The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-02-15
LOOK TO Topeka
Western League May Blow if
City Does Not Get In.
Lincoln Business Men Timid
About Digging Up Cash.

With w. o. Anderson and his CO.
horts behind it, the general opinion is
that Spencer Arthur Abbotts cam
patgn to raise enough money to make
it possible to- put a Western league
baseball team here will be a success
| if human efforts can make it such:
| The men who have gathered under the
! Anderson dictatorship except to give
the work their best effort and once
they get into the thing they will soon
he able to sound the sentiment of the
city in short order.
Apparently great deal depends
upon Topeka's action and there is no
doubt but that a fall down here will
put the league in a bad way by putting
a damper on the enthusiasm of other
towns that are hanging on the edge.
Hutchinson has yet to raise the money
demanded by President Dickerson and
Ralph F.. Johnson, writing in TINS
weeks issue of The Sporting News
says that Lincoln business men are de-
termined to obligate themselves in no
way until they are given absolute as
surance that the lea que will he able
to start with sufficient strength to
hold QUITO the end of the season
Johnson's article in The Sporting
News is peppered with pessimism and
in no uncertain language he intimates
that Lincoln is liable to drop out oil
baseball for the duration of the war
He says the business men OF Lincoln
believe baseball ca nnot he conducted
on a profitable basis while tine war
lasts and that he doubts if Ho' mes VIII
get the support he demands. His
article is as follows:
Johnson's Article.
Isncoin. Neb.. Feb. 15.-Lincoln' s
Immediate future prospects in the
baseball arena are still dangling in
mid-air but Ducky Holmes says some
ore must cut the parachute loose ana
let him drop down to mother earth
before another week rolls by Putting
it another way. Holmes says the bust
ness interests and fans must let him
know if they will give the club finan-
ciaI backing or he will seek the new
location he has in view.
Meantime the Western league situa-
tor is almost as uncertain as Lincoln S
individual prospects Tor 1918. Accord
ins to the daily news columns the
preSiden- of the league has been bIlz-
zinc around taking soundings regard
ing the possibility of rounding out a
circuit with which the 1918 season
may make a start, but so far with lit
tie tangible results. We hear one day
that clubs will be put in here and the
ne,:- day comes the announcement
thev Will be put in there. and we try
to locate them we fine only that they
are like Holiness up in the nowhere
and waiting for a place to light.
OF course. the scribes OF the differ
err brush league circuits are availing
themselves of the opportunity to throw
a little irish confetti at the Western
in it's present sickly condition. SEEM
inSly oblivious of the fact that these
who live in glass houses ought not to
invite a rock-slinging scrap. The last
laughs in 1918 bareball entanglements
may be farthest removed from the
cello Which later comes back to wal
lop the Laughter.
Still Hope for Lincoln.
The accusation that Lincoln, among
other Western league towns, is dead
one in this circuit may still prove
true. but a pulmotor has been re-
QUESTIONED to bring the corpse back
to life if possible. A group of enthusi-
astic fans with money backing have
given faint evidences of rescuing our
baseball prospects from the dump, if
they can locate any tangible hope that