The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-06-20
SLIGHT POSSIBILITY
J THAT DEMPSEY Will
MEET GIANT NEGRO
BY FRANK q. dENKE

The simplest procedure to start
free-for-all fight these days is to wan
der into group of fistic enthusiasts
and ask. nonchalantly:
well, how about this Dempsey
Wills thing, hey?"
Everyone that ever saw glove
whirling through the ozone has some
sort of idea about that much-dis-
cussed tilt. Each has most positive
one. And so, wheE one Of these
Greeks meets a Greek with opposite
ideas, something usually transpires
which makes a police department a
necessary adjunt of human life.
Dempsey won't fight Wills because
he's scared of him because he knows
that the negro will knock. him askew
and whole lot else, one faction in
sists.
Say, Dempsey could kill off that
big smoke quicker'n he took Fulton"
snarls a Dcmpseyite in rebuttal.
IF he thinks that way why don't ne
take him on-why don't he take him
on?" is the comeback.
Because white people don't want
their champions to fight negroes-ats
why" is the next utterance.
Say I'm a white man and / want
Dempsey to fight Wills and if you pull
any more of that stuff I'll sock you a
few on the sniffer." is the hot retort.
"Oh, you will, eh?-you will, Ell!
I'd like to Sc you try"
Bang-and the battle is on.
Hope Lost Now.
For several months folks who have
been keen to see what would develop
if Dempsey and Wills were tossed in
to the same ring, were quite hopeful
would be staged this summer.
But they aren't now.
All hope has fled since Jack Kearns
casually remarked:
Sure, I'll send Jack against Wills
if I'm guaranteed 100000 for
Jacks end"
The anti-Dempsey clan CONSTITUTES
the Kearns' attitude this way:
"Kearns doesn't want to have
Dempsey meet Wills because he fig
ures that Dempsey couldn't win from
the black giant. But Kerns is too
smart to risk deliberately adverse
public opinion by saying Dempsey
positively will not fight Wills. So he
just goes ahead and places his figure
so high as to make the fight impossi-
ble''
The Dempsey faction looks at it this
way:
Dempsey got 100000 for fighting
Carpenter There was big interest in
that match, yet the interest wasn't
one-half that there is now in the pro-
posed Dempsey-Wills thing. Such a
battle, because it involves a bigger
element of defeat for Dempsey than
did the Carpenter match, should
draw as much, if not more than did
the Carpenter fight. So why shouldn't
Kearns demand the 100000 for
Dempsey's end?"
And that's that.
Bout Is Unlikely.
At this moment it seems unlikely
that Dempsey and Wills ever will get
together The announcement by al
member of the New Jersey state box
ing commission that no license ever
will be issued for such match dur
ing the lifetime of the present body,
kicks the props from under the only
place where it seemed possible to
hold such bout
If it is held anywhere else, it would
mean that an arena seating from u.s.
600 to 100000 persons would have to
be built. It's cost would be between
S150,000 and $250,000.
Where in America, or Montreal, or
Europe, is there a promoter who is
going to put that much money into
an arena without the absolute GER
tainty that he can stage the bout?
And he can't be absolutely certain of
putting on the affair up to the last
minute because a white man-black
man fight, being unpopular with the
masses, may be halted at any time by
court injunction started by blue
law" folks.
And so it begins to look as if Jack
Dempsey's title, as far as acquisition
by black man is concerned is per-
fectly safe-and that Harry Wills,
wonder-man though he may be, never
is going to get a smash at the King
largely because of Jack Johnsons mis-
behaviour years ago.
Copyright 1921 BY King Features
Syndicate, Incl