Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-10-06
ON BEING HONEST

nLC Stonewall Comiskey, when he be-
" slowed $500 like tear Of gratitude on
each OF the Sox who remained virtuous, in
tended. Of course. publicly to glorify in a
particularly significant way the great virtue
Of human fidelity. 1t was n good thing to
do at the opening Of a world series, and
certainly the players deserved the reward
that fell, as you might say, like tokens from
the sky.
Unfortunately for the world, Comiskey's 8
method cannot be universally applied. For
IL every honest man or every one who
sists mean temptations were to receive q
$500 gift In recognition Of his moral stead
fastness the resources Of the civilized world
would not be equal to the demands Of the
newer code. There would be no more pow
erty. Wealth would be pretty generally
divided.
Every day, in all walks Of life, men are
resisting temptations greater thnn any with
which the professional ball players were con-
fronted. Business In its modern form goes
on only because most men Gun trust each
other. If men in the professions were to
take bribes they might often roll in luxury,
and in daily journalism the men who do the
hardest work. who are the eyes and ears of
the reading public In places where political
fights are waged, where jobs are done and
undone, where men set in and out Of trou-
ble have seen much of temptation that
IL bores them. Nam OF them are young
men and their service is done in obscurity.
but they ask or receive neither bribes nor
$500 rewards for the high virtue that GER
tainly is theirs.
II Is something in the fiber OF the normal
man that makes n bribe detestabe. Old
Gtouewe!l Comiskcy did Il generous thing.
But 10 It 80 great thing, after all, TO refuse
to sell out your friends for money?
Everybody wanted to see baseball restored
in the esteem Of the country, and for that
reason the great demonstration in Brooklyn
yesterday will reagsure people who weren t
greatly moved by the news Of bonuses dis
tributcd to the unsulied in Comiskey's team.
The ball scundai seems TO be having some
extremely wholesome reactions. The dis.
graced and convicted players were former
idols Of the young Of the land. Millions OF
PLAYERS In the back lots who are too young
to know more Of right and wrong than they
learn In copybook maxims and through
their own inherited sense Of decency learned
suddenly to feel hatred Of crookedness and
unsportsmanlike conduct that will last with
a good many of them through all their lives
Their sensibilities were outraged in an odd
way. And they saw retribution work itself
ont with appalling sudden >ss 10 an end
that proved once more that you can't get
away with IL. Moreover, the inquiry shows
pretty clearly that most Of the players were
honorable and clean.
1t is human habit to express dislike Of q
bad man by new sort Of devotion to thos,
who appear good in the light of the bat
mans errors. So the tumult in Brooklyn
Yesterday was much like tribute to the
same even when II was an uproar in honor
of players who survived the attacks Of fIers
The men who have been kicked out OF pro
fessional ball could have no greater punish
ment than they must have experienced yes.
tcrday when they read the running narrative
from the Brooklyn field