | There are to be some obstacles which
 seem to stand in the way of a complete
 command Of the cable, telegraph and tel. l ephone and these are obstacles that must | be removed. How does the case stand
 with respect to ocean cables owned by 1 foreign capital which have terminals
 upon the coast of the United States?
 How will il be when by utilization of | foreign-owreo cable, and domestic tele graph and telephone service there can
 be a single communication from London ! to Paris flashed under the ocean and ] then telephoned or telegraphed across
 the United States to the Pacific coast?
 WILL IT BE PERMANENT? l | Wilson is authorized to take over the
 telegraph and telephone operation of the
 country provides that this authority shall be continued only until the war is
 ended, nevertheless there seems to be
 strong impression that this may be the
 first step toward permanent government
 ownership of the telephone and telegraph | lines Yet the public may not be dis
 posed to support government ownership
 of the telephone in view of the fact that I in other countries where the telephone
 service is under the ownership of th government it has been found woefully l inferior to telephone service in the | United States. It was due chiefly to President Vail that the successful in
 stallation of long-distance telephone l service even to the Pacific coast was made possible. It may be that should 1 President Wilson take over the telephone
 lines Mr. Vail will be not only permit | ted, but requested to retain his execu- ! tive authority, but he is not likely Fs relish a proposition of that kind unless he feels that it should be needed for pa
 triotic motives, for fear one not familiar
 with the telephone history and develop ment and present-day operation might otherwise be appointed by President W.T. son as director general of the telephone
 and telegraph lines of the United States